Six Megathemes Emerge from Barna Group Research in 2010

Change usually happens slowly in the Church. But a review of the past year’s
research conducted by the Barna Group provides a time-lapse portrayal of how the
religious environment in the U.S. is morphing into something
new.

Analyzing insights drawn from more than 5,000 non-proprietary
interviews conducted over the past 11 months, George Barna indicated that the
following patterns were evident in the survey findings.

1. The Christian
Church is becoming less theologically literate.
What used to be basic,
universally-known truths about Christianity are now unknown mysteries to a large
and growing share of Americans–especially young adults. For instance, Barna
Group studies in 2010 showed that while most people regard Easter as a religious
holiday, only a minority of adults associate Easter with the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. Other examples include the finding that few adults believe that
their faith is meant to be the focal point of their life or to be integrated
into every aspect of their existence. Further, a growing majority believe the
Holy Spirit is a symbol of God’s presence or power, but not a living entity. As
the two younger generations (Busters and Mosaics) ascend to numerical and
positional supremacy in churches across the nation, the data suggest that
biblical literacy is likely to decline significantly. The theological
free-for-all that is encroaching in Protestant churches nationwide suggests the
coming decade will be a time of unparalleled theological diversity and
inconsistency.

2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less
outreach-oriented.
Despite technological advances that make communications
instant and far-reaching, Christians are becoming more spiritually isolated from
non-Christians than was true a decade ago. Examples of this tendency include the
fact that less than one-third of born again Christians planned to invite anyone
to join them at a church event during the Easter season; teenagers are less
inclined to discuss Christianity with their friends than was true in the past;
most of the people who become Christians these days do so in response to a
personal crisis or the fear of death (particularly among older Americans); and
most Americans are unimpressed with the contributions Christians and churches
have made to society over the past few years. As young adults have children, the
prospect of them seeking a Christian church is diminishing–especially given the
absence of faith talk in their conversations with the people they most trust.
With atheists becoming more strategic in championing their godless worldview, as
well as the increased religious plurality driven by education and immigration,
the increasing reticence of Christians to engage in faith-oriented conversations
assumes heightened significance.

3. Growing numbers of people are less
interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic
solutions for life.
When asked what matters most, teenagers prioritize
education, career development, friendships, and travel. Faith is significant to
them, but it takes a back seat to life accomplishments and is not necessarily
perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams. Among adults the
areas of growing importance are lifestyle comfort, success, and personal
achievements. Those dimensions have risen at the expense of investment in both
faith and family. The turbo-charged pace of society leaves people with little
time for reflection. The deeper thinking that occurs typically relates to
economic concerns or relational pressures. Spiritual practices like
contemplation, solitude, silence, and simplicity are rare. (It is ironic that
more than four out of five adults claim to live a simple life.) Practical to a
fault, Americans consider survival in the present to be much more significant
than eternal security and spiritual possibilities. Because we continue to
separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through
compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a
central means of optimizing our life experience.

4. Among Christians,
interest in participating in community action is escalating.
Largely driven
by the passion and energy of young adults, Christians are more open to and more
involved in community service activities than has been true in the recent past.
While we remain more self-indulgent than self-sacrificing, the expanded focus on
justice and service has struck a chord with many. However, despite the increased
emphasis, churches run the risk of watching congregants’ engagement wane unless
they embrace a strong spiritual basis for such service. Simply doing good works
because it’s the socially esteemed choice of the moment will not produce much
staying power.

To facilitate service as a long-term way of living and to
provide people with the intrinsic joy of blessing others, churches have a window
of opportunity to support such action with biblical perspective. And the more
that churches and believers can be recognized as people doing good deeds out of
genuine love and compassion, the more appealing the Christian life will be to
those who are on the sidelines watching. Showing that community action as a
viable alternative to government programs is another means of introducing the
value of the Christian faith in society.

5. The postmodern insistence on
tolerance is winning over the Christian Church.
Our biblical illiteracy and
lack of spiritual confidence has caused Americans to avoid making discerning
choices for fear of being labeled judgmental. The result is a Church that has
become tolerant of a vast array of morally and spiritually dubious behaviors and
philosophies. This increased leniency is made possible by the very limited
accountability that occurs within the body of Christ. There are fewer and fewer
issues that Christians believe churches should be dogmatic about. The idea of
love has been redefined to mean the absence of conflict and confrontation, as if
there are no moral absolutes that are worth fighting for. That may not be
surprising in a Church in which a minority believes there are moral absolutes
dictated by the scriptures.

The challenge today is for Christian leaders
to achieve the delicate balance between representing truth and acting in love.
The challenge for every Christian in the U.S. is to know his/her faith well
enough to understand which fights are worth fighting, and which stands are
non-negotiable. There is a place for tolerance in Christianity; knowing when and
where to draw the line appears to perplex a growing proportion of Christians in
this age of tolerance.

6. The influence of Christianity on culture and
individual lives is largely invisible.
Christianity has arguably added more
value to American culture than any other religion, philosophy, ideology or
community. Yet, contemporary Americans are hard pressed to identify any specific
value added. Partly due to the nature of today’s media, they have no problem
identifying the faults of the churches and Christian people.

In a period
of history where image is reality, and life-changing decisions are made on the
basis of such images, the Christian Church is in desperate need of a more
positive and accessible image. The primary obstacle is not the substance of the
principles on which Christianity is based, and therefore the solution is not
solely providing an increase in preaching or public relations. The most
influential aspect of Christianity in America is how believers do–or do
not–implement their faith in public and private. American culture is driven by
the snap judgments and decisions that people make amidst busy schedules and
incomplete information. With little time or energy available for or devoted to
research and reflection, it is people’s observations of the integration of a
believer’s faith into how he/she responds to life’s opportunities and challenges
that most substantially shape people’s impressions of and interest in
Christianity. Jesus frequently spoke about the importance of the fruit that
emerges from a Christian life; these days the pace of life and avalanche of
competing ideas underscores the significance of visible spiritual fruit as a
source of cultural influence.

With the likelihood of an accelerating pace
of life and increasingly incomplete cues being given to the population,
Christian leaders would do well to revisit their criteria for “success” and the
measures used to assess it. In a society in which choice is king, there are no
absolutes, every individual is a free agent, we are taught to be self-reliant
and independent, and Christianity is no longer the automatic, default faith of
young adults, new ways of relating to Americans and exposing the heart and soul
of the Christian faith are required. Although there were a few subgroups that
were more likely than average to experience church-based accountability, there
was not a single segment for which even one out of every five people said their
church does anything to hold them accountable. The segments that were most
likely to have some form of church-centered accountability were evangelicals
(15%), adults living in the western states (10%), people who say they are
conservative on social and political matters (9%), and Baby Busters, who are
known to be a highly relational generation (8%). Amazingly, while 7% of
Protestants claimed to have such accountability there was not a single Catholic
adult surveyed who claimed to be held accountable by his/her church.

What megathemes do you expect to see in 2011? What are your predictions? Let me know in the comment box below.