Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
(Wp 2010-07) Examining Megachurch Growth: Free Riding, Fit, And Faith, Marc Von Der Ruhr, Joseph P. Daniels
(Wp 2010-07) Examining Megachurch Growth: Free Riding, Fit, And Faith, Marc Von Der Ruhr, Joseph P. Daniels
Economics Working Papers
Megachurches are thriving in religious markets at a time when Americans are asserting their ability as consumers of religious products to engage in religious switching. The apparent success of megachurches, which often provide a low cost and low commitment path by which religious refugees may join the church, seems to challenge Iannocconne’s theory that high commitment churches will thrive while low commitment churches will atrophy. This paper employs a signaling model to illustrate the strategy and organizational forms megachurches employ to indicate a match between what the church produces and the religious refugee wishes to consume in an effort to …
(Wp 2010-03) Subsidizing Religious Participation Through Groups: A Model Of The "Megachurch" Strategy For Growth, Marc Von Der Ruhr, Joseph P. Daniels
(Wp 2010-03) Subsidizing Religious Participation Through Groups: A Model Of The "Megachurch" Strategy For Growth, Marc Von Der Ruhr, Joseph P. Daniels
Economics Working Papers
Either despite or because of their non-traditional approach, megachurches have grown significantly in the United States since 1980. This paper models religious participation as an imperfect public good which, absent intervention, yields suboptimal participation by members from the church’s perspective. Megachurches address this problem by employing secular based group activities to subsidize religious participation in an effort to increase attendees’ religious investment. This strategy not only allows megachurches to attract and retain new members when many traditional churches are losing members, but also results in higher levels of individual satisfaction thereby allowing the megachurch to raise levels of commitment and …