These congregations should be seen as a separate and distinctive religious realty. If we begin to think of them as not just individual isolated congregations, but rather as a unique religious phenomenon — as a distinctive market segment — we can begin to address the question of why they have become so popular in the past few decades, Scott Thumma Research documents Spokane’s changing religious population http://spokanefavs.com/faith/clergy-and-congregations/research-documents-spokanes-changing-religious-population

Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of SpokaneFāVS.com, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.