The Most Religious States in the U.S.

Gallup recently asked a straightforward question of 355,334 adults in the United States: "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" The top ten most religious states by percentage: The top ten least religious states by percentage: Generally, the United States is still a religious nation. About two-thirds (65%) of all Americans claim that religion is important to them. And, as seen above, all but four states have a majority that claim religion is important. Graphically, the Bible Belt Read more [...]

Building for Ministry

There’s a new resource available to help church leaders in creating space, engaging people, and transforming lives. The Cornerstone Knowledge Network and Christianity Today International have partnered to form BuildingforMinistry.com. This from their new website: BuildingForMinistry.com draws upon the ministry expertise and passion of both organizations to help churches utilize, design and build ministry space based on an understanding of cultural trends, church identity, and ministry vision. On Read more [...]

Worldwide Middle-Class Boom

People are buying refrigerators and television sets on credit in the slums of Sao Paulo. Three million Chinese now ski in a country that didn’t offer the sport fifteen years ago. Evidence is building for a rise in the middle-class. The Economist recently introduced a special report on the worldwide population of the middle-class. According to the report, more than half the world’s population is middle-class for the first time in history. It’s a bold claim. And the expectations of this emerging Read more [...]

Religiously Mixed Valentine’s Day

According to a recent US Religious Landscape Survey, a significant amount of people enter into religiously mixed relationships. You can read the entire findings from the Pew Research Center here. As an aside, Pew reports the findings with the following catchline: “Cupid's Arrow Often Hits People of Different Faiths.” Intentional or not, using a Roman mythological god to introduce the subject of mixed religious relationships in America is somewhat humorous, especially around Valentine’s Day, Read more [...]

Join me at NOC09!

Check out the quick video promo I did for the National Outreach Convention. It's in San Diego on November 4th-6th. You can register online here. I'll be there giving a workshop on why young adults leave the church and how to reclaim this generation for Christ. I hope you'll join me and many other church leaders at NOC09! Read more [...]

Reaching People Who Want to Make a Difference

A recent LifeWay Research newsletter published some encouraging excerpts from the new book, Lost and Found (by Ed Stetzer, Richie Stanley, and Jason Hayes). The research in this book reveals exciting news for the church. Your impact in the community not only reaches people, it has a quality that attracts other people who want to make a difference. This snippet from their research stood out: 66 percent of churched young adults rated the opportunity to meet the needs of others (locally and globally) Read more [...]

Living in Exponential Times

The above video should only heighten our sense of urgency in sharing the gospel message. We’ve got to stay up to speed in order to reach a rapidly changing world. “The way we’ve always done it” attitude now applies to last year, not just the last couple of decades.

HT: Swerve

The Emergence of a Third Culture World

Dave Gibbons at the Out of Ur blog raises the topic of “third culture” in a fascinating post. You can read the complete post here. Third culture is a sociological term used to describe a person who has spent significant time in another culture, thus incorporating their birth culture with a second culture and creating a third culture. The term is typically attached to children who spend large portions of their developmental years outside of their parents’ home culture. Historically, third culture Read more [...]

Protestants and Bathroom Tissue

According to a new Ellison Research study, Protestant churchgoers are no more loyal to their denomination than they are to bathroom tissue. Just for clarification, people are not that loyal to bathroom tissue. This statistical snippet comes from the study: Just 16% of Protestant churchgoers will only consider attending their current denomination. Fifty-one percent do express preference for one denomination, but would also consider others. Thirty-three percent do not have any preference for one Read more [...]

Ten Questions for Formulating a Discipleship Process

Helping people grow more spiritually mature is not a new concern for churches. It has been the goal all along. Developing a process of discipleship within your church structure, however, is a strategic issue that has been terribly neglected. Rather than developing a clear path of discipleship for all believers, church for many has become a series of disconnected and incongruent programs and activities. In order for churches to best communicate high expectations and biblical depth, a simple structure Read more [...]