Your Journey Blog

Barna's State of the Church Report - Part 5

Changes in the Northeast
Oddly, there has been limited change in Northeast in the past 20 years. The only three significant transitions have been the following:

• Church volunteerism in the Northeast has dropped by 11 percentage points, from 23% in 1991 to 12% in 2011.
• The proportion of unchurched adults in the Northeast climbed from 26% in 1991 to 41% in 2011.
• Ironically, the likelihood of someone from the Northeast claiming to be a Christian rose by ten points during the 1991-2011 era, from 72% to 82%.

Changes in the South
Similar to the Northeast, there was not a lot of religious change in the South over the last 20 years. There were statistically significant changes identified in regard to just four of the 14 items tracked.

• Adult Sunday school attendance dropped in the South by 10 percentage points, to 21%.
• Attending a church of 600 people or more became somewhat more common in the southern states between 1991 and 2011, rising from 10% to 17%.
• Qualifying as an unchurched person – i.e., someone who has not attended a church service during the past six months, other than a special service such as a wedding or funeral – increased from 20% to 31%.
• The only belief that sustained significant change was the 10 percentage point decline in adults who strongly agreed that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. That dropped the figure to half of southerners (50%) who hold this point of view.

Changes in the Midwest

The region with the greatest degree of religious change since 1991 was definitely the Midwest. Of the 14 religious variables tracked, 10 experienced significant change. Among the six religious behaviors, five saw a serious shift take place.

• The biggest behavioral change has been the large reduction in church attendance in the Midwest. Pegged at 55% in 1991, average weekly attendance at a church service now stands at 40% in the central states.
• Given the drop in weekly attendance, it is not surprising to find growth in the number of unchurched adults in the Midwest. However, the magnitude is substantial: a 50% jump, from 24% in 1991 to 36% in 2011.
• Adult Sunday school attendance has declined in the Midwest since 1991 by seven percentage points, from 20% to just 13%.
• Church volunteerism declined by nine percentage points in the Midwest over the past two decades, dipping from 30% to 21%.
• Bible reading undertaken other than when attending a church event declined by seven percentage points since 1991. The current average in a given week is for 42% of Midwestern adults to read the scriptures.

Of the eight religious beliefs studied, five experienced significant changes.

• Midwestern adults are less likely to describe themselves as Christian these days than was the case in 1991. The proportion slumped from 88% to 81%.
• The percentage of Midwestern adults who contend that Satan is not a living entity but is just a symbol of evil declined by seven points, from 64% to 57%.
• Those who strongly believe that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches dropped from 45% to 38%.
• People’s views of God changed substantially since 1991, with a 13 percentage point drop in the number of Midwestern adults who believe that “God is the all-knowing, all-powerful and perfect Creator of the universe who still rules the world today.” That view was held by two-thirds of adults in the central states (65%) in 2011.
• Despite the other indicators of deterioration in people’s connection with Christianity, the only region that experienced a significant increase in the proportion of born again adults since 1991 was the Midwest. There was a 10-point increase, rising to 42% in 2011.

Changes in the West
Of the 14 religious measures followed by the Barna Group for this report, half of those showed statistically significant changes in the West since 1991. Among the six behavioral measures tracked, three saw meaningful shifts.

• Church attendance among western adults dropped by 11 points, from 47% to 36% in 2011.
• The proportion of unchurched adults rose from 29% to 46% in the West during the last 20 years.
• Bible reading during an average week declined by nine points in the West, sliding to 34% in 2011.

The research concerning the state of the eight belief measures among people living in the West reflected significant change had taken place among half of those variables.

• Adults in the West are now eight percentage points less likely to say their religious faith is very important in their life than was the case in 1991, when 57% made such a claim.
• Since 1991, belief in an orthodox view of God has plummeted by 13 percentage points in the West, down to 58%.
• The Bible is viewed less kindly in the West these days, as the research points to a 13 percentage point drop in those who firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all the principles it teaches. Whereas four out of ten adults (39%) in the western states held that view in 1991, just one out of every four (26%) does today.
• Fewer adults in the West now agree that Satan is just a symbol, not a living entity. There has been an eight percentage point drop in such a perspective, moving from 63% in 1991 to 55% today.

These Updates about the faith changes in America have been released on the heels of the publication of George Barna’s latest book, Futurecast.  (HT)

John Pearson's Buckets Blog

Smart Moves for People in Charge: 130 Checklists

Issue No. 227 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a book of 130 checklists, including 14 ways to facilitate a meeting—and how to infuse them with energy and substance. You’ll also note a way to leverage this book’s wisdom once a week for over two years. And this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

via urgentink.typepad.com

John Pearson's Blog and book reviews are a goldmine of insight and wisdom for the serious leader.

Issue No. 227 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights a book of 130 checklists, including 14 ways to facilitate a meeting—and how to infuse them with energy and substance. You’ll also note a way to leverage this book’s wisdom once a week for over two years. And this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.

Is your anger killing your art? by Seth Godin

It's rare to find a consistently creative or insightful person who is also an angry person.*

They can't occupy the same space, and if your anger moves in, generosity and creativity often move out. It's difficult to use revenge or animus to fuel great work.

Ironically, when you decide to teach someone a lesson they richly deserve, you often end up strangling the very source you were counting on.

(*Angry is not the same as being a jerk. For some reason, there are plenty of creative jerks--I think because they mistakenly believe that being a jerk is a useful way for some people to wrestle with their lizard brains).

via sethgodin.typepad.com

Interesting thoughts on anger and creativity.

James 1:19-20 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.

Ten Marks of a Coachable Leader - Part 3

Leaders who are competent tend to plateau. - J. Robert Clinton

This summer we started our journey of examining the qualities of a coachable leader. This month we look at the leader's ability to be stretched and pushed out of their comfort zone.

3. Coachable leaders are ready to be stretched

Every leader will hit a series of plateaus in their lives. The key is not to say there, because settling on a plateau can easily lead to an elongated season of comfort. Being comfortable is one of the leader's worst enemies. Rest and comfort are two different things. Rest is a planned temporary time to refresh and refocus the leader. Comfort is when you settle into unproductive routines and accept satisfactory or unsatisfactory results. Robert Clinton writes, "There again is a dynamic tension that must be maintained between leveling off for good reasons, (consolidating one's growth and/or reaching the level of potential for which God has made you) and plateauing because of sinfulness or loss of vision."

Three reasons why leaders 'settle in' rather than being 'stretched forward':

• Loss of energy: Being emotionally and physically exhausted is a real thing in the life of a leader. It is not to be taken lightly. When a leader is at their limit the last thing they want to hear is that they need to change even more. Maintaining good rhythms of rest, exercise and fun create more energy for a leader to be willing and open for change.
• Loss of passion: Spiritual fatigue is also real in the life of those leaders who are responsible for feeding and nourishing the people of God. When a leader forgets to feed their own soul and loses focus on the centrality of the gospel in their own life they lose their motivation to change or to be stretched. Being renewed and refreshed my the mercies of God (Lamentations 3:22-24) fills the leader with hope. Hopefulness in one of the key motivators for personal development.
• Loss of vision: Because the vision and mission of Jesus is so relationally intense and so people focused, it is easy for a leader to lose vision for what is central to the heart of God. Because God's redemptive work is so messy at times spiritual leaders can get "peopled out." They can be overwhelmed with frustration and become emotionally detached from the vision and mission of Jesus. When this happens change will not occur in the life of the leader and they can easily settle in on a plateau and coast along.

Leaders who are ready to be coached bring energy, passion and vision to the coaching relationship so that they can set life stretching goals and significant organizational changes. Energy, passion and vision are key for the leader to live with the great tension between their current reality and their preferred future.

Reflective Questions:

• How would you rate your energy level on a scale of 1(low)-10(high)?
• How many times a week do you exercise?
• What activities energize you?
• Where has your scriptural focus been in the last year?
• Describe the spiritual rhythm you maintain: daily, weekly, monthly and annually.
• Tell me about a God moment you had in your devotional time.
• Who helps you find perspective in the midst of difficult issues?

Next Time: Coachable people come ready to report, discuss, adjust and adapt.

NextStep for Leading a Missional Church - Denver Sign UP

NextSteps for Leading a Missional Church

LIVE Worshop with Gary Rohrmayer

One of the differences between a follower and a leader is that a leader knows what the next steps are for their organization. Even if they don't know what the actual next steps are they will relentlessly search for ideas, advice and counsel to get their organization to the next level. NextSteps For Leading a Missional Church is designed for any church leader who embraces the missional lifestyle. It offers ideas and tools to build healthy church systems that allow the church to actualize its values and achieve its mission.

Here are a few questions we explore:

• How will your leaders reproduce?
• What does inspiring worship look like?
• How do you sustain relational health in your church?
• How can small groups serve the mission of the church?
• Are your structures & systems functional?
• How does one raise the evangelistic temperature of the church?
• How does one handle a financial crisis?

This two day workshop is designed for any pastor seeking to lead their church toward health and global impact.

Who should attend:

• Church Planters who have just launched their church or who are ten years old. 
• Pastors who desire to take their church to the next level
• Coaches who desire to know what's new in church growth and church health
• Restart Pastors who desire to lay a new foundation for a sagging ministry
• Lay Leaders who desire to just want to be a part of the harvest

Schedule:

• November 15-16
• Denver, Colorado  Hosted by Converge Rocky Mountain
• Sponsored by Converge Worldwide

Register Today

Barna's State of the Church Report- Part 4

Changes in the Faith of White Adults
Among the six religious behaviors tracked by Barna since 1991, white adults experienced statistically significant shifts in five of those behaviors.

• Weekly church attendance declined by nine percentage points, dropping from 48% in 1991 to 39% in 2011.
• Adult Sunday school attendance also dipped by nine percentage points, from 23% to 14%.
• Bible reading dropped by five percentage points, sliding from 42% to 37%.
• Volunteering at a church during a typical week fell by eight percentage points since 1991, from 26% down to 18%.
• The proportion of white adults who qualify as “unchurched” – defined as having not attended any church services during the previous six months, other than those for special occasions such as a wedding or funeral – rose from 25% in 1991 to 40% today.
• The only religious behavior among the six tracked since 1991 that did not change significantly was attending a church of 600 or more people. Among whites, that proportion remained constant (17% in 1991, 18% in 2011).

Of the eight religious beliefs that have been followed by the Barna Group since 1991, white adults showed significant shifts in three of those.

• White adults are six percentage points less likely to have an orthodox view of God today than was the case in 1991. (Such a perspective was described in surveys as believing that God is “the all-knowing, all-powerful and perfect Creator of the universe who still rules the world today.”) In 1991, 72% of whites held that view; today it is 66%.
• The Bible is on shakier ground among white adults these days, as witnessed by the seven percentage point drop in those who firmly agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. That has declined from 43% in 1991 to 36% today.
• Despite the other challenges represented by changes in the religious faith of whites, the proportion of them who can be categorized as “born again” – defined as having made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today, and believing that they will enter Heaven solely because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior – has increased. In 1991, 35% of white adults fit that profile, compared to 41% in 2011.
• White adults showed no significant shifts in beliefs related to the importance of their faith, their willingness to self-identify as a Christian, having made a personal commitment to Christ, believing that Satan is merely symbolic, or adopting a sense of responsibility for sharing their faith with those who believe differently.

Changes in the Faith of Hispanics
The ethnic group that reflected the most profound level of religious change over the last 20 years was Hispanics. Not only did Hispanics see the greatest number of the 14 religious variables shift, but the magnitude of the changes they have experienced dwarfed the changes relevant to white and black adults.

Of the six religious behavior factors tracked, Hispanics have experienced statistically significant change related to five of those domains.

• Church attendance dropped by 21 percentage points, from 54% to 33%.
• Adult Sunday school attendance among Hispanics declined from 28% to just 9%.
• Bible reading plummeted from 55% to 30%.
• Attending a church of 600 or more people is much more likely these days among Hispanics. While that was the case among less than 1% of Hispanics in 1991, 24% attend a large church today.
• The percentage of unchurched Hispanic adults has doubled in the last two decades, jumping from 20% in 1991 to 40% today.
• The only behavior that did not transition substantially in the past 20 years was church volunteerism. While even that statistic sank from 22% back in 1991 to 13% in 2011, the gap is not sufficiently large to exceed the maximum possible sampling error.

There were many changes in the religious beliefs of Hispanics, too. Of the eight core beliefs measured, Hispanic adults showed major changes in relation to half of them.

• In 1991, two-thirds of Hispanic adults (66%) said their religious faith was very important to them. Today, only half hold that view (51%).
• Orthodox views of God are far less common among Hispanics today. In 1991, almost nine out of ten (88%) held such an outlook. Now, barely six out of ten do so (62%).
• The veracity of the Bible has taken a beating in Hispanic circles over the last two decades. In 1991, 62% of Hispanic adults strongly agreed that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches. That has dropped to just 32% now.
• Evangelism is viewed much more dimly these days by Hispanics. While about half of them (48%) felt they had a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs with those who believe differently back in 1991, less than two out of ten (18%) possess that same view today.

Changes in the Faith of Blacks
The most stable group of the three racial/ethnic segments has been the blacks. During the past 20 years, they have undergone significant change in just two of the 14 religious variables tracked.

• In 1991, 38% of black adults volunteered at a church during the course of a typical week. That figure had fallen to 30% by 2011.
• Twenty years ago nearly nine out of ten black adults (88%) held an orthodox perspective on the nature of God. Today the figure is eleven percentage points lower (77%).

Comparative Standing
The Barna report indicates that the segment that possesses beliefs most likely to align with those taught in the Bible are blacks. On five of the eight belief factors, blacks were more likely than either whites or Hispanics to reflect a scriptural view. Specifically, blacks were more likely than other segments to say:

• Their religious beliefs are very important in their life today
• They have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today
• They believe that God is “the all-knowing, all-powerful and perfect Creator of the universe who still rules the world today”
• They strongly agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches
• They have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs with other people who might believe differently than they do.

When the data pertaining to religious behaviors is examined, blacks stood out from the crowd on five of the six behaviors. In particular, the study shows that blacks were the most likely to:

• Engage in church-centric activities, such as attending church services, attending a Sunday school class, and volunteering at their church during typical week
• Read the Bible, other than at church events, during a typical week
• Blacks were the least likely segment to be unchurched. In fact, they were only half as likely as either whites or Hispanics to be unchurched.

These Updates come shortly after the release of Barna’s newest book, Futurecast, which examines national trends in a wide array of areas including family, lifestyles, entertainment, technology, values, attitudes, demographics, and media consumption, in addition to religious beliefs and behaviors.  (HT)

Is This For Real? I'm Speechless

I am dedicating this to my brother John Rohrmayer who is restarting a church in Talladega, Alabama

Now I know how to pray for him!

Barna's State of the Church Report - Part 3

Women and Faith
No population group among the sixty segments examined has gone through more spiritual changes in the past two decades than women. Of the 14 religious factors studied, women have experienced statistically significant changes related to 10 of them. Of those transitions, eight represent negative movement – that is, either less engagement in common religious behaviors or a shift in belief away from biblical teachings.

Five of the six religious behaviors tracked showed significant change.

• Church attendance among women sank by 11 percentage points since 1991, declining to 44%. A majority of women no longer attend church services during a typical week.
• Bible reading has plummeted by 10 percentage points, declining from half of all women reading the Bible during a typical week (excluding that done during church events) to just four out of ten doing so today (40%).
• Sunday school involvement is less common among women these days, down seven points from the 24% mark noted in 1991.
• Women have traditionally been the backbone of volunteer activity in churches. However, there has been a nine point slide in the percentage of women helping out at a church during any given week. That drop reflects a 31% reduction in the non-paid female work force at churches.
• The only religious behavior that increased among women in the last 20 years was becoming unchurched. That rose a startling 17 percentage points – among the largest drops in church attachment identified in the research.

The only religious behavior tracked among women that stayed stable was the percentage who attended a church of 600 or more people, which has remained at 16%.

Although the core beliefs of women have undergone comparatively less turbulence, five of the eight beliefs tracked registered significant change.

• Women are six percentage points less likely to say their religious faith is very important to them than they were in 1991. Even so, nearly two-thirds of them (63%) hold their faith in high regard.
• When it comes to views on the devil, women are five percentage points less likely to write off Satan as merely a symbol of evil. Sixty-one-percent did so in 1991, but that has been reduced to 56% now.
• Perceptions of the reliability of the Bible have taken a hit, as the percentage of women who firmly believe the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches has declined by seven percentage points to 42%.
• An even larger drop has occurred in the proportion of women who possess an orthodox view of God. Those who contend that God is the “the all-knowing, all-powerful and perfect Creator of the universe who still rules the world today” has slumped from 80% in 1991 to 70% today.
• The percentage of women whose beliefs qualify them to be classified as born again Christians has risen significantly in the past 20 years. In 1991, 38% of woman said they had made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that remained important in their life, and also said they believed they would go to Heaven after they died solely because they confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Since then, the figure has increased slightly to 44%.

Men and Faith
While men have not undergone changes on as many religious indicators as women have since 1991, men experienced statistically significant shifts in relation to six of the 14 religious factors studied. Four of those transitions were behavioral while the other two were shifts in belief.

The four behavioral changes were all negative from a church’s perspective.

• Church attendance declined by six percentage points among men, The research showed that the proportion of men who had attended a church service, other than a special event such as a wedding or funeral, during the week prior to their survey interview fell from 42% to 36%.
• Sunday school attendance declined by eight percentage points among men since 1991. Only one out of eight men (13%) presently attends such a meeting in a typical week.
• The percentage of men who volunteer at a church during a typical week has slipped by six percentage points since 1991 to its present level of 18%.
• The proportion of unchurched men has grown by nine percentage points since 1991. Today an estimated 39% of all men can be deemed unchurched – that is, having not attended a church event, other than a special service such as a wedding or funeral, in the past six months.

The two religious beliefs that witnessed significant change were having a personal responsibility to share their religious views with others who believe differently (down five points, to just 23%); and firmly believing that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches, down by ten points to only one-third of men (33%).

Among the surprises emerging from the research was the fact that despite decreases in core religious behaviors men are no less likely to read from the Bible these days than they were 20 years ago (41% in 2001, 40% in 1991). In fact, men and women are now equally likely to read the Bible during a typical week, thanks to the recent decline Bible reading among females.

There were additional changes of interest related to men and women, described along with some interpretive comments by researcher George Barna on his blog site, georgebarna.com. That site also contains his perspectives related to the State of the Church data released last week concerning the aggregate national averages on the 14 indicators, as well as differences on those measures across the generations.  (HT)

Before the Morning - Josh Wilson

Josh Wilson's song 'Before the Morning'. Really struck a cord with me this morning.

May be it will fill your mind and spirit with a great deal of perspective and goodness.

It was a fitting end to my study of Galatians this summer.

*Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.* ~ Galatians 6:9 (NIV)

Enjoy!

Do you wonder why you have to,
feel the things that hurt you,
if there's a God who loves you,
where is He now?

Maybe, there are things you can't see
and all those things are happening
to bring a better ending
some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see

Chorus:
Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming

so hold on, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the dark before the morning

My friend, you know how this all ends
and you know where you're going,
you just don't know how you get there
so just say a prayer.
and hold on, cause there's good who love God,
life is not a snapshot, it might take a little time,
but you'll see the bigger picture

Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming

so hold on, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the dark before the morning
yeah, yeah,
before the morning,
yeah, yeah

Once you feel the way of glory,
all your pain will fade to memory
once you feel the way of glory,
all your pain will fade to memory
memory, memory, yeah

Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming

Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,
that you still have a reason to sing,
'cause the pain you've been feeling,
can't compare to the joy that's coming

com'n, you got to wait for the light
press on, just fight the good fight
because the pain you've been feeling,
it's just the hurt before the healing
the pain you've been feeling,
just the dark before the morning
before the morning, yeah, yeah
before the morning

Christian lyrics - BEFORE THE MORNING LYRICS - JOSH WILSON

Delivering on never by Seth Godin

I will never miss a deadline

I will never leave a typo

I will never fail to warn you about a possible pitfall

I will never charge you more than the competition

I will never violate a confidence

I will never let you down

I will never be late for a meeting

There are lots of sorts of never you can deliver to a customer. You can't deliver all of them, of course. Picking your never and sticking with it is a fabulous way to position yourself.

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