How pastors are handling outreach
In partnership with Pepperdine University, Barna conducted research on pastors’ opinions of how their current outreach and discipleship efforts were faring. Outreach is important to churches because it is part of what is considered “cultural leadership.”
50% of pastors believe their church is “somewhat effective” at reaching out to unchurched people, while 32% say they are “not very effective” at reaching out, and 4% “not at all effective.” 13% consider their church to be “very effective” at reaching out to unchurched people. As far as discipleship, pastors are more confident. 14% say they are very effective in their efforts regarding discipleship and spiritual formation, with 73% saying they are somewhat effective.
21% of pastors in growing churches say their congregation is very effective in outreach, and 22% of pastors in growing churches say they are good at discipleship. Just 4% of pastors at church experiencing declines say they are effective in these areas.
Leaders of large churches are more confident in their ability to be successful with outreach of unchurched people, at 20%. 14% of small churches believe they are very effective at this, and 9% of midsize churches feel very effective. Non-mainline leaders say they are either very or somewhat effective at reaching unchurched people at a rate of 70%, while less than half of mainline leaders (9% said they were very effective, and 37% say they were somewhat effective) expressed less confidence in reaching out to unchurched people. Pastors overall say they are “excellent” at evangelizing and sharing the gospel at a rate of just 10%. 11% percent of pastors are frustrated by “how to do effective outreach.”
Service projects are used to connect the church to others outside of the church body and serve them. 5 is the average number of projects conducted in a year, while 3% of pastors say their church did more than 50 service projects in the past year, and 5% said that did not do any. Both budget and church size factored in to service projects being conducted. One in nine of churches that had less than 100 adult attendees, and 17% of churches whose annual budget was less than $100,000 did not have any service projects in the past year. Congregations who had a budget of more than $1 million averaged 8 to 10 service events, with no reports of no service projects at all.
Bible engagement
Barna’s annual State of the Bible survey, in partnership with American Bible Society, asked U.S. adults to about their beliefs and habits surrounding the Bible in 2017.
The survey had five categories to describe involvement with the Bible:
Bible Engaged: Those who read, use or listen to the Bible four times a week or more, view the Bible as the actual or the inspired word of God with no errors, or as the inspired word of God with some errors.
Bible Friendly: View the Bible as the actual or inspired word of God with no errors, read, use or listen to the Bible fewer than four times per week.
Bible Neutral: View the Bible as the inspired word of God, with some factual or historical errors, or believe that it is not inspired by God but tells how the writers understood the ways and principles of God; read, use or listen to the Bible once a month or less.
Bible Skeptic: View the Bible as “just another book of teachings written by men.”
Bible Hostile: View the Bible as a book of teachings written by men that’s intended to manipulate and control other people (subset of Bible Skeptics)
Bible Friendly adults has remained in the high thirties percentages since a dip in 2011 and 2012. In 2017, U.S. adults considered themselves to be Bible Friendly at 38%. 23% of U.S. adults consider themselves Bible Neutral, which has also been steady since 2011. At 24%, women are more likely to be engaged with the Bible than men, at 17%.
Age has a significant impact on interactions with the Bible; the average age raises per each category from Skeptic to Engaged. For example, Skeptics have an average age of 43, average age 45 for Neutral, Friendly at 47 and 53 for Engaged. 24% of Millennials are Skeptics; 14% are Engaged. 12% of Elders are Skeptics, or one in eight, and 27% are Engaged, for comparison.
91% of Bible readers still use a print version of the Bible, however, 92% of readers also used a different format than print in the past year. 55% of U.S. adults use the internet to search for Bible readings/content and 53% use their cell phone to do it. 43% use Bible apps. Each of these percentages are up since 2011.
87% of homes own at least one Bible, which includes those who considered themselves Skeptics or Hostile. 67% of Skeptics and 62% of Hostile homes have at least one Bible. Bible Friendly homes own a Bible at 93%, and, not surprisingly, all of Bible Engaged homes have one. 86% of Bible Neutrals have a Bible in the home. 93% of Elders are likely to live in a home with a Bible, and 90% of Boomers. Millennials (82%) and Gen X (86%) are least likely to live in a home with a Bible.
50% of Americans are “Bible users,” categorized as those who interact with the Bible on their own three to four times a year. 32% say they don’t interact with the Bible at all. This number is up from 27% in 2016.
58% of American adults have a desire to read the Bible more, and each segment agrees with this sentiment, even Skeptics, who, at 22% express a desire to read or listen to the Bible more. Non-Christians agree with for this as well, at 21%. Bible Friendly adults wish for this at the highest rate, at 78%. 67%, however, say things have remained the same in the past year when it comes to reading or listening to the Bible.
56% who said they increased their Bible use said that it was because they recognized it was an important part of their faith journey. This number is down from 67% in 2016, but on par with 53% in 2014, and 58% in 2015. 39% turned to the Bible after experiencing difficult life situations, up from 26% in 2016. 30% of adults who increased readership say they saw a positive shift in someone else who had used the Bible, and that was the reason they decided to read and listen to it more. 20% of adults who read the Bible more said they did so because someone asked them to.
How Christians deal with doubt
Research from Barna explored how Christians or past Christians deal with spiritual doubt. 66% said they have dealt with a season of spiritual doubt, and a quarter have said they are still dealing with feelings of doubt. 40% feel they have worked through a time of doubt or faith crisis. 35% say they have not felt doubt. Christians and past Christians had different ways of dealing with these feelings. A fairly common response was to quit attending church, at 46%. 30% chose to stop reading the Bible. 28% decided to stop praying. Almost a quarter (24%) stopped speaking about their faith, spirituality and religion with friends and family. However, when they needed to, those having feelings of doubt also sought out the help of family and friends to help them through it (40%). 29% looked to the Bible to discover answers to some of the questions they may have. 21% went to church or talked to a pastor or spiritual leader (18%). 19% went to a spouse. 16% looked to books on spirituality or religion, 12% looked for resources online, and 5% went to counseling. 3% decided to attend a conference or retreat. Overall, 52% say that their faith is stronger after dealing with these doubts, and 28% say that their feelings are unchanged. This points to the fact that many of the coping approaches do help. 8% say their faith is weaker, and 12% say they lost their faith.
