Brad Wright is associate professor at the University of Connecticut where he studies the sociology of Christianity. I enjoy reading Brad’s blog which offers up an interesting mixture of sociological analysis, Christian reflections, great photography and just plain fun.

Brad has written an excellent 13-part review of the recently published book, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters, by David Kinnaman (president of the George Barna Institute) and Gabe Lyons (of the Fermi Project). The book is based on research from the Barna Group.

Here are the links to Brad’s series. Part five is especially good as Brad questions the lack of peer-review process in much research on Christianity and the church. Parts seven and eight are also very interesting as Brad compares the supposed “image problem” of Christianity with other groups, such as Atheists, Muslims, Hispanics and Jews. Finally, part thirteen raises the issue of the purpose of applied research on Christianity: Should research on Christianity be primarily useful or accurate? The whole series is excellent, and I encourage you to read through all the posts as time allows.

Part 1: Review of UnChristian
Part 2: Summary of Findings
Part 3: Reactions to UnChristian
Part 4: What Works Well
Part 5: Critiquing Research about Christianity
Part 6: Do Christians have an image problem? Compared to whom?
Part 7: Comparing the image of Christianity to other groups (I)
Part 8: Comparing the image of Christianity to other groups (II)
Part 9: Comparing the image of Christianity to other groups (III)
Part 10: Have attitudes toward Christianity changed over time?
Part 11: Age vs. cohort effects
Part 12: Evangelicals embrace of negative stereotypes
Part 13: Should research on Christianity be primarily useful or accurate?

Related posts:
    • A Sociologist Reviews Willow Creek’s Reveal Study

Piedmont College professor Barbara Brown Taylor laments her Christian students’ lack of knowledge of church history and tradition.

They never noticed that Matthew and Luke tell different stories of Jesus’ birth, or that Mark and John tell no such stories at all. They never imagined that the first Christians did not walk around with New Testaments in their pockets. No one ever told them about Constantine, Augustine, Benedict or Martin Luther. They never thought about what happened during the centuries between Jesus’ resurrection and their own professions of faith. In their minds, they fell in line behind the disciples, picking up the proclamation of the gospel where those simple fishermen left off …

College students in all other regards, they remain fifth graders in religion. How, when they meet someone who asks them intelligent questions about their faith, will they come up with equally intelligent answers? Keep your class notes, I tell them. You never know when you may need them.

Oh, the irony: Less than ten percent of adults in the United States tithe. The latest report from the Barna Group focuses on Trends in Tithing and Donating. Here are some of the results:

In 2007, the research revealed that just 5% of adults tithed. Not surprisingly, some population groups were more likely than others to have given away at least ten percent of their income. Among the most generous segments were evangelicals (24% of whom tithed); conservatives (12%); people who had prayed, read the Bible and attended a church service during the past week (12%); charismatic or Pentecostal Christians (11%); and registered Republicans (10%).

Interestingly, Christians gave the most of any one group of donors, and evangelical Christians gave the most of any Christian group.

Christians tend to be the most generous group of donors. An examination of the three dominant subgroups within the Christian community showed that evangelicals, the 7% of the population who are most committed to the Christian faith, donated a mean of $4260 to all non-profit entities in 2007. Non-evangelical born again Christians, who represent another 37% of the public, donated a mean of $1581. The other 42% of the Christian population, who are aligned with a Christian church but are not born again, donated a mean of $865. Overall, the three segments of the Christian community averaged donations of $1426.

From Christianity Today:

In the larger REVEAL survey taken by 200 churches, people were asked what they want most from their church. Three of the top four responses were:

1. Help me understand the Bible in greater depth.
2. Help me develop a closer personal relationship with Christ.
3. Challenge me to grow and take the next step in my faith.

What do you want most from church?

Related posts:

• Willow Creek Shifts Model Based on Reveal
• A Sociologist Reviews Willow Creek’s Reveal Study
• Quick Takes – 11/17/2007

Willow Creek Community Church basically wrote the book when it comes to seeker-sensitive churches in the United States. But now Willow Creek has announced a major shift in their model of ministry, based on the results of their Reveal Study published last fall.

Greg Hawkins, executive pastor at Willow … said they’re making the biggest changes to the church in over 30 years. For three decades Willow has been focused on making the church appealing to seekers. But the research shows that it’s the mature believers that drive everything in the church—including evangelism … Hawkins says, “Our strategy to reach seekers is now about focusing on the mature believers. This is a huge shift for Willow.”

In June Willow will end their mid-week worship service geared towards believers. Instead the church will offer classes for people at different stages of growth. Willow’s weekend seeker services are also being re-tooled.

In the past Willow believed that seekers didn’t want large doses of the Bible or deep worship music. They didn’t want to be challenged. Now their seeker-sensitive services are loaded with worship music, prayer, Scripture readings, and more challenging teaching from the Bible.

So, what are your thoughts?

Related posts:

• What Do People Want Most from Church?
• A Sociologist Reviews Willow Creek’s Reveal Study
• Quick Takes – 11/17/2007

I have been thinking recently about how we can do a better job of reaching out to the community. So I found the following post by Brian Thornton on doing things in public together as a church interesting. Here are some excerpts:

I have heard it said that we (as believers) gather together on Sundays to get equipped/energized so that we can then go out into the world to be a witness for Christ. And I agree with that. But, so often, once we depart from being together with our brothers and sisters within the confines of the four walls of the church building, we become soloists … In other words, the world doesn’t really see the church together, in public, interacting with one another …

The Lord Jesus Christ said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”, but how will all people know this if the only place you express love for your brothers and sisters is inside the walls of your church?

I fear that the visible church is only visible on Sundays and Wednesdays, and even then it is not the church which is visible, but rather just the gathering of cars in a parking lot!

Brian goes on to suggest that the church do more things in public together as a church body.

I am not saying every single thing we do should be done within the view of the world, but perhaps we could give the world a taste of our love for one another if we conduct at least some of our activities out in a public setting.

If your Sunday School class has regular get-togethers, schedule some of them at the local Chili’s or Golden Coral. Let the world see you having fun together and enjoying each others’ company.

If you have small Bible study groups which meet during the week at church or in homes, plan to have one or two of them a month at the local Starbuck’s or Atlanta Bread Company. Let the world see you opening the Word of God together and praying for one another.

If you have annual church-wide gatherings, schedule at least one of them a year in public. Have a church picnic at a public park or facility that can hold a larger group of people. Let the world see that your church loves being together.

They will know we are Christians by our love, but only if they actually see us together, loving one another in the world. They will not know anything about that love if we continue to stay holed up in the comfort of our buildings and homes.

What do you think? Are there things your church has done to be more visible as the church in the community?

HT: ekklesia

I know, you are not supposed to talk about religion or politics at the table, so if you are talking about both at the same time, you are really pushing it! But fools rush in where politicians fear to tread, so here I go. We have a heavy political season ahead of us, and Allan Bevere at RedBlueChristian provides some helpful answers to the following question:

What exactly is the church allowed to do publicly when it comes to politics?

Although churches are not allowed to directly endorse or oppose a political candidate, “indirect” participation is allowed and includes the following:

1. Pastors may personally endorse a candidate.
2. Pastors may personally work for a candidate and contribute financially to his or her campaign. No church may contribute to a campaign.
3. Pastors may endorse a candidate in print. The pastor’s title and specific church affiliation may also be listed for the purposes of identification.
4. Pastors may preach on moral and social issues (abortion, gay marriage, economic matters, etc.) which may by implication throw support behind one candidate over another. Churches may also take official positions on such issues, as long as they don’t directly endorse or oppose a candidate in the process.
5. Churches may organize voter registrations and drives as long as they are directed at all eligible voters and not only toward voters of one political party.
6. Churches may hold forums where candidates address the issues.
7. If a candidate visits a church during worship, he or she may be introduced publicly.
8. Churches may host candidates who may speak from the pulpit, as long as that candidate is not directly endorsed or urges the congregation to vote for her/him.
9. Churches may distribute non-partisan voter guide giving information on where each candidate stands on the issues.
10. Churches may use their premises as voting stations.

Those are Allan’s points in brief, but if this is an area of interest or concern for you, I encourage you to go to RedBlueChristian and read the whole article. Of course, what is legally allowed for a church and what is wise are two different issues. What are some of your thoughts on pastors, churches and political involvement?

Brad Wright is associate professor at the University of Connecticut where he studies the sociology of Christianity. I enjoy reading Brad’s blog which offers up an interesting mixture of sociological analysis, Christian reflections, great photography and just plain fun.

Over the past few weeks Brad has been reviewing Willow Creek’s recently published Reveal study from a sociologist’s perspective. I found his analysis of Reveal very “revealing!”

Here are the links to Brad’s series along with key excerpts from each post. The excerpts are only meant to whet your appetite and give you an idea of what Brad is doing in each of these posts. I encourage you to visit Brad’s blog and read the full posts to get the whole picture.

1. A review of ‘Reveal: Where are You?’ by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson – “I will take what is my somewhat standard approach and discuss what I think works well and what I think can be improved. As a sociologist, I’ll focus on methodological issues more than church growth issues.”
2. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, II – “Spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships. And, ironically, these basic disciplines do not require multi-million dollar facilities and hundreds of staff to manage.”
3. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, III – “Let’s start with some things that Reveal does well: First, they are collecting data … Second, they collected both qualitative and quantitative data … Third, they ask some very interesting applied questions … Fourth, I think that one of their findings will prove especially valuable for the church – that Christians of different maturity levels need different things from their churches. That is, a church’s activities are not one-size-fits-all.”
4. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, IV – “The Reveal Study emphasizes the consequential dimension of religion – various attitudes and behaviors that should be changed by religion … They use the experiential dimension as a predictor (or independent variable) which they call a spiritual continuum. This leaves significant aspects of the Christian walk not covered by the outcome measures employed by Reveal … The limited range of outcomes in Reveal does not invalidate it findings, but rather examining a broader range of outcomes might produce a richer, and ultimately different, story.”
5. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, V – “The big take-home message of the Reveal Study, according to the authors, is that church involvement doesn’t predict spiritual growth but there is a spiritual continuum that does … From how the authors describe it, a spiritual continuum is a Guttman scale measuring self-defined relationship with Christ … Here are some problems with this measure …”
6. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, VI “The Reveal Study documents that people with higher scores on the continuum also score higher on measures of spiritual growth. It’s not that this statement is inaccurate, rather it’s uninteresting. If you have two measures of about the same thing, well of course they will be highly correlated and thus predictive of each other.”
7. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, VII – “The big story to come out of Willow Creek’s Reveal Study is that the seeker-sensitive ministry made famous by Willow is supposedly flawed and ineffective … Is the Willow Creek actually flawed? Maybe, maybe not, but we can’t tell from these data … The big changes apparently in place at Willow as the result of Reveal may in fact not be warranted. In short, they may be fixing something that isn’t broken.”
8. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, VIII – “A significant minority of sample members described themselves as spiritually stagnant or were dissatisfied with their church … This statistic highlights the problem posed by Reveal not having a comparison group, for we don’t know if it’s good or bad. Let’s say I told you that a sports player was successful at two-thirds of what they attempted, and then I asked you if this is good. Well, you would need to know how everyone else does. If it’s free throws, this isn’t very good. If it’s completing passes, this is very good. If it’s getting on base, it’s the best ever.”
9. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, IX “A key finding in Reveal is that a good portion (up to 25%) were mature believers who said that they were stalled in their spiritual walk. This has been used as an indictment of the Willow Creek, with its focus on bringing seekers into the church. As we think more deeply about this finding, however, it may not be problematic.”
10. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, X “The study’s authors plan to give the current Reveal study in 500 other churches. By doing this they could easily get up to 50,000 respondents … Nonetheless, this next phase of Reveal isn’t necessarily a big step forward … What then would I recommend for Reveal? Three things … These three suggestions would substantially increase the power and importance of the Reveal study, helping it to further achieve its laudable goals of helping the church grow.“
11. Church Surveys: Willow Creek’s Reveal Study, Summary “I hope that this series has been helpful to the authors and readers of Reveal. In academics, critical attention is a form of flattery … it indicates that one thinks a work is worth consideration. I believe that Reveal will be looked back upon as an important step in the American Christian Church discovering the value of empirical data.”

Related posts:

• A Sociologist Reviews UnChristian
• What Do People Want Most from Church?
• Willow Creek Shifts Model Based on Reveal
• Quick Takes – 11/17/2007

Note: that’s “church shopping,” not “church hopping,” although both seem to be frequent occurrences nowadays. USA Today reports:

Across the country, fall is high season for “church shopping,” as people in search of a new faith community to call home set about the task of finding one. But that doesn’t mean they’re showing up, singing hymns, shaking hands and sampling doughnuts at a different church each week. Instead, observers say, they’re visiting church websites and evaluating congregations — often without having actually met anyone at the church …

Church shoppers “used to have to go to the service, sit in the back row and watch,” says Tom Bandy, president of EasumBandy & Associates, a church consultancy. “The website has just replaced that. The color schemes, the formatting, the language, the music — those things powerfully reveal who they (in the church) want to come there and who’s going to be accepted there.”

Says Mark Sorensen, who oversees the site [at Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona]: “Just like people do a lot of car shopping and major purchase shopping online, they see what they can find out about the church online before their decision to come for the first time.”

Large churches, especially evangelical ones, are most inclined to use the Web for outreach. Eighty-two percent of churches with more than 200 worship attendees have websites, compared with only 29% of those with fewer than 100, according to a 2006 Ellison Research survey of 871 Protestant congregations nationwide.

Church shopping in the fall? Who would have thunk it? I know a lot of people start their Christmas shopping in the fall. Perhaps people are looking for a church home in time for the holidays.

Have you been “church shopping” recently? If so, how big a role did the internet play in your search? Or, even if you haven’t been church shopping, how important are church websites to you? Does your church have a website? Do you use it? Feel free to share your thoughts on churches and websites in the comments section.

Note: Here is our church’s website: Agawam Church of the Bible
(HT: MMI)

Talk about a sermon illustration – check out Pastor Lee Cummings’ amazing prop for his message series I Love the Eighties at Resurrection Life Church in Richland, Michigan.

(Video length: 0:44)

All I could think was, “Wow! And here I thought it was pretty cool this past summer when we added a graphic to the slides on my message series.”

So, what do you think of props in church? Helpful? Distracting? Gimmicky? Depends on the church’s culture?

HT: iThinkCafe

Church Growth posts a humorous list of the Top Ten Criticisms from a Church, with a response from the deacon board (since everyone ran the pastor off).

We, the deacons of the church, have listed the top ten criticisms of our church and have decided upon the following solutions for these complaints:

1. “I want more depth in the sermons”: For all sermons we will read the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, therefore everyone in the congregation will be required to take Hebrew and Greek classes. Since these languages require constant study and usage, each member will be required to take these classes until they die.
2. “Nobody noticed when I was gone for three weeks”: From now on, each member of the congregation will be required to have placed on their ankle a tracking device so that we will know where they are at all times, including when they are at the lake, at the golf course, hunting, etc. Also, each member will be required to bring a doctor’s note stating that the member was actually sick and had an excuse for being out of church. The church will also start to use the phone tree system to give everyone a wake-up call on Sunday mornings so that they can get to church on time.
3. “Nobody cares about how I feel”: From now on, we will have a psychiatrist/psychologist/Christian counselor (the member will choose) available on Sunday mornings to help each member understand more about their feeling that no one cares about them. In addition, each member will be required to start caring for others in the congregation.
4. “I don’t know everybody anymore”: From now on each member of the congregation will be required to memorize the names and faces of each member of the congregation, including each new member that joins hereafter. Also, each member will be required to wear a photo i.d. for identification purposes.
5. “The choir doesn’t sing my kind of music”: From now on, there will be no more choir or congregational singing but each seat in the sanctuary will be equipped with an IPOD and headphones to listen to your favorite type of Christian music during the worship service.

You can visit Church Growth for the rest of the list. (I especially like the wave pool in the baptistery idea on number 9.) As with all effective humor there is a lot of truth mixed into this list. Do you ever get criticisms about your church? How do you handle it?

HT:

Last week was an interesting week behind the scenes on the blog. Starting Tuesday I noticed an increasing number of people arriving at the blog after searching for “Habakkuk” and especially “Habakkuk chapter 2.” It turns out that the schedule for the International Sunday School Lessons for last Sunday called for a lesson on Habakkuk 2. I had run a whole series on Habakkuk back in the spring, and so the search engines were directing people this way.

What was interesting was how the closer we got to Sunday morning, the more people started arriving at the blog looking for material on Habakkuk. I figured that the number of visitors would peak on either Friday or Saturday, but the numbers continued to increase right up through Sunday morning, just hours before services were scheduled to begin.

I wonder how typical this graph is of when Sunday School teachers begin their preparation during the week. (By the way, I thank God for all of you who faithfully teach Sunday School, no matter when you prepare!) So, when do you start preparing for Sunday? 🙂