Warren Bird, Research Director for Leadership Network and co-author of 24 books on various aspects of church health and innovation, blogged about the feedback he received from a recent focus group of pastors who shared their "great ideas for great churches," which include: Gifts for first-time newcomers Partnering with the local YMCA Shaping the Culture of the City Intentionally Multi-Ethnic Churches Citywide Youth Group Planting Churches to Reach People Like You So Read More …
Trends
The Most Religious Universities (#0468)
John Blake recently wrote a post for the CNN Belief blog about the results of the latest Princeton Review survey of college students. Specifically, he focused on how schools fared with respect to how their students answered a question about just how religious other students on campus are. Students responded to the question using a Likert (1 to 5) scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The top 5 schools with the "most religious students" are Brigham Young Read More …
Review of Upside (#0463)
Meet the Author Bradley Wright is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. After keeping quiet about his Christian faith early in his career, Wright became more open after gaining tenure. His specialties include religion, social psychology and crime. Wright’s two most recent books are Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media (included Read More …
Church Communication Concerns (#0461)
Vince Marotte is the internet pastor at Gateway Church in Austin, Texas and author of Context & Voice. Recently he wrote an article for Church Marketing Sucks about his observations of a communication gap in church life. More specifically, Marotte is particularly concerned with two issues: Too many pastors lack the basic abilities to use modern communication tools and in turn have to rely on other people, which is inefficient at best and irresponsible Read More …
Seminary President Discounts Online Theological Education (#0460)
Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently made remarks that counter conventional wisdom and practice in theological education. Tammi Ledbetter, writing for the Southern Baptist Texan, reports: Patterson’s definition of theological education is to expose students “to great men and women of God, to their lives, their homes, their habits and their commitments,” a process that requires sacrificing the comforts of home. If it were nothing more than Read More …
Volunteering in America (#0459)
Last week a federal report was released providing a wealth of information about volunteerism in America. The report is based on data "collected through a supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) September Volunteer Supplement. The CPS is a monthly survey of about 60,000 households (approximately 100,000 adults), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics." The executive summary of the 2010 data contains the following: In 2010, the national Read More …
High Levels of Education and Religion (#0458)
The claim that as levels of education increase levels of religious belief and practice decrease is stated so often that many simply assume it is true. Earlier this year, I shared Barry A. Kosmin's (Trinity College) work that provides substantive data suggesting the relationship between religion and education is far more complex than this generalization. In fact, in some areas those with post-graduate degrees have higher rates of belief or practice than those with less education, Read More …
Shifts in American Religious Behavior (#0450)
The Barna Group recently published a list of changes in American religious behavior over the last twenty years based on data collected via their annual OmniPollSM survey conducted each January. Bible reading undertaken during the course of a typical week, other than passages read while attending church events, has declined by five percentage points (to 40%); Church volunteerism has dropped by eight percentage points (to 19% who do so during a typical week); Adult Sunday school Read More …
Where Do New Members Come From? (#0448)
Deborah Bruce and Joelle Anderson recently co-authored an article exploring research about the makeup of new church members. More specifically, they considered who is joining Presbyterian (PCUSA) congregations. They report that "in the typical PC(USA) congregation about three in ten worshipers are new people who began attending there in the past five years." These newcomers can be grouped into four categories: First-timers with no church background. Only 8% Read More …
7 in 10 Now Use Video Sharing (#0447)
According to the latest research by the Pew Research Center, 7 in 10 (71%) of American adults who go online now use video sharing sites. The current number represents a five-percentage-point increase from the 66% of online adults who reported being video-sharing site users a year earlier and a 38-point increase from five years ago when the Pew Internet Project took its first reading on use of such sites. So What? Around the time the folks at Pew started this annual survey, many larger Read More …