American evangelicals have always been innovators. Unbound by dogma and hierarchies, evangelicals have been free to experiment with startup churches and new forms of media. Like business executives, they craft a compelling message, package it, and find a market for it. By doing so, they have thrived in a fiercely competitive religious marketplace.
In Soul Winners: The Ascent of America’s Evangelical Entrepreneurs, journalist David Clary argues that this entrepreneurial spirit has indelibly shaped evangelical ministries and their worldview. For generations, evangelical leaders have partnered with tycoons to pay for their churches, crusades, and campuses. In turn, evangelicals adopted the pro-business, anti-government values of their conservative benefactors. White evangelicals evolved into the Republican Party’s most loyal voting bloc.
The close relationship between business and evangelicals produced the growth-oriented megachurches that dot the nation’s landscape. Pastors like Rick Warren used market research and management theory to create their “seeker-sensitive” churches. Televangelists and “prosperity gospel” preachers, most notably Joel Osteen, tell their audiences that faith will be rewarded in this world as well as in the kingdom to come.
Clary’s narrative approach brings to life such colorful characters as ballplayer-turned-preacher Billy Sunday, who condemned the “godless social service nonsense” of liberal churches, and Billy Graham, who brought evangelicalism into the highest precincts of business and politics.
Soul Winners attempts to see the movement in all of its complexity. Clary, a journalist, attended services at nine different churches — plus a Franklin Graham rally — to experience a wide range of evangelical worship. Clary also conducted in-depth interviews with pastors and leaders to better understand their points of view.
Soul Winners blends meticulous research and thorough reporting to offer a fresh perspective on the far-reaching influence of evangelical entrepreneurs on American life.