The guys over in Nashville at LifeWay Research keep cranking out statistical data that continues to prove helpful in our pursuit of more effective means of evangelism and growth. This time they are releasing a new study that they say shows “Unchurched Americans [are] turned off by church, [but are] open to Christians.” This study, which is released over at LifeWayResearch.com as well as EdStetzer.com, has some surprising and intriguing insights that we would do well to consider. I want to mention a couple in particular that I found to be particularly insightful. If you would like a copy of the article that accompanies the survey click here. For the PowerPoint, click here.

First of all I found it interesting, yet not surprising, that according to their data 72% of those polled felt like the church was “full of hypocrites”. This is particularly interesting when you note that the poll included only those who have not attended a religious service at a church, synagogue or mosque within the past 6 months. This perception is one that I find to be extremely relevant in my context. With the significant number of those who perceive the church in this manner, I am of the opinion that it is probably a reputation that has been earned. What is incredibly fascinating, however, is that the study claims that 78% of those polled would “be willing to listen” to someone who wanted to share what they believed about Christianity. That is highly encouraging to me. It also seems to point to the fact that evangelism that exists in relationship must become more and more of a priority for us.

The study goes on to say that the church, in generic terms, and not the people who make up the church are what is seen as most offensive by unchurched people. 79% of those polled claim that Christianity “is more about organized religion than about loving God and loving people”. I think this is another area where this, and other studies like it, must direct our focus outside the walls of the church. In the article that accompanies the study, Scott McConnell says “People outside the church see it [the church] as candles, pews and flowers, rather than people living their love for God by loving others.” Ed Stetzer then gives us the money quote when he says “There will always be the stumbling block of the cross. Yet our study shows that many are tripping over the church before they hear the message of the cross.”

I wonder when we will start recognizing that people are being offended and turning away from the gospel, not because of the gospel itself but because of our presentation of ourselves and the gospel? We have got to start communicating the need to live authentic, transparent lives that mimic Christ-likeness and which are careful to communicate the message of the gospel. In fact, the previous statistic that I quoted about the 78% who would “be willing to listen” to someone talk about their Christian beliefs rises to 89% when you consider only those in the 18-29 year old category. In fact, the study goes on to say that only 28% of adults 30 yrs old and older say that the Christians they know talk too much about their Christian beliefs. There must be a commitment in our churches to examining ourselves critically and considering whether or not we communicate well to those who are unchurched. I’ll share, for instance, one idea that we will begin soon at our church. We are asking some of our church leadership to contact a few unchurched families and giving them a critique sheet and asking them to be a “secret shopper” for us to give us their general impressions of our church. It is our opinion that we will almost always be biased in our understanding of our church. While we never want to water down the message of the cross, we understand that there are often additional barriers to effective evangelism that we may never recognize but which a visitor may notice that can help our evaluation of ourselves.

I’m grateful to Ed Stetzer and the other guys at LifeWay Research for producing this study and I’m hopeful that it will provoke us to reconsider some methods of evangelism and to become more evangelistic than ever before, but to do so in a way that is more effective than ever before. I’m of the opinion that relational evangelism must become our most prevalent method of evangelism, and I think this study supports it. The problem historically has been that our relational evangelism is heavy on relational and light on evangelism. I think this study also supports the idea that our friends are interested in hearing about our faith, and we cannot be reticent to communicate about it. One things is for sure, it’s certainly better than this.

**UPDATE** USA Today has also written an article about the study. It can be found here.

I ran across the following statistics the other day. I am curious to hear from you about what you think this means for pastors/preachers/teachers as we endeavor to communicate God’s word to people?

Do you know that in the USA:

• Over 50% of people over age 16 are functionally illiterate.
• 58% of the US adult population never reads a book after high school graduation.
• 42% of college graduates never read another book.
• 80% of US families did not buy or read a book in 2002.
• 57% of new books are not read to completion. Most readers do not get past page 18 in a new book that they purchase.
• Each day, people in the US spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
• 65% of American children have television sets in their bedrooms.
• It is estimated that people spend as much as 80% (38 hours per week) of their non-working time, non-sleeping time in front of a television or computer screen.
• Nearly 70% of the worlds population (4+billion) are oral communicators.
• That means…only 20% - 30% of the worlds inhabitants are are print or literate communicators.
• Researchers believe that 70% or more of North America’s people prefer non-literate means of communication.

Statistics originated from Echo.

HT: Goodmanson

I am convinced that God loves those who work every day in the small church. There is no question that the Southern Baptist Convention is a convention of small churches. They form the backbone of what has made us great for so many years. As a result of my belief in, and my thankfulness for, the small church I have been encouraging everyone who can to attend the 2008 SBC Small Church Leadership Conference in North Carolina in March of 2008. The lineup of speakers is as good as you can find anywhere and I know of no other opportunity out there to find an entire conference specifically designed with the small church leader in mind.

That being said, it’s time to let you know that through the generosity of a donor, more scholarships are available.  These will pay for the registration fee for 50 small church leaders who are planning to attend the conference. If you would like to go, you need to let Les know asap in order to receive some of this financial assistance.

I am excited to share with you that as of this evening I have accepted an invitation to speak at the first annual Small Church Conference to be held at Lewisville Baptist Church in Lewisville, North Carolina in March of 2008. I am tentatively scheduled to speak on Friday night at 7pm on the topic of “Affordable Technology for the Small Church”. The use of technology has become one of the areas where God has gifted me and I am convinced that as our churches embrace the use of technology they will become more effective at communicating the Gospel message of Jesus Christ to our current cultural climate. I have also spent a significant amount of time researching resources that range from inexpensive to free in order to assist local pastors in smaller congregations. If you are the pastor of a small church, I believe this session, and certainly the conference overall, will be very helpful to you.

Additionally, Les Puryear (the host pastor) has received confirmation from some exciting individuals who will be speaking during the conference, and is awaiting confirmation from others. I am very excited about two of them in particular. As I receive permission to share more details, I will gladly do so.

I have been preaching through a series entitled “ekklesia” as we have tried to understand just what, exactly, is the church. I am beginning a two week look at fellowship and this week I’m beginning by trying to teach the biblical foundations of accountability as a vital portion of the fellowship process. The sermon is entitled “PartnerPower”. We are looking at Hebrews 10:15-25 as we try to understand why God wants us to be accountable. As I’ve been studying the passage I’ve been enthralled with the theology found within it. It’s a tremendous passage. It caused me to think, however, about the topic of accountability and I’m curious to know exactly how the church that you are affiliated with practices teaching/encouraging accountability?

The guys over at LifeWay, and more specifically LifeWay Research, recorded a pocast this past Friday with Drs. Ranier, Wagonner and Stetzer , the former being the head of LifeWay Research. It was released this morning. The podcast lasts approximately 30 minutes but is worth your time to listen to it. LifeWay was gracious enough to reach out to a few bloggers for input as to the content of some of the questions and there seems to be a genuine recognition from them that bloggers have value which is obviously exciting to me! Their Media Relations Managers, Chris Turner, solicited our questions and he shares with me that all three doctors were excited and receptive to the questions. It’s nice to see the folks over at LifeWay taking an interest in the blogging community.

Below you will find the podcast audio file as well as the actual press release from LifeWay that accompanies the podcast. I hope it’s encouraging to you.

[audio:http://boss.streamos.com/download/lifeway/corp/il_stetzer_hi.mp3]

Download the audio file here or here.

Download the press release here .

According to this press release [click here] from LifeWay the IMB, NAMB and LifeWay are now all collaborating on research and the newly announced head of LifeWay Research and LifeWay missiologist in residence is Dr. Ed Stetzer. I could not be more pleased! I have wanted to see a more unified effort between our SBC entities for some time now. The recently announced partnership between the IMB and NAMB to form peoplegroups.info is only enhanced by this news. I am more and more hopeful that the extremely gifted, talented and blessed triumvirate of Jerry Rankin, Geoff Hammond and Thom Ranier may be just the men to lead our convention into a bright, bright future. This bodes extremely well for the SBC, in my opin!
ion! Way to go guys!

On Wednesday evenings I am teaching through 1 John. Tonight we began to address Chapter 2. As I began to teach God spoke powerfully to my heart and I want need to share it with you. Let me share the passage first.

1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for[a] the sins of the whole world.

3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love[b] is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him[c] to make him stumble. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Two things in particular jumped out at me this evening. The first is verses 9-11. The command to love our brothers and sisters is so clear. In the past year and a half I have jumped in with both feet to the world of denominational controversy. In just the past month I have done so in regards to our state controversy. In the midst of the conversation I have had (and continue to have) strongly held opinions. I have stated them at times, and I’m sure have alienated people in the process. For a long time I was consistent in my reminders to each other in the blog world that this is not a fight between enemies but rather a disagreement between brothers and sisters. As I’ve progressed (or digressed, as the situation may have it) in this conversation, however, I have found myself more and more firm in my positions and less willing to listen to contrary positions. I have found myself setting up those who disagree with me as “enemies” in my mind. Let me please confess tonight that sin!
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If you claim the name of Christ and are working together with me in the SBC (or outside the SBC for that matter) let me reiterate the truth that you are family with me. I am not your enemy and you are not mine. I will not treat you as such. I apologize for my sometimes arrogant behavior and I anticipate greatly the opportunity to partner with the brothers and sisters in Christ who disagree with me on many of these issues. Please forgive me!

The second truth that I noticed in the passage is in the beginning, in verse two to be exact. We are told that Christ is the “atoning sacrifice” for our sins. As I thought, tonight, about setting myself against my brothers and sisters it is as if God directed me to that verse and reminded me that even for this sin, Christ died. I praise the Lord tonight that I can rest in His grace. I hope you can do the same.

Blessings