The Barna Group recently conducted a poll about the impact of church experiences. The results of this poll show that the size of the church attended had little or no effect on the way respondents characterized their experience, but the generation of the respondents had a considerable impact: So What? This survey included over 1,000 American adults who "have attended a Christian church sometime in the past." In general, Mosaics and Busters (groups covering those from age 18-46) scored Read More …
Trends
The Other Half (#0639)
Protestant churches have done exceptionally well among those who are married and even better among those who are married and have children. These groups, as a percentage of the total American population, have been shrinking for decades and likely will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The latest data from the Pew Research Center shows that only half of adults (51%) aged 18 and older were married in 2010. Additionally, the median age for first marriage has risen steadily Read More …
Sexually Healthy Seminaries (#0637)
Debra Haffner is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister who serves as the executive director of the Religious Institute, a multifaith, nonprofit organization dedicated to sexual health, education and justice. Recently she blogged about the results of her institute's study: Sex in the Seminary. The number of schools meeting the criteria to be labeled as "sexually healthy and responsible seminaries" has doubled since 2009. Twenty schools currently hold this Read More …
Testing Out to Earn a College Degree? (#0636)
Decades ago those seeking a college degree either attended classes on a college/university campus or completed correspondence courses. Today degree seekers have an incredible number of options for completing their degrees, especially at the undergraduate level. Even the idea that one either attends on campus or away from campus has disappeared with the advent of blended courses that combine the two. Earlier this week I learned of Excelsior College's new degree Read More …
From Death to Life – Mainline Decline (#0634)
David Henson recently wrote a guest post on Bruce Reyes-Chow's site suggesting that the best approach to the deathly ill group of denominations known as mainline Protestantism is realistic hope. Henson does not propose a new way forward that will reverse the decades of decline. Instead he suggests that those aware of death's nearness are more likely to act boldly and that for Christians and the mainline there is life beyond death. He ends the article with these Read More …
Is a Master’s the New Bachelor’s? (#0633)
Laura Pappano's "The Master's as the New Bachelor's" is one of many recent articles to note that graduate degrees are increasingly required to enter many fields. The number of masters degrees awarded annually has more than doubled since the 1980s, and is the "fastest-growing degree." The current percentage of the adult population over age twenty-five with at least a master's degree is roughly the same as the percentage of the population holding at least a bachelor's degree in Read More …
Role Reversal (#0632)
Much has been written about the decline of mainline Protestantism in the United States. Between 1960 and 2000 the denominations grouped together as conservative Protestant grew dramatically (+158%) while those grouped together as liberal Protestant (also known as mainline) declined significantly (-49%). As a result, conservative Protestants are now the majority Protestant tradition. So What? In contrast to the significant changes within conservative and liberal Read More …
Mobile Phones & Super Bowl Watching (#0630)
A recent poll finds 60% of mobile phone users plan to look at their phone during today's Super Bowl Almost 1 in 3 viewers under age 45 will watch the game with their phone in hand Only 13% who plan to use their mobile device said they will do so during actual game action So What? The Super Bowl viewing experience is increasingly a multi-screen affair. It appears that mobile phone usage (primarily for activities involving data not speech) will peak during commercials and the Read More …
Helping the Poor (#0629)
Bruce Wydick, professor of economics at the University of San Francisco and visiting professor at the University of California - Berkeley, wrote the cover story for the February 2012 edition of Christianity Today. In this piece, he ranked the effectiveness of the most popular ways Christians seek to overcome global poverty. Rather than taking on the task himself, he recruited sixteen researchers to respond to a survey he developed. Each respondent ranked each option Read More …
Just How Small Are Most Congregations? (#0627)
Recently the Presbyterian Church (USA) released information about the distribution of its congregations by size. The chart below provides the data in a manner that clearly displays the prevalence of small congregations. Put differently, 51.9% have 100 or fewer members 83.7% have 300 or fewer members 3.6% have 800 or more members So What? Since completing my education I have served exclusively in mainline congregations with well over 800 members, including a PC Read More …