Denominations, Change and Culture with Dr. Doug Rehberg

The numbers aren’t good. They really aren’t. Church attendance.
Church membership. Religious affiliation.  All down. Gallop
tells us that in the past 20 years church membership has gone
down a percent a year. 20 years ago 70% of Americans were church
members. Now it is 50% and I probably don’t need to tell you that
the younger a person is the less likely they have any religious
affiliation.


If we dig into that a bit we discover some more trends that are
no longer breaking news. Mainline Denominations are leading in
this decline. We also discover that this trend is not world wide.
According the Guardian “religion is on the wane in western Europe
and North America, and it’s growing everywhere else.”
Interesting.


To help us navigate these swirling waters we have a guest today
uniquely qualified to speak on the subject. He’s a mainline
Presbyterian pastor who has never bought into the status quo
although he is so buttoned down he makes L.L. Bean apologize for
their trendiness. 


Dr. Doug Rehberg started out as an economist with a MPA degree
from George Washington, even worked for the EPA before turning
religious and getting another masters, this time to Princeton for
his Master of Divinity Degree and then got his Doctorate in
Divinity from Reformed Theological Seminary. Maybe he can help us
sort out this morass of change and tell us what it means.


Welcome Dr. Rehberg to Church Hurts And.