Barna Research has released their most significant findings of the past year. The following dozen were selected:
- Only 15 percent of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as the top priority in their life. On average, pastors believe that 70 percent of the adults in their congregation consider their relationship with God to be their highest priority in life.
- Three out of every four teenagers have engaged in at least one type of psychic/witchcraft-related activity with fewer than three out of every ten churched teenagers receiving any teaching from their church about elements of the supernatural.
- Just 21 percent of adults consider themselves to be holy; by their own admission, large numbers have no idea what "holiness" means and only one out of every three (35%) believe that God expects people to become holy.
- The growing movement of Christian Revolutionaries in the U.S. distinguished themselves from an already-select group of people — born-again Christians — through their deeds, beliefs and self-views. Revolutionaries demonstrated higher levels of community service, financial contributions, daily Bible study, personal quiet times each day, family Bible studies, daily worship experiences, engagement in spiritual mentoring and evangelistic efforts.
- Involvement in a house church is rapidly growing and four out of every five house church participants maintain some connection to a conventional church.
- The only measure of spiritual health used by at least half of all pastors was the extent of volunteer activity or ministry involvement.
- Tracking of young people showed that most of them had disengaged from organized religion during their twenties.
- A comparison of people's faith before and after the September 11 terrorist attack showed that after five years, none of the 19 faith measure studies had undergone statistically significant change.
- Seven out of ten parents claim they are effective at developing the spiritual maturity of their children, but the survey among 8-to-12-year-olds discovered that only one-third of them say a church has made "a positive difference" in their life; one-third contend that prayer is very important in their life; most of them would rather be popular than to do what is morally right.
- Just one out of every six people believe that spiritual maturity is meant to be developed within the context of a local church or within the context of a community of faith.
- Five of the highest-profile Christian leaders — Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye and T.D. Jakes — were unknown to a majority of the population.
- The proportion of adults who are born-again has risen dramatically in the past quarter century, from 31 percent to 45 percent.
For more information on this year-end report, visit Barna.org.
(I think #11 is a GOOD THING for the most part.)Related Tags: Barna, Barna Group, George Barna, Church, Teens in church, Church trends, Relationship with God, psychic, Witchcraft, Holiness, Christian Revolutionaries, born-again Christians, born again Christians, Christian, Christians, Bible, Bible Study, House Church, Evangelism, September 11, Morals, Morality, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, T.D. Jakes, Evangelical, Focus on the Family, Pastor
4 comments:
#11 is definitely a good thing. However, it's hard to believe since T.D. has been on Oprah (quite ironic since he is known as Oprah behind the pulpit).
It seems like Barna has given up on the church. I saw/heard some comments from him that left the impression he was pretty hopeless. I think these stats while techinically true don't paint the full picture. Have you heard anything about Barna? Tilma
Brother Dave!
Great to see you stop in and visit my blog. My understanding with Barna is not so much that he has given up on the church, but that he feels the model of church that has thrived the past 15 or so years (Willow/Saddleback etc) has almost run it's course. If I understand Barna correctly, and I'm by no means an expert on his thinking (much preferring Thom Rainer btw), I think Barna would say there are two directions the church seems to be going, both somewhat in reaction to the mega church phenomenon. Those two directions are the postmodern/emergent/emerging churches and house churches. My understanding is that Barna is pretty hot on house churches as the "future" of the church. I think Barna is smart enough to know that there will always be a variety of churches, but he feels there will be a resurgence of smaller, more community orientated groups, and only the best and the strongest of the big churches will be able to sustain their girth, and even many of those might have to scale back in some area.
Personally I think that the model that is being used by North Point (Andy Stanley) is one that might allow some of the larger churches to keep on as they are and continue to grow in spite of any trends that might follow Barna's predictions. NPC is not program driven. Andy Stanley outlined their vision for their church recently in their "Practically Speaking" podcast. If you aren't getting this podcast, do whatever you have to to immediately get it. It's that good. Though a lot of it will reinforce much of what is probably already in your head, it's great to hear someone like Andy Stanley clarify it and refine it far better than I would be able to do at this point.
Big Chris
To follow up further on Barna since you asked the other day - Focus on the Family sent this out in their "Pastor's Weekly Briefing" earlier today:
The Growing House-Church Movement
As the number of house churches in America continues to grow, recent research has shown that those who attend house churches are significantly more satisfied with their overall spiritual experience than those who attend conventional churches. The results of a study released this week by the Barna Group reveal that about two-thirds of house church attenders were "completely satisfied" with the leadership, faith commitment and level of community in their fellowship. In contrast, less than 50 percent of those attending traditional churches felt "completely satisfied" in those same areas.
Barna's research also shows that, among those who attend church of some type, 74 percent attend only a conventional church while only five percent attend a house church exclusively. About 19 percent frequent both house churches and conventional churches. The other two percent are part of small groups that are not considered to be house churches or traditional churches. The number of Americans who attend a house-church gathering in a typical week is estimated to be about 20 million.
For more information about Barna's research, visit www.barna.org.
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