New Day Church, a year-old congregation in Hendricks County, Ind., is finding sex helps sell its message of faith. An edgy marketing campaign asking, "What happens when God gets between the sheets?" promoted a sermon series in February and early March focusing on the link between sex and religion.
Members of the congregation heard the Rev. Denis Roy discuss God's take on topics such as intimacy, pleasure, sexual preference, pornography, adultery and even sexual healing.
Though churches are always evolving to meet the needs of parishioners, New Day's efforts are part of a larger outreach trend nationwide, said Philip Goff, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
A growing number of mostly start-up churches are trying increasingly creative approaches to appeal to people who have either strayed from church or had no interest in organized religion, Goff said.
"One of the things many of these new churches are trying to do is imitate culture to bring in people, instead of sitting back and critiquing it," he said.
"This is a trend that is going to be with us for a long time, because preachers are realizing they may have to turn to nontraditional means to attract younger members."
According to the Massachusetts-based Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion, U.S. churches need to do more to attract new followers.
more... Indiana church finds series on sex helps sell its message | Herald Times Reporter | htrnews.com



LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks



Reply With Quote

Bookmarks