Let's see, I've already got Mom a couple of gifts for Christmas. Guess I'll be getting one more!
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George Barna is the preeminent researcher in the area of faith, spirituality and church growth within the United States. The author of several books, Barna is in constant contact with people of faith, studying trends and issues that impact churches and the formation of faith.
In his latest e-mail newsletter, Barna points out a significant trend he discovered during 2005. I share this enlightening trend with you this morning in the hope it will impact your outlook as it has mine.
The first of those patterns had to do with the priorities embraced by church leaders. Citing a study conducted mid-year, Barna noted that most local churches essentially ignore three critical spiritual dimensions: ministry to children, ministry to families and prayer. His statistics showed that less than one out of every five Protestant churches deem ministry to families or to children to be among the top priorities of the church. Prayer, he pointed out, is labeled one of the top priorities by less than one out of every 25 churches! He also stated that even though churches build their primary weekly event around the concept of worship, and call the event a “worship service,” less than one out of every five churches rated worship to be a top ministry priority, and that most of those in attendance say they did not experience the presence of God during the service. “The limited significance we assign to the act of worship, as opposed to putting on and being present at a worship event, is found in our data showing that less than one out of every ten church attenders spends any time during a typical week worshiping God, other than when they are at a church service.”
Pressed for insight as to why it is that establishing these factors as a low priority is problematic, Barna replied, “because families are meant to be the faith-center of each individual’s life, children are the most important and impressionable individuals we could possibly reach with the good news of salvation and the substance of a Spirit-led, Scripture based spiritual life, and you cannot have a meaningful and dynamic relationship with the living God unless worship and prayer are at the center of that relationship. For churches to get so wrapped up in other matters suggests that we have lost sight of the end goal, which is not filling new buildings with happy people but filling sin-stained hearts with the forgiveness and power of Jesus Christ, and how that power then transforms the individual’s entire understanding of the meaning of life.”
