One of my favorite places in the world is Cape San Blas on the forgotten coast of Florida. This area of the Gulf is an uncrowded paradise of pristine beaches. A massive restoration project is underway, making the beaches that much better. The Cape is my destination for vacation, which starts tonight. Needless to say, I’ll be excited to head down to Florida tonight after our business meeting following the worship service. I’m sure the sermon will be shorter than usual…
Archive for June, 2008
New research from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life was released two days ago. They surveyed approximately 35,000 Americans for a comprehensive look at our country’s religious landscape. The report is a lot to digest, but you can access it here. Their findings are disappointing but not surprising:
Most Americans agree with the statement that many religions – not just their own – can lead to eternal life. Among those who are affiliated with a religious tradition, seven-in-ten say many religions can lead to eternal life. This view is shared by a majority of adherents in nearly all religious traditions, including more than half of members of evangelical Protestant churches (57%). Only among Mormons (57%) and Jehovah’s Witnesses (80%) do majorities say that their own religion is the one true faith leading to eternal life. [emphasis mine]
Oddly enough, it is the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses that are the fastest growing “church bodies” in America, according to this report published back in February. Furthermore, another Pew study revealed that Jehovah’s Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition – only 37% of all those who say they were raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses still identify themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Piecing it all together, it appears that an exclusive claim is attractive, but a false gospel doesn’t help assimilate people in the church.
So, the combination for success is an exclusive claim coupled with the true, timeless message of Jesus.
John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Time to get the Word out.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that charitable giving hit a record in 2007, breaking through $300 billion for the first time. The story pulled from an annual study by the Giving USA Foundation, which scours census data to derive their conclusions. Despite the record in giving on an absolute basis, however, the growth in giving has slowed recently. This excerpt from the report:
The relative slowdown in giving is attributable to increasing economic uncertainty that pervaded much of the back-end of 2007. Economic woes intensified last summer amid high gasoline prices, real-estate market turmoil and a burgeoning credit crunch.
Less-robust giving could continue throughout 2008 as the economy has worsened. “There’s a lot of economic and political uncertainty right now and people don’t like uncertainty,” said Patrick Rooney, director of research at Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, which researched and wrote the annual giving report. “Uncertainty is the enemy of investment. In some ways, uncertainty also hurts philanthropy.”
This uncertainty was reflected in another study by Dunham Company:
Spokesman Rick Dunham says his organization found that the surge in gas prices has influenced giving. About 48 percent of those surveyed said gas prices were affecting their giving, while 48 percent also indicated that the economy had influenced their giving.
One of the concerns I have as a pastor is how inflation in gasoline and food prices, combined with the real estate and credit downturns, will affect giving. It’s this uncertainty that makes me uncomfortable about making large budget additions.
But what surprises me at my church is the lack of a correlation between factors that one might typically think drive giving. For instance, the correlation between our giving and attendance week-to-week is negligible. And our per capita giving has gone up slightly despite volatility in the stock market.
These studies covered giving at all charitable organizations, so perhaps segmenting churches out of the mix would tell a different story. Unfortunately, this breakdown was not provided in the stories.
What about you guys? Has your church noticed any changes in overall giving? And how do these changes affect your plans for the future?
The Christian Post recently reported on a study from the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion that revealed the “mortality rate” of religious congregations in the U.S.
According to the study, religious congregations (various churches, synagogues, and mosques from a range denominations) have a mortality rate of 1 percent. This rate means that for every 1,000 congregations, about 10 die each year.
When compared to the 5 percent average mortality rate of other volunteer-based organizations, religious congregations had the lowest rate of dying each year.
This quote from the report further expounded upon the findings:
Despite the low rate of closures, Duke Univesity professor Mark Chaves cautioned that it could mean that “weak congregations limp along rather than die, whereas in other organizational populations weak units die rather than live on in a weakened state.”
“The main difference between congregations doomed to disband and congregations destined for revival is a willingness to adapt, to alter their congregational identity in response to change in the communities in which they are located. And whether a congregation is willing to adapt depends largely on the outcome of conflict between advocates of the status quo and advocates of change,” the researchers stated.
It’s an academic spin on what many of us know anecdotally. But what’s your take? A mortality rate of 1 percent seemed low to me, but perhaps it is due to the eclectic representation of congregations.
I returned yesterday from my denomination’s annual convention. More than anything, it was good to spend time with my father and to catch up with old friends.
After reflecting upon the 2008 Southern Baptist Convention, I am pleased with the overall tone of the meeting. Granted, we Southern Baptists still have much work to do – baptisms have flatlined since 1950, and year-over-year growth has slowed to the point of decline.
But my personal perspective of this year’s convention was one of unity. There seemed to be less heated banter and more encouragement, less of what we’re fighting against and more of what we all stand for.
Dr. Daniel Akin, Dr. Ed Stetzer, and Dr. Nathan Finn all offer informed analysis of the convention and the overall direction of the SBC. But I want to focus on one instance of the convention that grabbed my heart. This instance, I believe, represents a microcosm of the entire SBC and the shift towards a more unified stand for the sake of the gospel.
During one of the times for discussion from the floor, a pastor approached the mic and confessed before the entire assembly. His confession had nothing to do with the business at hand. He simply wanted the convention to know that he had not been pursuing God. He told us that he had previously confessed to his church but felt that God was leading him to confess his sin before the entire convention.
Dr. Frank Page, our president presiding over the meeting, graciously stated something like: “Brother, you may be out of order according to parliamentary procedure, but you are certainly in order spiritually.”
If we all could get a little “out of order” personally then we just might get “in order” as a convention. I pray that this one instance demonstrates a shift for the better for the SBC.
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