The New Holy Clubs: Testing Church-to-Sect Propositions

Sociology of Religion, Summer, 2001 by Roger Finke, Rodney Stark

This bell-shaped demand curve also helps explain the changing fortunes of religious movements progressing through the familiar sect-church transition. Initially, when a strict sectarian group eliminates some of the most onerous costs of membership, moving the group away from the one extreme, the group can appeal to a larger segment of the population and increase their opportunities for membership growth. This was evident in the Methodists (Sweet 1933) in the 19th century, just as it is evident in the Assemblies of God in the 20th (Poloma 1989). But if a group continues reducing tension with the secular society, it can move to the other end of the continuum and will once again be appealing to a smaller market segment. The Puritans offer one example of this process. Beginning near the ultra-strict end of the continuum as a small sect of the Anglican Church in the early 17th century, they gradually tempered their teachings and became the most respected and dominant colonial church in New England, known as the Congregationalists. Over the course of the last two centuries, however, the Congregationalists (now the United Church of Christ) have continued to reduce their tension with society and their membership has continued to fall. By moving away from the highest tension end of the continuum the Puritans increased their opportunities for growth, but their more recent move to the other extreme of the continuum has again decreased the size of the market to which they appeal. Moreover, because other mainline denominations have made a similar transiti on, they are facing increasing competition in a relatively small market.

This raises several obvious questions. First, why don't they move back? If growth tempts sects to reduce their strictness, growth should also tempt declining mainline congregations to increase their tension with society. Second, if they attempt to increase tension, under what conditions will this church-to-sect (increasing of tension) process occur? Third, if they attempt to increase tension by regaining a lost religious intensity and clear religious demands, will they once again appeal to a larger segment of the total market? Will congregations that attempt to regain tension show more organizational vitality than those attempting to further reduce this tension?

So, is the declining mainline willing to "move back" to a higher level of tension? Although the answer to the first question is still open to debate at the denominational level, the answer is clear at the local churches. All of the mainline denominations have grassroots movements, supported by local congregations, that are attempting to increase tension with the secular culture. In the case of two conservative mainline denominations, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the more conservative factions have been successful in curbing efforts to reduce tension for the denomination as a whole (Ammerman 1990). For traditional mainline churches there have been few significant changes at the denominational level, but the growing local movements are clearly evident. The new movements are showing signs of vitality at the local level and are increasingly displaying a presence at the national conventions.