Asimilacion: A study of Costa Rican newcomers in their search for a church, and the church's response to them

This research project examined four case studies of different religious groups in the metropolitan area of San Jose, Costa Rica in order to discover how these religious groups utilize a process of assimilation with newcomers. The four case studies formed the core of this research. These included: two megachurches, one a non-pentecostal megachurch and the other a neo-pentecostal megachurch; a house church; and a Jehovah's Witness congregation. The methodology included participant observation of the religious activities of each group (from four to ten weeks) and structured interviews. During the first weeks of the participant observation, the researcher recruited newcomers as informants for the study. These informants were interviewed by phone after their first and second visits to the church and monthly for months one through five. Two informants per group participated in an exit interview at month six. The study also included interviewing pastors and drop-outs from each church. A six month study period was chosen because this tends to be "the trial period" for newcomers or for new converts to be assimilated. This study found, however, that after six months, in most cases, there were no signs that the newcomers were on a track toward being assimilated.;The study sought to discover how churches assimilate newcomers, with a focus on the practices used to provide newcomers with the group's religious culture. Every religious group has a culture which is a social construction that is transmitted, acquired, and reproduced by those who participate in the group. No one congregation is one unified culture; rather, all congregations include some variety of subcultures, but there may be one dominant subculture above the others. As well, the church has a dual nature as a human institution and the divine body of Christ.;This dissertation utilized the following two main theoretical frameworks: Church Growth and Kingdom Theology. The study proposed that Church Growth is strong in strategies, but weak on theology; and that Kingdom Theology is strong in theology, but weak on strategies. The churches were studied from a missiological perspective of applied social sciences (i.e., Church Growth on assimilating newcomers) and from biblical and theological studies perspectives for understanding the divine nature of the church in including newcomers. It was found that for assimilation/inclusion to take place, both the church and the newcomer must do their part in the process. On the one hand, the church must seek to include the newcomer, and on the other hand, the newcomer must desire to become part of the church. Ideally, assimilation works as a process where a church seeks to transmit its culture, while newcomers seek to acquire that culture. In regards to the church's role in assimilation/inclusion, this study found that there was no formal process of assimilation/inclusion of newcomers within the evangelical congregations studied. This lack of care for newcomers generates two important issues for a church in Costa Rica: (1) a lack of care for newcomers potentially leads to inactivity and later to nominalism, and (2) when there is no process of assimilation, there is no way to identify receptive groups (people whose God's prevenient grace has prepared to meet Christ). These congregations seemed to be producing and reproducing inactive Christians. For instance, the megachurches studied were growing by recycling inactive middle-class believers. In regards to the newcomers' role in assimilation/inclusion, among the newcomers in this study, the researcher found people who were unwilling to respond or incapable of being assimilated. The researcher named them "Churched shoppers" because those newcomers visited other churches at least once during the five months of attending the church under study. Thus, their attendance was occasional, and they behaved as religious nomads moving from church to church without making any commitment.;The most important hypothesis from this dissertation challenges the assumption, based on optimistic perspectives of the growth of the "Southern" church, which Christian-evangelical churches are growing in Latin America. The history of Costa Rica, and other nations in Latin America, has been of Christian assimilation by force and neocolonial importation of church models. Considering this, it must be asked: What does it mean to be a Christian? Is the church in Latin America growing as fast as the general population growth (by percentage)? What do we mean by the growth of the church (numeric attendance growth, vis-a-vis a multidimensional growth of the church that produces Kingdom growth)? Are Latin American churches realizing the menace of growing numbers of inactive and nominal believers? Our Lord and Savior came preaching the Kingdom, but the church in Latin America seems to have received instead the institutional North Atlantic models for "doing" church. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...