The Pew Forum recently released a follow-up survey to their 2008 US Religious Landscape study. Entitled “Faith in Flux,” this new survey reveals that 28% of American adults have switched from one major religion to another at some point in their lives. The number rises to a 44% switch rate if changes within religious traditions are included, such as from one Protestant denomination to another. They go further in their report: The results of the new survey offer a fuller picture of the churn Read more [...]

I had the privilege of going to Haiti last week to serve many of the missionaries there. I also had the incredible honor of preaching in Haitian churches. Our group partnered with Agape Flights, an organization that delivers mail and supplies to the missionaries. We stayed with the good folks at International Missions Outreach. I’ve listed some of my more memorable lessons from the trip. The Degaje attitude. The language barrier is huge – it doesn’t take long to figure that out. Haitians Read more [...]

The National Outreach Convention will be making a stop at this blog on Wednesday. They'll post a couple of questions in the comments, and I'll reply to get the conversation going. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts. I'll be leading a workshop at the convention in November, so I hope to see some of you there! Read more [...]

My father, Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote the following post after doing an unscientific Twitter survey. I was fascinated by the results from the Twittersphere concerning my denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. The results are posted below. Feel free to add your own comments. My son, Sam, introduced me to Twitter about eight months ago. Twitter is one of the hottest entries into the world of social media in the past couple of years. The simple concept Read more [...]

It is no accident that Newsweek will publish this cover story the day after Easter. It’s available here online. The article uses as support a recent survey from researchers at the Trinity College in Hartford, CT. These researchers surveyed more than 54,461 people between February and November 2008. They found that the percentage of Americans identifying themselves as Christians has dropped from 86 percent in 1990 to 76 percent today. Written by Newsweek’s editor, Jon Meacham, it’s a fair-minded Read more [...]