Soong-Chan Rah Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism North Park Theological Seminary

2008: U.S. minority population about 33% 2023: U.S. children – 50% minorities 2042: U.S. minority population more than 50%

Michael Spencer in The Christian Science Monitor: “The Collapse of Evangelicalism” Jon Meacham in Newsweek: “The End of Christian America” PEW and ARIS reports

Large or Growing Denominations Baptist64% white Pentecostal58% white Smaller or Declining Denominations Lutheran96% white Congregational/UCC89% white Episcopalian/Anglican89% white

“Contact between similar people occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people” “Homophily implies that distance in terms of social characteristics translates into network distance.” Homophily is most applicable to the church during times of segregation Neighborhood reality / Means of survival (immigrants)

“a constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other unites that face the same set of environmental conditions” “Once disparate organizations in the same line of business are structured into an actual field... powerful forces emerge that lead them to become more similar to one another” Acceptance of the HUP Cultural Captivity of American Evangelicalism

Multi-ethnic Churches Sociological Defintion: 80% of one ethnic group / 20% of another ethnic group General Heterogeneity Index “the probability that two randomly selected people in a congregation will be of different racial groups” Average congregational diversity:.08 Average public school diversity:.48 Dissimilarity Index “the percentage of one racial group or the other that would have to switch congregations to end segregation Highly segregated American cities:.60 Conservative Protestant:.91

Social Capital Approach “people who do better [socially] are more able individuals.... Social capital explains how people do better because they are somehow better connected with other people.” “the value of increasing variation in a group” “People whose networks bridge the holes are brokers rewarded for their integrative work, rewarded in the sense of more positive individual and team evaluations, compensation higher than peers, and faster promotion.”

Individual-orientation Direct Equality Task-oriented Low Context Guilt Group-orientation Indirect Hierarchy Relationship-oriented High Context Shame