Vanderbilt University Research Finds Significant Growth in Black Church Attendance

Sandra Barnes, professor of human and and organizational development at Vanderbilt University, has conducted a new study showing that African-American church attendance in urban and suburban areas has increased at an average of 5 percent. The research, published in the journal Sociological Spectrum, found that the black churches experiencing the greatest growth are the ones that are using television and the Internet to market their services. Churches with larger congregations tended to grow faster than churches with small congregations.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.