Designer Christians: Startling new research

We should be concerned, very concerned with the current state of today’s church product according to recent research from Barna.

From HuffPo, and USA TODAY:

“If World War II-era warbler Kate Smith sang today, her anthem could be “Gods Bless America.”

That’s one of the key findings in newly released research that reveals America’s drift from clearly defined religious denominations to faiths cut to fit personal preferences.

The folks who make up God as they go are side by side with self-proclaimed believers who claim the Christian label but shed their ties to traditional beliefs and practices. Religion statistics expert George Barna says, with a wry hint of exaggeration, America is headed for “310 million people with 310 million religions.”

“We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs — our clothing, our food, our education,” he said. Now it’s our religion.

Barna’s new book on U.S. Christians, “Futurecast,” tracks changes from 1991 to 2011, in annual national surveys of 1,000 to 1,600 U.S. adults. All the major trend lines of religious belief and behavior he measured ran downward — except two:

• More people claim they have accepted Jesus as their savior and expect to go to heaven.
• And more say they haven’t been to church in the past six months except for special occasions such as weddings or funerals. In 1991, 24 percent were “unchurched.” Today, it’s 37 percent.

Barna blames pastors for those oddly contradictory findings. Everyone hears, “Jesus is the answer. Embrace him. Say this little Sinner’s Prayer and keep coming back. It doesn’t work. People end up bored, burned out and empty,” he said. “They look at church and wonder, ‘Jesus died for this?”

We’re in deep trouble and yet, we continue to do the same things expecting different results. In our efforts to seek out seekers, create sensory experiences, and make people feel comfortable, have we abandoned God and His Biblical mandate to make disciples? The Apostle Paul wrote, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10).

There is no crown if there is no cross. We want the rewards without obedience. However, obedience to the commands of Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely essential. Let me be plain and simple – an outward profession of religion will not ensure a heavenly abode unless there is corresponding life transformation. All judgment rests with Jesus.

We are to do the will of Christ. His will is that we believe in Him, that we repent of sin, that we live a holy life, that we love one another. It is God’s will that we be sanctified. God wants us to live holy lives.

Barna’s Research: Four Obstacles & Four Keys

Obstacle 1: Commitment
Less than one out of every five self-identified Christians (18%) claims to be totally committed to investing in their own spiritual development. Perhaps this is why a majority of self-identified Christian adults (52%) believe that there is much more to the Christian life than what they have experienced.

Key: Without a full determination to live like Christ and for Him, the path to complete transformation is blocked. Commitment is paramount to the Great Commission.

Obstacle 2: Repentance
Most of the self-identified Christians in the U.S. (64%) state that they have confessed their sins to God and asked for His forgiveness. However, only about 3% of all self-identified Christians in America have come to the final stops on the transformational journey – the places where they have surrendered control of their life to God, submitted to His will for their life, and devoted themselves to loving and serving God and other people.

Key: We are called to bear fruit that is worthy of the gift of repentance. The New Living Translation of the Bible says it very well, “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.” (Luke 3:8)

Obstacle 3: Activity
Four out of ten self-identified Christian adults (39%) have participated in a combination of three “normal” religious activities in the past week (i.e., attending church services, praying, reading the Bible). But far fewer have engaged in another trio of deeper faith expressions: less than one out of ten have talked about their faith with a non-Christian, fasted for religious purposes, and had an extended time of spiritual reflection during the past week. Various spiritual disciplines – including solitude, sacrifice, acts of service, silence, and scriptural meditation – are also infrequently practiced.

Key: As Barna noted, “Tens of millions of self-identified Christians have confused religious activity with spiritual significance.” We must emphasize, practice, and bring accountability to the basic spiritual disciplines of our faith. I recommend Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster as a place to start.

Obstacle 4: Spiritual Community
Most self-identified Christians note that they feel comfortable and connected within their church. However, many self-identified Christians do not take their faith community seriously as a place to which they should be open and held to biblical principles. Only one out of every five self-identified Christians (21%) believes that spiritual maturity requires a vital connection to a community of faith. Further, only one-third (35%) claims to have confessed their sins verbally to another believer at some point during the past quarter.

Key: True koinonia (fellowship, sharing in common, communion) is largely missing in today’s church. Scripture commands us to be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10), honor one another (Romans 12:10), live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16; 1 Peter 3:8), accept one another (Romans 15:7), serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13), be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32), admonish one another (Colossians 3:16), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13), spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), offer hospitality (1 Peter 4:9), and love one another (1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11; 3:23; 4:7; 4:11-12).

Knowing Christ Jesus: helping believers know Christ and to make Him known

1. Less activity. Deeper relationships.

Barna noted that most churches encourage people to engage in an increasing amount of religious activity, asking them to pour themselves into efforts related to the “core six” spiritual dimensions: worship, evangelism, discipleship, stewardship, service, and community.

Key: The goal of our spiritual development should be to be formed, conformed, and transformed in Christ-likeness – godly character, not worldly accomplishments and the development and realization of a life-changing relationship with Jesus instead of church programs.

2. Surrender, sacrifice, and suffering

Barna suggests that we need to help believers embrace the necessity of sacrifice and suffering in order to surrender and submit themselves fully to God.

Key: There is no crown without the cross. We have so focused on immediate gratification, fast-food spiritual discipleship, and have disdained purposeful sacrifice and suffering that few are willing to follow the narrow path. The way of the Master is selflessness. It is time to rethink our discipleship process if we teach anything less than the life and teaching of Lord Jesus.

3. Small groups do not necessarily produce commitment

A third challenge listed by Barna was the importance of perceiving and experiencing a faith community as a vital support system in the pursuit of a deeper relationship with God. Past studies have shown that while small groups that meet during the week for purposes such as Bible study, prayer, and life sharing have become a regular activity among roughly one-quarter (25%) of self-described Christians, and those meetings are relied upon by conventional churches as a means of creating community and a sense of connection to the church, the ultimate product of those groups is a combination of knowledge and comfort more often than it is commitment and application.

Key: Barna writes, “Small groups are an important ingredient in most churches. And though knowledge is an important step in the growth process, without transparency and accountability, the information rarely gets converted into personal, congregational, or cultural transformation.” As Greg Ogden writes, “One of the most powerful discoveries I have made in ministry is that size matters. It matters greatly. Over 20 years ago I stumbled onto groups of three or four (triads/quads) as the most effective way to create a transparent, reproducing, relational environment for transformation into Christlikeness.” Like Greg, I have discovered the power found in smaller “core” groups and have made it my purpose and ministry to provide a Biblical process and free discipleship resources to that end. You can learn more here.

Measuring Success

We should re-think how we measure “success” corporately and personally. According to Barna, common success measures such as church attendance and program completion showed little correlation with transformational progress.

Key: The mission of His Church is to make disciples who can then make disciples. Spiritual fruit as evidenced through character change, lifestyle shifts, attitudinal transitions, and spiritual process and commitments should be the primary metrics used to determine success.

We should be ever mindful of what our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 7:21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” God help us to become disciple-making people by His power and to His glory.

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