More and more Christians are choosing to worship in larger congregations. Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, recently shared seven trends relating to American megachurches. His list (for another trend originating from the same data Rainer relies upon, consider reading my recent post) begins with a trend that has an impact that reaches far beyond megachurches (typically defined as congregations that average 2,000+ in weekend worship attendance): Further Read More …
Trends
Top 200 Church Blogs (#0867)
Kent Schaffer founded Church Relevance to "help ministries become more effective and efficient." Earlier this month, Church Relevance published its annual list of the top 200 church blogs, including an explanation of how it determined the rankings. So What? While certainly not a comprehensive this list, it provides a wealth of possibility for the would be reader. I plan to visit each of the blogs listed at least once over the next few weeks, and look forward to being introduced Read More …
Measuring the Web’s Impact (#0865)
Earlier this week I happened upon Megan Garber's piece for the Atlantic offering a high level summary of the first ever Web Index provided by the World Wide Web Foundation. The foundation was founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who "invented the World Wide Web in 1989 while working as a software engineer at CERN." The Index itself draws on an incredible wealth of data covering 61 countries worldwide and utilizing 85 underlying indicators across seven components and three Read More …
Opinions on Educational Technology (#0863)
The Leading Education by Advancing Digital (LEAD) Commission, a non-governmental organization exploring the opportunity to use technology to improve education in the United States, recently released the results of a poll on the opinions of teachers and parents about educational technology in K-12 education. Findings include: 96% of teachers and 92% of parents believe that schools’ integration of technology in teaching and learning is important to the education of American students Read More …
Smartphone Habits (#0861)
The Pew Research Center's Pew Internet & American Life Project has been tracking cell phone ownership and use for the past eight years. Earlier this month they released a new infographic on our smartphone habits: So What? More people today are buying smartphones than traditional cell phones. Smartphone ownership has been increasing for some time, and all indicators suggest that continued growth is likely. In addition to more people having smartphones, more Read More …
Weekend Activities (#0860)
Lam Thuy Vo's recent piece explores just how Americans actually spend their weekends. The data contained in Vo's infographic comes from the American Time Use Survey, which is conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So What? The average American spends a little over half an hour every weekend volunteering and/or participating in religious activities. Is this number higher or lower than you would have guessed? What are the implications of this statistic for your Read More …
Largest & Fastest Growing Churches (#0859)
Outreach Magazine's new special issue focused on the largest and fastest growing churches in America is packed with information. While I always look at the lists of the 100 fastest growing and the 100 largest congregations (based on worship attendance), this year I was struck by the classification of the congregations making both lists. More specifically, both lists are dominated by churches characterized as nondenominational or interdenominational. They comprise Read More …
Less Generous Than We Think (#0847)
According to the Science of Generosity Survey, self-reported data about how much people give to religious causes is significantly inflated. While roughly 25% stated they tithed (gave 10% of their income) to charity, actual giving records revealed that just 3% gave 5% or more to charity. And, not only do people have exceedingly favorable self-impressions, many are anything but generous: only 57% of respondents claim they gave more than $25 in the past year to charity. So Read More …
Flat Earth & Creationism (#0843)
On CNN, William Sanford Nye (better known as Bill Nye the Science Guy) recently compared teaching creationism to teaching that the earth is flat. He suggested that tax dollars should not be used to forward either claim under the guise of science education. More specifically, when asked about the harm of children learning the biblical creation story, he answered: "Learning the story is fine. That's great. It's not science. Tax dollars used for science Read More …
More Teens Are Sexting (#0842)
A recent study led by Jeff Temple from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, shows how common sexting has become among teens: 28% have sent a naked photo of themselves via text or email 31% have asked someone for a sext 57% have been asked to send a sext So What? In recent years, churches have gotten more involved in educating youth and their parents about technology. Sexting is too significant and has become too widespread an issue to ignore. How is Read More …