Barna Research: 'Christian' closer to 8%, not 40% in the USA.

Approximately 40%, according to Barna's recent research in late 2011, identified themselves as Christians according to his press release found here.  Given that high percentage of self proclaimed Christians, one has to wonder why God and Jesus are continually getting pushed out of schools, government, and culture.  The answer apparently lies when one drills down further in his research.  I read the following on another blog as to Barna's further line of questioning on his religious survey.  The results are more in line with what you would expect for a declining impact of Christian principals on behavior. 

When Barna asked those same 40% to identify themselves as defined by the following 9 points, the answer he got, was only about 8% do indeed affirm all 9 basic Christian principals.  My guess is that a majority of 'Christians' have a problem with point 8, which asks one to believe in the infallibility of the Bible.  8% is more what you'd expect, given the faith v. secular battle raging in the USA.

Thus, the answer to the question of why 'Christians' have a declining relevance in today's post modern society.  If one cannot affirm basic tenants of scripture and disagree among themselves over what they believe in, it becomes difficult to convince skeptics your view is the right view. 

He chose to determine who exactly was an "Evangelical" rather than simply a "Christian" because Evangelicals were supposed to be closer to the definition of someone who practiced what they preached rather than merely being a cultural Christian in name only or someone who just "goes to church". Barna developed a set of criteria he calls "the 9-point evangelical". Such people are defined according to the following rules:

 

1. They say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today.

2. They believe when they die they will go to Heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Christ as Savior.

3. They say their faith is very important in their life today.

4. They believe they have a personal responsibility to share their beliefs with non-Christians.

5. They believe Satan exists.

6. They believe eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works.

7. They believe Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth.

8. They assert that the Bible is accurate in all it teaches.

9. They describe God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today.

 

In other words, if you ask everyone in a given room if they consider themselves to be a "Christian", practically all the hands will instinctively go up. If you then ask, "How many of you are 'Evangelical' Christians?" the majority drop their arms and only 38% of hands are still in the air. But if you ask everyone to keep their hand in the air to affirm they believe in each of the above nine points as they are read one by one, the end result will be that only about 8% of the room will still be holding up a hand to affirm all nine of the basic criteria. By what standard do you determine whether or not someone or something is "Christian"? If Barna hasn't provided the minimum requirements for the members of the faithful remnant, what would you add or change? I think these are minimally basic.

For a long time many of us have followed the work of George Barna, the Christian researcher who knew that there was something wrong when most Americans identified themselves as "Christian". Common sense tells us something is wrong with that kind of response because if the majority were truly "Christian" then how could we be experiencing so many moral and spiritual problems today? Why wouldn't every law passed in America conform to scriptural standards? How could America not obviously be anything other than "Christian" if such a majority claimed to be so? Why would we ban prayer in school, the Ten Commandments from courtrooms, or promote Islamic practices in our schools? Barna realized that he had to narrow the requirements in order to uncover the truth.

Barna also documents other statistics among the so called 'born agains'.  Behavior has changed in America over time, and like most cultures the move has been away from Christ and the Church as wealth and prosperity has become more prevalent. 

Born Again Christians
This category is comprised of people whose beliefs characterize them as born again; it is not based on people calling themselves “born again.” This segment, which now stands at 40% of all adults in the U.S., experienced significant changes in relation to all six religious behaviors tracked by the Barna Group.

• The largest shifts in behavior pertained to the 14-point decline in adult Sunday school attendance (now 26%) and the 12-point drop in volunteering at church (down to 29%).
• Attendance at church services in any given week decreased by seven percentage points over the last two decades among born again Christians, falling from 66% to 59%.
• The proportion of born again adults who read the Bible during a typical week, not including when they are at a church event, has decreased by nine percentage points since 1991. The weekly average now resides at 62%.
• Two behavioral statistics increased since 1991, one for the worse and the other of little consequence. The unfortunate shift is the increase in the unchurched among born again adults, which has risen by five percentage points to 19%. The neutral transition is the eight-point increase in born again adults who attend a large church (600 or more people).

Only one of the seven religious beliefs measured among born agains shifted significantly in the last two decades. That was the nine-point drop in the percentage of those who firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. In 1991, three-quarters of born again adults held that view, but it has declined to two-thirds of them today (65%).

 Check out the rest of Barna's survey here.

Prayer Gathering in Houston amidst Turmoil

In the midst of the gathering storms, God is stirring up a remnant to intercede for America. America's once Christian culture has been eroded as secular humanism has taken the stage as the center of thought and action. Sins both large and small are adding up as God's mercy has been replaced by judgment, and we are reaping the fruits of our abandonment of Godly values in the form of broken families, broken lives, broken government.

We are at a point of no return. Like the Brits at Dunkirk in 1940, if God does not intervene we will not survive. God promises to heal our IF 'our people prays and humbles themselves before God.' Taking a stand in Texas this past weekend is an important first step toward humbling ourselves and appealing to the God of the universe to heal our land.

However, 30,000 people divided by 300 Million people that populate the USA is approximately .01%. Despite the small numbers, remember that God will act for the sake the few. Remember Abraham and Lot as God promised to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if only 10 righteous people were to be found. I bet that was even a smaller percentage than .01%.

Photo A/P

We Need another Dunkirk; 30,000 Attend Prayer Rally

(Houston, Texas) — The year was 1940. The moment was one of the darkest in the history of the English people. More than 300,000 British troops suddenly found themselves pinned down in northern France. Nazi forces were bearing down on them. The Brits didn’t have enough ammunition or supplies. At any moment, Hitler’s forces would launch a ferocious attack. The Brits faced imminent annihilation. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his advisors thought at best the navy could rescue 20,000 to 30,000 before it was too late. Others feared even that might not be possible. And the stakes couldn’t have been higher. If so many forces were wiped out, Hitler and the Nazis would invade the British Isles — and win.

So the King of England called for a national day of prayer. That Sunday, an estimated 70 percent of the British people showed up at churches all over the country. They begged for the Lord’s mercy on their fathers and sons, and for their national survival. And the Lord heard those heartfelt prayers and responded with what became known as “the miracle at Dunkirk.” Hitler inexplicably delayed giving his generals the order to finish off the Brits. A great storm over Germany prevented Nazi planes from being able to take off. The British people quickly assembled some 900 fishing boats, yachts, trawlers, and other private and government vessels, and began ferrying the troops of the French beaches and back to England a few at a time. By the grace of God, nearly a third of a million souls were saved as a result, as was the British nation.

“We need another Dunkirk,” said Dr. James Dobson at Saturday’s national day of prayer in Houston as he recounted the famous story and called American Christians to devote themselves to prayer and fasting. ”God answers prayer.” He is absolutely right.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry tells prayer rally: 'Our heart breaks for America'

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) addressed a seven-hour prayer and fasting rally in Houston Saturday, which was called to address the nation’s “historic crisis.”

Speaking in the late morning, Governor Perry read three portions of scripture and asked for prayers for the nation, President Obama, the military, and military families. Frequently choking back tears, Perry addressed “discord at home,” saying “our heart breaks for America.… We see fear in the marketplace. We see anger in the halls of government and as a nation, we have forgotten who made us, who protects us, blesses us, and for that we cry out for your forgiveness.”

"The Response" is taking place at Reliant Stadium, a 71,000-seat facility in Houston that hosted the Super Bowl in 2004. Although the event is free, participants are required to sign up to attend. The Associated Press reports that 8,000 people were registered by Friday. Speaking from the stage late Saturday morning, James Dobson, founder of the evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family, said 22,000 people were in attendance.

The event resembled a revival, with numerous speakers taking to the stage and asking for mercy, forgiveness, and guidance for the nation.

The event is being seen as an opportunity for Perry to burnish his credentials as a religious conservative ahead of his likely bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Last month, Perry told the Des Moines Register he expects to announce a presidential run in mid-to-late August.

Even though he is not yet an official candidate, Perry is already the second choice of leading Republican contenders, according to a Gallup poll released in late June. The poll shows Perry getting 15 percent of the vote, trailing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by 2 percentage points.

Since he announced that he would attend the rally earlier this year, Perry has downplayed the political implications.

Last month, he told reporters in Texas that he appreciated the endorsement of anyone, “whether it's on The Response, or whether it's on a potential run for the presidency.”

“Just because you endorse me doesn't mean I endorse everything that you say or do,” he said.

In a video released to the rally website, where the entire event is being streamed live, Perry said he was “all too aware of government’s limitations when it comes to fixing things that are spiritual in nature.”

“That’s when prayer comes in. And we need it more than ever. With the economy in trouble and the community in crisis and people adrift in a sea of moral relativism, we need God’s help,” he said.

Perry reportedly invited his 49 fellow governors as well as select members of Congress and the Obama administration. The single governor who said he would be in attendance is Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R), although his office has said he will be attending at a private citizen, not as governor.

The American Family Association of Tupelo, Miss., an organization that considers homosexuality a moral threat to the nation, is producing The Response.

This is not the first time Perry, a Methodist, has been so public with his religious convictions as governor. In addition to promoting legislation that espouses social-conservative values, Perry has endorsed religious prayer in public schools. In April, he declared a three-day “Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas,” an official proclamation in response to the wildfires that were ravaging his state. In 2005, he signed a piece of abortion legislation at a ceremony at a Fort Worth school operated by an evangelical Christian church.

Some Christian leaders are speaking out and saying they are unhappy with Perry’s overtures at the rally, and that his motivations are political, not spiritual.

Marvin Vann, a deacon at Fort Worth First Congregational Church, plans to protest the rally Saturday. Mr. Vann told the Houston Chronicle Friday he is taking a van of Christian leaders from his area to the Reliant Stadium “to counteract the dominant thinking of Christianity as merely social conservatives.”

Official Website: http://theresponseusa.com

There is a Shaking in the Making

Hebrews 12:25-27

²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶ At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”^{[a] 27} The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

In case you missed it, Perry Stone gave a terrific message on the shaking of the Church, through the illustration of the shaking of an Olive tree. You can catch his message here.

The olive tree is a tree that gets harvested in the fall, and is unique in the fact that it can only get harvested by shaking as opposed to wheat or barley which can be picked or harvested. You literally have to shake the tree, causing the olives to fall to the ground. Once you shake the tree free of olives, those olives hit the ground and then go an olive press where in Biblical times, a donkey would pull a stone round and round, grinding the olive until it became oil. The process grinds everything, the pits and the olive, until it produces both a 1st oil--extra virgin oil, and a 2nd oil--virgin oil.

The illustration could not be more clear. In order to produce the Holy Spirit, which is illustrated by oil or olive oil in this situation, the Christian must be shaken. God is looking to shake us off from our comfortable position and through the trials of life, squeeze us to produce the oil--an anointing of God in our lives.

That is what the trials of life are for, to refine us and make us more like Christ, the Christ who endured the Cross and bore our sins. Olive oil will never be made without a pressing and without a shaking. We also must go through the pressures and battles of life to become like Christ and receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Oil does not flow from the tree with you just sitting in a church pew and when we become too comfortable where we are, God shakes us to move us in the direction where he wants us to go!

All the more, after we've been through that trial then we are able to go help others in that same situation. You're depressed? I've been there, let me help you through. You're fearful and battling failure in your life? I know what it feels like. Not only do we experience the trial and thus understand what it is like and what it takes to get out of the trial, we can then go back and proclaim what God has done.

Don't just take trials in your life as something that is from the devil. God may be shaking you to get your attention. Be warned though as Jesus said in Matthew 15:13, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots." Seek out the Lord in your trial, and when you make it out on the other side, go and help others make it through theirs.

Taking the Path of Most Resistence

Where was the church during Hitler's rise to power? Was this not the country of Luther and the foundation of the protestant church?

The church has been instituted among men by God to serve a divine purpose of calling individuals together in community to worship, but also to unite as a bulwark of righteousness and truth in a world full of evil. The church in Hitler's day saw him rising to power, but didn't say a thing. They didn't speak out. Instead, they were more concerned about whether or not they should allow the Jews to belong in the church at all.

In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's biography, succinctly put: "The German church was in turmoil. Some church leaders felt the church should make peace with the Nazis, who were strongly opposed to communism and 'godlessness.' They believed the church should conform to the Nazi racial laws and the Fuhrer Principle."

The year is 1933. No one in the world saw Hitler leading to the slaughter of 6 million innocent Jews and an attempt to take over the world. Yet, there were warning signs for the attentive observer. The preaching of the 'Fuhrer' principle by Nazi leadership, boycotts all through 1933 by Nazi leadership of Jewish communities and businesses, the midnight 'clensing' via the burning of western books and literature, and the takeover of the press by the Nazi's were just a few examples. Signs were everywhere in 1933. The rise to power by the Nazi party may have been swift, but not swift enough for someone looking to miss the smoke before the fire began.

The rise of power in the state was happening, yet the church was nowhere to be found. Many didn't want to speak out for fear or reprisal. Some thought that the state could bring the church together, as after all, Hilter and co were using Christian overtones in many of their speeches.

Bonhoeffer wrote a call to action for the church and in it defined the major three roles of the church as follows in relation to the state:

1. The church must question the state
2. The church must help the state's victims
3. The church must work against the state if necessary to protect its existence

This call to action ultimately rang on deft ears and proved too much for anyone to swallow.

Should the state anywhere, anytime rise to a level of power that infringes upon the rights of the people, let us learn a lesson from history and take a stand. The church is the bulwark to defend the world from tyranny and proclaim the freedom that comes from knowing Christ.

This guy gets it. The church should take notice. Part of tonight's State of the Union rebuttal speech by Paul Ryan is below:

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT: “We believe government’s role is both vital and limited – to defend the nation from attack and provide for the common defense … to secure our borders… to protect innocent life… to uphold our laws and Constitutional rights … to ensure domestic tranquility and equal opportunity … and to help provide a safety net for those who cannot provide for themselves. We believe that the government has an important role to create the conditions that promote entrepreneurship, upward mobility, and individual responsibility. We believe, as our founders did, that ‘the pursuit of happiness’ depends upon individual liberty; and individual liberty requires limited government. Limited government also means effective government. When government takes on too many tasks, it usually doesn’t do any of them very well. It’s no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high.”

I don't want to be the EU!!!!!!

Speak out or a year from now you may not be able to.

Britain's Cultural Shift

Britain, once the imperial might of the world, has been one of the hardest hit countries during this current financial crisis. Stepping back from the current financial crisis, we are witnesses to the greatest cultural shift in the history of British society. The once bastion of Orthodox Christianity has slowly decayed. Once vibrant churches have been replaced with mosques, Sharia law has now been accepted alongside British common law has been , and the family unit and moral norms have been marginalized.

Johan Goldberg of the National Review said this about Britain:

Evidence of the reckless driving this yields can be found everywhere in Britain today. In fact, by American conservative standards, Britain is a horror show, or, put more constructively, a canary in the coal mine. “Reforms” that would result in bloody protest in America are newspaper filler here. Just in the last week, British papers have been full of stories about a policeman who used Britain’s omnipresent security cameras to monitor his cheating wife. They are supposed to be used as part of the criminalization of eating while you drive. The government is seeking the ability to disseminate health, tax, and other personal records to whatever agencies, public or private, it chooses. A new pilot program has officials knocking on doors to make sure citizens are managing their leftovers properly. Of course, Britain’s socialized medicine churns out a new cautionary tale every day. Meanwhile, a new study has found that in much of England, 60 percent to 70 percent of economic output comes directly from the government.

Lukewarm Decay

It looks like all it takes is a promise of bailout money to bring together the church. Detroit-area religious leaders -- including Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders convened by Cardinal Adam Maida -- have urged Congress to approve an auto aid package.



BUT: What they're praying about and how they're going about doing it brings to mind the lukewarm church of Revelation 3. The The Lukewarm church stands as the church of materialism, the church of great lack. Rolling SUV's to the pulpit illustrates more clearly how the church of spiritual lack abounds today.

This church assumed having wealth meant they had need of nothing else. They identified riches as being righteous, wealth as holiness, and having a great abundance of “material gain” as special favor from The Lord. While outwardly they were possessors of much, inwardly where true wealth really mattered, they were spiritually poor.