What Should WE DO!?!

I've read nearly all of Barna's books and followed his exciting career in Church research all the way to the call for Revolution, followed by his Pegan Christianity. He's still studying the church in American and here is what he finds...

Barna: 2010 church trends

  

    The Barna Group, a polling firm that specializes in American church culture and trends, recently released insights drawn from more than 5,000 non-proprietary interviews. George Barna, founder of the Barna Group, indicated that no less than six patterns were evident in the findings.

    First, the Christian church is becoming less theologically literate. For example, Barna cites that most people regard Easter as a religious holiday, but only a minority of adults associate Easter with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Other examples include the fact that a growing majority believe the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God’s presence or power, but not a living entity.

    Another trend is that Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach oriented. Less that one-third of born again Christians planned to invite anyone to join them at a church event during the Easter season. Also, teens are far less likely to discuss Christianity with their friends than in years past.

    Third, the data shows a growing number of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life. In other words, many Christians today want someone to tell them how to be comfortable and successful rather than how to be obedient and kingdom focused.

    Ironically, while many are becoming more inward focused on a personal level, the interest in community action and involvement is also on the rise. This is largely due to the passion and energy of young adults. The expanded focus on justice and service has struck a chord with many believers.

    Fifth, the idea of being tolerant is beginning to take over the church. This is partly due to the biblical illiteracy mentioned earlier. But what further the problem is that many American Christians lack the spiritual confidence to make strong, moral or theological stands.

    Finally, the influence of Christianity on culture and individual lives has dwindled to being nearly invisible. While it is a historical fact that Christianity has added much value to culture, religion, philosophy, ideology, democracy, science and the arts, contemporary Americans are hard pressed to identify any specific value added. This is partly due to the nature of today’s media who focus on the failures of the church or leaders of the church while rarely mentioning anything positive.

    Expanded explanations are available at www.barna.org.

    www.afajournal.org February 2011 AFA Journal

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What are the answers to these problems? 

What should we do???

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