Two interesting articles via the Religion News Blog.

First, a great article on the rise of house churches in America:

But the bottom line is that for many Americans, worship is no longer centered exclusively under a steeple. In an era of long commutes, overloaded schedules, and made-to-order spirituality, religious experience increasingly means venturing into someone’s home for refreshments and a taste of God on far more personal terms.

Churches need to begin rethinking the wisdom of spending millions of dollars, in some cases, on building projects when those buildings stand empty five days a week and don’t generate much sense of community when they are full. Seems like another case of ancient-future faith being worked out.

Second, a new survey finds that fewer Americans identify themselves as Protestant:

Between 1993 and 2002, the share of Americans who said they were Protestant dropped from 63 percent to 52 percent, after years of remaining generally stable, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

I think it’ should be no surprise that the label Protestant isn’t sticking. It’s never been a coherent movement, like Roman Catholicism, and has increasingly become polarized with liberals and evangelicals battling over centry-old turf. Few evangelicals would describe themselves as Protestant, opting instead to call themselves simply Christian. Again, I think we’re seeing an ancient-future faith principle played out here, as believers are increasingly less concerned about denominational labels and more concerened about community. The fact that this survey lumps everything from Epicopalians to Southern Baptists to Mormons into the same category really shows how flawed the terminology really is.