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Wednesday, September 11, 2002

On the Sunday after last Sept. 11, people bound for Orchard Hill Church created a traffic jam at the Wexford exit of I-79. The Rev. Stu Boehmig, pastor of the independent congregation, thought the terrorists might have sparked a national revival.

But after conferring with hundreds of pastors nationwide, "The consensus from around the country is that church attendance went up dramatically for about two months, then it went back to normal or less than normal," he said.

Orchard Hill had a 13 percent increase in attendance to about 3,400 after 9/11, which protected it financially in a year when giving plummeted in many churches because of the stock market.

Some members "want to forget [9/11], put it behind them and move on. Some of them have had all those heightened experiences of church and family and relationships. I don't think there is much difference in the experience of people between Christians and non-Christians. Both are all over the map on this thing," he said.