Sunday, February 12, 2006

State of Churched Christians

From a section titled "The State of Churched Christians" in Revolution by George Barna:
Regarding worship:
- Half of all believers say they do not feel they have entered into the presence of God or experienced a genuine connection with Him during the past year.
- Only one out of four churched believers says that when they worship God, they expect Him to be the primary beneficiary of their worship.
Regarding Faith-Based Conversations:
- The typical churched believer will die without leading a single person to a lifesaving knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ.
- At any given time, a majority of believers do not have a specific person in mind for whom they are praying for.
- Most churched Christians believe that since they are not gifted in evangelism, such outreach is not a significant responsibility of theirs.
Regarding Intetional Spiritual Growth
- Only 9 percent of all born-again adults have a biblical worldview...
- Although the typical believer contends that the Bible is accurate in what it teaches, he or she spends less time reading the Bible in a year than watching television, listening to music, reading other books and publications, or conversing about personal hobbies and leisure interests.
- When asked what constitutes success in life, few believers define success in spiritual terms.
Regarding Resource Investment
- Churched Christians give away an average of about 3 percent of their income in a typical year and feel pleased at their 'sacrificial' generosity.
- Most believers are unable to identify anything specific they have ever donated money to that they would describe as producing life-changing outcomes.
Regarding Servanthood
- The typical believer would rather give money to an organization to allow it to do good deeds in society than personally assist in alleviating the needs of disadvantaged people.
Regarding Spiritual Friendships
- The most significant influence on the choices of churched believers is neither teachings from the pulpit nor advice gleaned from fellow congregants; it is messages absorbed from the media, the law and family members.
Regarding Family Faith
- A large majority of churched believers rely upon their church, rather than their family, to train their children to become spiritual mature.
- Apart from church-based programs, the typical Christian family spends less than three hours per month in endeavors designed to jointly develop or apply their faith.

Ouch. How about some feedback here on this one. For you guys and gals working with students regularly - do you see the same thing? Are our student ministries following the same kinds of trends as outlined here? What do you think?

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