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With a 90 percent success rate, multisites have become one of the more popular strategies for church growth in the last decade, a new survey reveals.
While megachurches may have pioneered the one church in two or more locations model, smaller churches have recently made their foray into multisites.
“Multisite is mainstreaming,” says Warren Bird, director of research at Leadership Network.
Leadership Network released on Thursday what it claims is the largest and most comprehensive survey of multisite churches. Among the estimated 3,000 multisite churches in the United States – which is double the number of megachurches – the network has a database of almost half of such churches and recently invited many of them to be a part of the survey.
According to the survey, the average size range of churches doing multisite keeps getting smaller. One in four of those surveyed were in churches whose total worship attendance is less than 1,000. The median size today for a multisite church is 1,300 attendees.
Among the surveyed churches, 43 percent said they experienced a growth of over 50 percent in attendance in the first year. Sixteen percent experienced the same growth in the second year.
Forty-five percent said they experienced faster growth on their newer campuses while just over a quarter said they saw faster growth on their original campus.
Currently, average attendance at satellite sites across all the surveyed churches is 361 people.
The majority of surveyed churches were found to have gone multisite with on-campus venues first. They offered different venues in such places as a gym or fellowship hall on the original campus. Meanwhile, over a third launched off-sites, or new campus locations, first.
The majority (85 percent) were also found to have three or fewer geographic campuses and seven services total.
In-person teaching was found to be more widespread than video. Forty-six percent said the teaching/preaching across all their campuses is “almost all in-person.” Thirty-four percent use a combination of in-person and video methods and 20 percent use almost all video methods. Smaller churches are more likely to have in-person teaching while larger churches are more likely to use both in-person and video.
Interestingly, multisite churches are not largely independent or nondenominational. Only 34 percent are unaffiliated with a denomination. The other two-thirds belong to mainline and other denominations. More specifically, the most represented denominational identifiers used in multisite church names are, in descending order: Baptist, United Methodist, Christian Church and Lutheran, the survey found. Christian and Missionary Alliance, Vineyard Fellowship, and Assemblies of God are also well represented.
For Bird, the most surprising finding is that one in four multisite churches has at least one campus in another language. Notably, six percent have expanded into other countries.
Another big surprise: one in three multisites added a campus through a merger or acquisition with an existing or recently closed congregation.
The adoption of the multisite strategy has not gone without criticism.
According to Bird, the biggest objection to multisites is the long-term unknowns, such as whether it will help or hurt lay mobilization and church planting. The Leadership Network found “some answers to people’s very legitimate concerns,” he said.
Most multisite churches (79 percent) reported an increase in lay leadership development since becoming multisite. Only 2 percent reported decreased lay leadership and 19 percent said it remained about the same.
Regarding church planting, the survey found an increase of seven percent in the level of involvement in church planting after becoming multisite. Also, eight percent of satellite campuses have planted a new church.
Multisites also showed a healthy commitment to replication. While most of the multisite campuses are less than 10 years old, one in five of them have already birthed a “grandchild” campus. Eight percent of that group has launched two to nine campuses.
Bird highlighted that “multisite as a strategy seems to be succeeding according to those on its front lines.”
Nine in 10 churches with multisite campuses are still pressing forward. And only 10 percent indicated that they’ve closed a campus – largely due to location problems or the campus pastor.
- Prophecy News Watch
Halifax-area Anglican Rev. Lisa Vaughn, eager to keep her parish relevant in the face of declining church attendance nationwide, is asking users of mobile phones and other technological gadgets to bring them in this weekend for a special blessing.
“It’s not just about please don’t let my cellphone drop calls today,” says the pastor of the Anglican parish of St. Timothy, on the road to Peggy’s Cove. “It’s about, you know, help me to be the best Christian, the best person I can be in my conversations, in my communication.”
Ms. Vaughn doesn’t claim she’ll be able to exorcise the demons from your computer. But, she’d be just fine if a bunch of atheists with technical problems turned up this weekend.
“Bring ’em on, baby,” she laughs.
Attracting the attention of non-believers is a crucial mission in a church that is bleeding members. A report prepared for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia that was published in February said the church was declining faster than any other denomination. The report also repeated a five-year-old analysis that indicated that the present rate of decline – 13,000 members per year – would leave a single Anglican in Canada by 2061.
Ms. Vaughn is keenly aware of this crisis and wants to experiment with different ways to spread the word, dismissing critics who might find her irreverent.
At her modest church, the first clue to her attitude is a poster that adapts the iconic ad for the Apple iPod, using the tag iPray. Then there’s the mock Rolling Stone cover. Among its headlines is one confirming that Jesus is bigger than the Beatles. And a band of parishioners performs at the weekly “Jesus & Jeans” worship service.
The pastor matches the vibe. A youthful woman with short hair and a past career in journalism, she says her motto is “don’t be boring.”
“The gospel message is as relevant as it gets,” Ms. Vaughn says. “How do we package it is the question. This message of Christ is the most important thing but the packaging needs to change.”
Her approach fits with moves the national church has made to be more savvy about modern technology. The faithful and curious can come together on Facebook and follow Twitter updates. And while not all nonbelievers will be swayed by material such as the recent communiqué from the All Africa Bishops Conference that condemns the consecration of an openly lesbian bishop, at least the channels are open.
Ms. Vaughn hit on the idea for this weekend’s “grace for gadgets” service when reading about an ancient English tradition in which agricultural workers brought equipment to church for prayers. A modern equivalent for her bedroom community congregation, she realized, was the laptops, mobile phones and electronic readers that have become ubiquitous.
“There may be people who say this is silly, blessing a phone,” she acknowledges. “But we’re really blessing the person. It’s reminding people that God is with them in their work, in their play. And they need to be mindful of that. It’s not just once a week or only on Christmas.”
Ms. Vaughn believes this is the first time such a service has been held in this country.
The idea was equally new to Sam Carriere, the Toronto-based director of communications for the Anglican Church of Canada.
“I have never heard of it being done,” he says, adding that he couldn’t be sure without contacting all 1,800 parishes in the country. “It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
- Prophecy News Watch
That’s one of the messages sent by more than 400 Canadians who responded to a detailed, nationwide survey this year probing people’s personal spirituality, attitudes toward formal religion and views on the challenges of accommodating and integrating multiple belief systems into Canada’s multicultural society.
Among the intriguing findings is that while slightly more than half of the country’s population believe there’s a heaven, less than one-third accept the notion there’s a fiery netherworld — or some other such conception of a posthumous penalty box — awaiting the world’s most serious sinners.
The 80-question, mail-in survey of 420 Canadians, was compiled in February by the Carleton University Survey Centre and the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies
The results reveal a nation struggling to reconcile doubts and contradictions regarding religious faith while exhibiting a definite yearning among citizens for the comfort that comes with believing in a higher power.
“We’re not, by and large, a God-denying country,” says ACS executive director Jack Jedwab, noting that just seven per cent of respondents expressed unequivocal disbelief in the idea of an all-powerful deity overseeing the affairs of the world.
“We do tend to believe in a higher power.”
The findings were shared with Postmedia News on a day when renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking was making headlines with his most definitive declaration yet that the universe owes its existence to gravity and other laws of physics rather than to the hand of God.
In his new book The Grand Design, Hawking takes a much firmer position on the subject than he did in his famous 1988 book A Brief History of Time.
“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,” Hawking writes. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. … It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
In response to the Canadian survey’s principal question about the existence of God — a subject that has confounded humankind for centuries — about 30 per cent of those tapped for their opinion agreed with the statement: “I know God really exists and I have no doubts.”
Another 20 per cent acknowledged they “have doubts” but “feel that I do believe in God.”
Ten per cent said they believe in God “sometimes” and a further 20 per cent said they don’t believe in a “personal God,” but “do believe in a higher power.”
Along with the seven per cent of respondents who denied the existence of God, nearly 12 per cent adopted the classic agnostic position and said they “don’t know whether there is a God and don’t believe there is a way to find out.”
Jedwab said that although there is “not a common perception” among Canadians about “how God is represented,” the numbers suggest the country retains a fairly high level of spiritual belief in the face of ongoing secularization of society and declining participation in organized forms of worship.
Atlantic Canada had the largest percentage of respondents who conveyed a strong belief in the existence of God (36.4 per cent), while such faith was less firm in Western Canada (34 per cent), Ontario (27.3 per cent) and Quebec (23.9 per cent).
Jedwab said the significantly greater level of belief in Heaven than in Hell probably stems from the fact that people are simply “more inclined to believe there’s a happy ending” to life.
In fact, he expressed surprise that more than half of those surveyed — 53.5 per cent — said they believe in life after death.
“I hope they’re right,” he quipped.
About 27 per cent said they believe in reincarnation and 50 per cent expressed belief in religious miracles.
But respondents also registered concern about some negative aspects of religion. About three out of four respondents agreed with the statements “religion breeds conflict” and “religious people are too intolerant.”
Jedwab said the findings show Canadians are widely and strongly supportive of religious freedom at a personal level but “when it’s a group phenomenon, that’s where they’re worried — because they believe it can breed intolerance.”
About 21 per cent of those surveyed agreed with the idea that “members of religious minorities should give up their customs and traditions.”
- Prophecy News Watch
Five minutes past 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday this month, which is to say five minutes past the time the worship service was supposed to start, Shantell Henley pushed open the front door of her pastor’s house in the Lower Ninth Ward. She entered the living room to find a gospel song playing on the stereo, two ceiling fans stirring the sticky air and 25 folding chairs for the congregants waiting empty.
“Am I late?” she asked the pastor, the Rev. Charles W. Duplessis.
“No,” he replied, smiling. “We’re Baptists.”
His joke, though, could not dispel the truth. The problem at Mount Nebo Bible Baptist Church had nothing to do with any Baptist indifference to punctuality and everything to do with Hurricane Katrina, even as its fifth anniversary on Aug. 29 approached.
Having lost his house and his church to the broken levees in the Lower Ninth, Mr. Duplessis had managed by grit and will and fathomless faith to reopen in early 2009, using his rebuilt home to replace the sanctuary he couldn’t afford to replace, the sanctuary that had stood in some grim coincidence on Flood Street.
He installed an electric piano and a computer with a projector. He collected several dozen copies of the Baptist Hymnal. He put out weekly editions of the church bulletin; he put up a lawn sign declaring, “Our Church Is Back!”
What was not back was the bulk of his congregation. Of the 120 members before Hurricane Katrina, only 40 had returned. The rest were still strewn across the map — Alabama, California, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas. And Mr. Duplessis could not in-gather the exiles, as the Bible commands, because most of the Lower Ninth remained a ruin of buckled roads, cracked foundations and swamp grass six feet high.
“It’s church — it’s serving the Lord,” Mr. Duplessis, 59, said in an interview in his house. “If I linger on what I don’t have, I can’t see what I do have.” He paused. “But I know this isn’t where God wants us to be.”
In his plight and his persistence, Mr. Duplessis represents the experience of churches, ministers and congregations throughout the Lower Ninth. While the fifth anniversary of Katrina offers much reason to celebrate New Orleans’s revival, this neighborhood that once thrived with a black working-class of homeowners and churchgoers continues to stand as a desolated disgrace.
As every level of government has failed to restore more than a fraction of former residents to habitable homes, the black churches have tried desperately to return through a combination of sacrifice, insurance and charity. And anyone with an even cursory understanding of African-American life knows that without vibrant churches, the Lower Ninth can never truly rise again.
Where about 75 churches operated before Katrina, barely a dozen have been able to reopen, according to the Rev. Willie Calhoun, a local minister who has closely tracked the process. Even among those churches that have rebuilt, what were once congregations of 150 to 200 now number in the dozens. The monthly intake of tithes and offerings, previously $20,000 or more, has fallen to the low thousands.
“You got those that are still struggling to come back,” said Mr. Calhoun, the assistant pastor of East Jerusalem Baptist Church, “and you got those that came back but the congregations are so small they’re struggling to keep their doors open. And without the churches, you got no community.”
East Jerusalem, for example, has only $55,000 of the $150,000 it needs to replace the church building that was destroyed when the floodwaters propelled a house into it. In an especially perverse touch, which several other congregations have faced, New Orleans officials are requiring the church to buy land for off-street parking, as if the pressing problem of the Lower Ninth is traffic gridlock.
“I remember that film — ‘build it and they will come,’ ” said the Rev. Hall Lanis Kelly Jr., 62, the pastor of East Jerusalem. “I believe in that. The Bible tells us, you plant the seed, God will do the watering. But we sure thought that in two, three years, we’d be back.”
The Rev. Michael Zacharie did get back, rebuilding Beulah Land Baptist Church for nearly $400,000 with a combination of savings, insurance money and a grant from Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief organization. On the Sunday in early 2009 when he rededicated the trim red-brick sanctuary, Mr. Zacharie preached to only 50 of the 400 pre-Katrina members. Etched in the church cornerstone were the names of four who had died in the flood.
“We were determined to come back so we could be the light shining in the darkness,” Mr. Zacharie, 54, said in a phone interview. “We want to be there for anyone that needs comfort, counseling, compassion.”
Such balm in Gilead has long been the mission of the Lower Ninth’s black churches. When Mr. Duplessis first inspected the wreckage of Mount Nebo’s building — pews tossed aside like toothpicks, chunks gone from the roof, the rear wall knocked loose — he also learned that several boats had been tied to the steeple. With 20 feet of water around, the second floor of Mount Nebo was, in more ways than one, a sanctuary.
And so he has persevered in his living room. On this particular Sunday, the faithful finally did arrive, a dozen by 10:15 a.m., nearly 25 by 10:35. Mr. Duplessis preached from the Book of Joshua, all about determination. He conducted a baby blessing. And he joined his people in singing lyrics that were almost unbearably freighted with double meaning:
“Storm clouds may rise
Strong winds may blow
But I’ll tell the world wherever I go
That I have found the Savior and he’s sweet, I know.”
- Prophecy News Watch
About one out of every eight adults is an “ex-Christian,” a new survey reveals.
These include those who left the Protestant or Catholic tradition that they were a part of as a child and who now report being atheist, agnostic or some other faith, according to the Barna Group.
Meanwhile, those who switched from a non-Christian faith or non-belief (from their childhood) to Christianity as an adult represent three percent of the American population.
Findings are based on telephone interviews derived from a random sample of 2,004 adults in the U.S. The interviews were conducted in the fall of 2008 and summer of 2009. Participants were asked to identify their childhood faith and their current faith allegiance.
A second survey asked respondents if they had ever “changed to a different faith or significantly changed their faith views” or if they were “the same faith today as they were as a child.”
According to the Christian research group, the most common reasons for leaving Christianity included life experiences, such as gaining new knowledge or education; feeling disillusioned with church and religion; feeling the church is hypocritical; having negative experiences in churches; being in disagreement with Christianity about specific issues such as homosexuality, abortion or birth control; feeling the church is too authoritarian; wanting to express their faith outside of church; and searching for a new faith or wanting to experience other religions.
The top motivations for becoming a Christian, meanwhile, were going through difficult life events; getting older and seeing life differently; wanting to connect with a church and grow spiritually; discovering Christ; or wanting to know what was in the Bible.
The median age at which respondents changed their faith was 22. Sixty-eight percent of respondents had a major faith change before the age of 30.
David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group and director of the research, emphasized the importance of “staying in tune with people’s questions and doubts.”
“Clergy are typically older than those going through significant questions about their faith and are less likely to have personally experienced a period of major faith re-orientation themselves,” he noted. “What’s more, not every person goes through a crisis of faith, so individuals who are going through spiritual transitions often go unnoticed.”
Overall, the Barna Group, based in Ventura, Calif. found that less than a quarter (23 percent) of respondents switched faith traditions – including those who switched between Catholicism and Protestantism but not including those who changed from one Protestant denomination to another.
Twelve percent of adults shifted affiliations within the Protestant tradition.
“The study underscores that the spiritual allegiances of childhood are remarkably sustainable in our society.” said Kinnaman. “The most common faith journey that people take is to form spiritual commitments as children and teenagers that typically last for the duration of their life.”
- Prophecy News Watch
Two-thirds of Americans (67 percent) currently say that religion is losing its influence on American life, up from 59 percent who said the same in July 2006, according to the latest national survey by the Pew Research Center.
And, as in the past, most of those who say that religion has less influence on American life see this development as a bad thing – 53 percent of the total public says it is a bad thing while just 10 percent see it as a good thing.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the involvement of churches and other houses of worship in political matters, Americans are more divided, with a narrow majority (52 percent) saying houses of worship should keep out of political matters.
Forty-three percent, meanwhile, say houses of worship should express their views on day-to-day social and political questions. But when it comes to endorsing specific candidates for public office, 70 percent of American surveyed said churches should not come out in favor of candidates during political elections while just a quarter (24 percent) supports such endorsements.
“More than half of every major religious group opposes such endorsements,” authors of the latest Pew study noted.
Pew’s latest study, based on a national sample of 3,003 adults living in the continental United States, was conducted in English and Spanish from July 21 to Aug. 5.
The survey covered a number of questions pertaining to religion and politics – the main topics being President Obama and Religion, Religion and the 2010 Elections, and Religion and Politics in general.
Though opinions regarding houses of worship and politics changed little since 2008, the percentages saying the Republican and Democratic parties are friendly to religion have declined over the past two years.
A plurality of the public (43 percent) sees the Republican Party as generally friendly toward religion while 26 percent say the Democratic Party is friendly toward religion. In 2008, a narrow majority of the public (52 percent) said the Republican Party was friendly to religion while 38 percent said the Democratic Party is friendly to religion.
Notably, there is no political or religious group in which a majority views the Democratic Party as friendly to religion. Even among Democrats themselves, just 42 percent say the party is friendly to religion, down slightly from last year (47 percent).
Another interesting finding of the study is that, while the public expressed reservations about churches’ involvement in politics, there was widespread agreement that politicians should be religious.
According to Pew, 61 percent say it is important that members of Congress have strong religious beliefs while just 34 percent disagree.
- Prophecy News Watch
During the late ‘60s, American youth began to experiment with a newer version of evangelical Christianity. The result of this renewed interest was the Jesus People Movement. Commonly referred to as “Jesus freaks,” Baby Boom converts combined the music and style of the counterculture with evangelical Christianity. The result was “Jesus music.” This vernacular expression of the Christian gospel evolved into what is now known as contemporary Christian music (CCM). Early Jesus rockers such as Children of the Day, Love Song, Andraé Crouch, Randy Stonehill, Resurrection Band (Rez), Barry McGuire, and Larry Norman laid the foundation for artists who would play a role in the creation of a new industry. The “parallel universe” of popular evangelical music expanded to include now canonical artists and groups such as Keith Green, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Twila Paris, Rich Mullins, Petra, Stryper, Whitecross, dc Talk, DeGarmo & Key, and Jars of Clay.
During the ‘70s, many CCM artists tended to focus their efforts on evangelism. Influenced by a belief in the imminent return of Jesus and the theology of dispensational premillennialism (reinforced by author Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth), the emerging CCM was short-sighted as artists composed songs intended to convert as many as possible before the end of the world. However, this was a not mere hokum escapade conducted by minstrels of the apocalypse. Jesus rockers were serious in their quest to save the world.
The ‘80s brought not only more time (the rapture had not occurred) but also a burgeoning Christian music industry. Young evangelical musicians and record executives saw new opportunities as CCM became attractive to the mainstream market with the rise of Amy Grant in the ‘80s and Jars of Clay in the ‘90s. However, while lyrics remained overtly Christian, many expressions of CCM began to adopt ambiguity and represented a more holistic worldview. These artists employed lyrical metaphor and sought cultural relevance and authenticity — a nod to the rise of postmodern evangelical culture. While some enjoyed crossover success, others questioned the new model, citing the Gospel Music Association’s definition of Christian music — i.e., music that clearly connected lyrics to a biblical worldview.
Now, debates over what qualifies as “Christian” music have redefined the boundaries that have historically delineated the sacred and the secular, allowing evangelical musicians freedom to consider different ways of composing and performing music influenced by the Christian faith. As CCM record labels have produced successful crossover groups and solo artists — performing for late-night talk shows, touring with secular bands, and licensing songs to network television — the signifier of CCM carries new meaning. The result has been a growing rejection of the inconclusive idea of “Christian music,” the decline of the “Christian band,” and the emergence of music groups and solo artists who are simply influenced by faith.
While these musicians often sing about matters of truth, ultimate meaning, and religious commitment, they also explore the breadth of the human condition. This, however, is not peculiar to CCM. Evangelical Christianity is changing. In recent years evangelicalism has become more diverse, now including those who have broadened their scope of who can be considered “evangelical.” Some have remapped what has historically been considered orthodox. More to the point, various evangelicals have simply redefined what orthodoxy means, thus reclaiming the orthodox position.
Changes in evangelical Christianity and CCM are merely symptoms of a rapidly changing culture. The corporate music industry is now challenged as independent record labels, studios, and bands explore the possibilities of social networking and promotion through the internet, thus reconsidering traditional models of music-making and production. The result of a collapsing corporate music industry has only exacerbated an already ticklish situation within popular Christian music. As CCM groups and soloists have crossed over into the general market, CCM record companies have struck distribution deals with secular labels and, in many cases, now operate as subsidiaries of major corporations such as EMI. As groups signed to subsidiary labels reach mainstream success, the very category of CCM as a valuable niche genre is reexamined, urging up-and-coming musicians to bypass the subsidiaries (seeking contracts with the majors) or to create their own stories as independent artists.
In an online CCM magazine article, veteran Christian music producer Charlie Peacock argues that the current business model of the music industry tends to accept change incrementally, an approach that will become detrimental as culture changes rapidly. Furthermore, he states that since the music industry (as a whole) is managed by Baby Boom gatekeepers whose marketing strategies are based on emphasizing wealth over art, this downward spiral of corporate monoliths will continue. In response, the up-and-coming generation’s “indie” model will, ultimately, remap how music is categorized and marketed.
Genres have been redefined, the urgency of “Jesus music” has been reconsidered, and business models are changing. How will CCM fare in the future? “Young Christian baby-boomers and Gen-X once in love with the music abandoned it in adulthood and have not returned,” writes Peacock. He continues, comparing the longevity of CCM to classics in the general market:
As a result, legacy artist catalogs (ranging from Larry Norman to Amy Grant to dcTalk and beyond) do not and will not have the staying power of their mainstream counterparts such as The Beatles, The Eagles, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Celine Dion, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and U2. All these artists, and a hundred others, remain popular and economically viable today. Sadly, the pattern does not hold true for what was contemporary Christian music.
Peacock laments not the demise of CCM, but the inability (or unwillingness) of the genre’s artists and executives to effectively and efficiently engage the real world. The result of a radically morphing evangelicalism, the bankrupt dualism of categories such as sacred and secular, and a destabilizing music business model, all point to significant changes for CCM. The magazine CCM is now published exclusively online, thus highlighting the fact that the genre’s primary marketing tool is not immune to the declining industry of publishing. One wonders whether the magazine would continue successfully in print form if the genre of CCM had its own version of The Beatles.
Many young Christian musicians now avoid being pigeonholed by the CCM category. As inheritors of the culture war, these are skeptical persons of faith (if even evangelical) who hope to offer their own voice in the midst of millions — though not confined by what are viewed as the trappings of an industry built on false dualism and money.
CCM was once needed as young Jesus freaks set out to change the world — one that would not offer them record contracts. The result was a parallel universe that has outlived its reason for being. In the end, the future of CCM is linked to the future of two monoliths: the music industry and evangelicalism. What we see developing are nascent models of artistic expression (inspired by faith) that may very well be classified by style and not worldview.
- Prophecy News Watch
As my friends’ kids leave the nest for their first year away at college, I think of the monolithic ideas with which they will surely be bombarded in an environment that is supposed to expose them to a variety of ideas. Are they prepared to resist the seductive but destructive message?
Liberal elites have dominated most university faculties for years, but it seems they’ve become bolder, more radical and more militant. It is not their ideas I fear, because Christianity and conservatism stand up to truth challenges. It is the moral preening, the politicization of academics, the peer pressure, the revisionist distortions and the potential discrimination against dissenters.
You know the drill. The professorate will aggressively beat into your children’s heads that America is not the greatest nation in history, but largely responsible, through action or inaction, for much of the suffering in the world and that it is imperialistic, exploitive and selfish. They’ll say that Christianity is narrow, intolerant, anti-intellectual, anti-science, homophobic, hateful and judgmental and that capitalism is corrupt and skewed toward the “rich” and big corporations. They’ll say or imply that political conservatism is inherently racist, homophobic, sexist, militaristic, unenlightened, close-minded, mean-spirited and uncompassionate.
As parents, are you aware that the above scenario is likely to play out to some extent at most universities? Do you disagree or think it’s not a big deal? Do you believe your kids are immune from this inevitable onslaught? Are you confident that even if they are exposed to such slander, they will reject it as inconsistent with their own personal experiences?
Are you sure, for example, that your kids have the discernment to recognize the disinformation that Christianity and conservatism are hardhearted, selfish, hateful, bigoted and intellectually backward and the strength to oppose it? Apart from your kids’ presumed respect for you, do they have the intellectual ammunition and the spiritual armor to resist the pressure to conform?
Parents who find themselves in this position must not be complacent, assuming naively that they’ve done all they can do and that their kids have picked up, by osmosis or example, a proper and sustaining worldview orientation. Though they have been exposed to a culture war since they first started watching TV and going to movies, they are about to enter a new, intensified phase of it.
Christian parents should not assume their kids are equipped to filter out the false claims they will likely encounter. Christianity is the opposite of how it is often portrayed in our culture and is none of those negative things indicated above. You owe it to yourselves and your kids to anticipate the attacks and think through how they can be countered. Don’t assume your excellent child rearing will be enough. We must stand up to the challenge and test our own faith, if necessary, reviewing what and why we believe. If we can’t explain it, should we expect our kids to understand it?
Please don’t dismiss these warnings as my opportunistic construction of a straw man. As my friend Frank Turek warns, “Christian young people are leaving the church at an alarming rate, mainly because they are not equipped to examine the skepticism and atheism they encounter, often coming from their college professors, after leaving home.” So do your homework and help arm your kids. Or consult other sources for help, such as Frank’s website, CrossExamined.org, which has information on how you can help teach or reinforce in your kids why Christianity is true and reasonable — and loving.
- Prophecy News Watch
‘How can we stop the oil gusher?” may have been the question of the summer for most Americans. Yet for many evangelical pastors and leaders, the leaking well is nothing compared to the threat posed by an ongoing gusher of a different sort: Young people pouring out of their churches, never to return.
As a 27-year-old evangelical myself, I understand the concern. My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment.
Recent statistics have shown an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.
Statistics like these have created something of a mania in recent years, as baby-boomer evangelical leaders frantically assess what they have done wrong (why didn’t megachurches work to attract youth in the long term?) and scramble to figure out a plan to keep young members engaged in the life of the church.
Increasingly, the “plan” has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant. As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called “the emerging church”—a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement. Perhaps because it was too “let’s rethink everything” radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it—to rehabilitate Christianity’s image and make it “cool”—remains.
There are various ways that churches attempt to be cool. For some, it means trying to seem more culturally savvy. The pastor quotes Stephen Colbert or references Lady Gaga during his sermon, or a church sponsors a screening of the R-rated “No Country For Old Men.” For others, the emphasis is on looking cool, perhaps by giving the pastor a metrosexual makeover, with skinny jeans and an $80 haircut, or by insisting on trendy eco-friendly paper and helvetica-only fonts on all printed materials. Then there is the option of holding a worship service in a bar or nightclub (as is the case for L.A.’s Mosaic church, whose downtown location meets at a nightspot called Club Mayan).
“Wannabe cool” Christianity also manifests itself as an obsession with being on the technological cutting edge. Churches like Central Christian in Las Vegas and Liquid Church in New Brunswick, N.J., for example, have online church services where people can have a worship experience at an “iCampus.” Many other churches now encourage texting, Twitter and iPhone interaction with the pastor during their services.
But one of the most popular—and arguably most unseemly—methods of making Christianity hip is to make it shocking. What better way to appeal to younger generations than to push the envelope and go where no fundamentalist has gone before?
Sex is a popular shock tactic. Evangelical-authored books like “Sex God” (by Rob Bell) and “Real Sex” (by Lauren Winner) are par for the course these days. At the same time, many churches are finding creative ways to use sex-themed marketing gimmicks to lure people into church.
Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, Georgia, created a website called yourgreatsexlife.com to pique the interest of young seekers. Flamingo Road Church in Florida created an online, anonymous confessional (IveScrewedUp.com), and had a web series called MyNakedPastor.com, which featured a 24/7 webcam showing five weeks in the life of the pastor, Troy Gramling. Then there is Mark Driscoll at Seattle’s Mars Hill Church—who posts Q&A videos online, from services where he answers questions from people in church, on topics such as “Biblical Oral Sex” and “Pleasuring Your Spouse.”
But are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? Maybe sex sermons and indie- rock worship music do help in getting people in the door, and maybe even in winning new converts. But what sort of Christianity are they being converted to?
In his book, “The Courage to Be Protestant,” David Wells writes:”The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God.
“And the further irony,” he adds, “is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.”
If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.
If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It’s because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It’s not because we want more of the same.
- Prophecy News Watch
When author Anne Rice recently “quit Christianity” on her Facebook page, she lit up the blogosphere and sparked interest among media. Though the novelist announced that this time she was quitting “in the name of Christ,” her previous journey away from – and back to – the Christian faith had been well chronicled.
Just how common is this type of experience for Americans? How many Americans change faiths? A multi-year study conducted by the Barna Group explores the percentage of Americans who report shifting to a different faith or significantly changing their faith views during their life.
Changing Faith
Anne Rice is not alone. She shares a spiritual profile with nearly 60 million other adults nationwide. In the Barna study, the matter of faith switching was explored in several ways. First, respondents identified their childhood faith, if any, and then were asked to list their current faith allegiance. A comparison of the two answers showed that nearly one-quarter of adults (23%) had moved from one faith or faith tradition to another. This definition of faith change included those who switched from Catholic to Protestant and vice versa, but did not include those who changed from one Protestant denomination to another within the Protestant tradition. Overall, an additional 12% of adults had shifted affiliations but had not altered their Protestant orientation.
A second survey approach mirrored the findings of major faith change. Respondents to the same study were also asked if they had ever “changed to a different faith or significantly changed their faith views” or if they were “the same faith today as they were as a child.” Once again, about one-quarter of Americans (26%) said they had changed faith. Based on the research profile, these types of individuals were more likely than average to be women, divorced adults, residents of the Western states, atheists or agnostics, unchurched, and political independents.
Ex-Christians
The most common type of spiritual shift was from those who were Christian, Protestant or Catholic in childhood to those who currently report being atheist, agnostic or some other faith. In total, this group represents about one out of every eight adults (12%), a category that might be described as ex-Christians.
Converts to Christianity (those converting from another faith or from non-belief as a child to the Christian faith as an adult) represent 3% of the population. About twice as many (7%) moved from Protestant to Catholic or from Catholic to Protestant. Another 2% of adults were no longer the same as their childhood faith but did not fit into any of these three categories.
Why People Change
The survey also explored the top-of-mind reasons why people change faiths. The most common reasons for moving away from Christianity included life experiences, such as gaining new knowledge or education; feeling disillusioned with church and religion; feeling the church is hypocritical; having negative experiences in churches; being in disagreement with Christianity about specific issues such as homosexuality, abortion or birth control; feeling the church is too authoritarian; wanting to express their faith outside of church; and searching for a new faith or wanting to experience other religions.
Among those who were shifting toward Christianity, the most common motivations were going through difficult life events (such as divorce, a health crisis or death of a loved one); getting older and seeing life differently; wanting to connect with a church and grow spiritually; discovering Christ; or wanting to know what was in the Bible.
Age and Change
Most of the people who have made these changes did so as a teenager or young adult. The study discovered that the median age at the time they changed faiths or significantly altered their faith perspective was 22.
One-third of those who experienced a significant faith shift did so during their twenties and another one-third did so before age 20. In total, two-thirds of people who had a major faith change experienced that outcome before the age of 30 (68%). In fact, among respondents over 40, only 5% of them reported making a major shift in their religious affiliation after the age of 40.
Implications
David Kinnaman, who directed the research, pointed out: “It is difficult for many faith leaders to relate fully to the spiritual lives of people who struggle with their faith, particularly those who are younger. Clergy are typically older than those going through significant questions about their faith and are less likely to have personally experienced a period of major faith re-orientation themselves. What’s more, not every person goes through a crisis of faith, so individuals who are going through spiritual transitions often go unnoticed. Staying in tune with people’s questions and doubts—at whatever age they occur—is an increasingly important part of being an influential faith leader.”
Kinnaman, the president of Barna Group, also indicated that despite the fluctuations of faith among millions of Americans, “the study underscores that the spiritual allegiances of childhood are remarkably sustainable in our society. Nearly three out of every four American adults said they are the same religious faith today as they were during their childhood. That means the most common faith journey that people take is to form spiritual commitments as children and teenagers that typically last for the duration of their life.”
- Prophecy News Watch
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