Salience and congregational growth : revisiting the strictness thesis.

Since Kelley's (1972) Why Conservative Churches Are Growing, scholars have examined the relationship between congregational strictness and growth. This paper seeks to further develop the strict church thesis by suggesting that strictness leads to growth when it addresses salient issues. Using binary logistic regression to analyze data from the 2000 Faith Communities Today survey, I find that, while overall strictness continues to be positively associated with congregational growth, only prohibitions that are salient within a religious tradition have an impact on congregational growth. Therefore, this study supports a more nuanced understanding of strictness. Strictness does not always lead to congregational growth. Instead, growth is contingent upon an issue's salience.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Ferguson, Todd W.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dougherty, Kevin D.

• Strict church theory.
• Congregations.
• Church growth.
• Salience.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/8746

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/8746