Shrinking Mainline Churches Take a Page From Evangelical Playbook
Facing steep drop-offs in membership, a handful of mainline Protestant denominations are taking a page from the evangelical playbook, adopting the entrepreneurial church-building tactics and pricey rebranding campaigns that are more typical of the megachurch movement.
"The under-35 generation thinks church is a judgmental, hypocritical, insular place," says Jamie Dunham, chief planning officer for Bohan Advertising & Marketing, the firm that designed the United Methodist campaign. "So our question is: What if church can change the world with a journey?"...