Dive Brief:
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Fewer churches are under construction in the United States than at any time since the Commerce Department started keeping track in 1967, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
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Church construction fell 6% in 2014 and 80% since 2002, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, and spending on new religious buildings is half of what it was a decade ago.
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The downturn in building of Catholic churches is most pronounced in the Northeast, the newspaper noted, while some dioceses in the south are booming. Muslims and Mormons are building more than Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and other Protestant denominations, according to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.
Dive Insight:
The drop in construction correlates with a decline in church membership, the article said. In addition, few monument-sized, museum-like houses of worship are on the drawing board as congregations raise less money and favor alternatives to traditional churches.
In fact, one Southern Baptist Convention spokesman told the newspaper: “There’s been an awakening: If we can put more resources into ministry and not into infrastructure, it’s a better use of those resources.”