Something for Nothing: Essential Church Freebie

For a limited time, you can download my book, Essential Church?, for free. Click here for more information. Since you can read it for free, let me know your thoughts about the dropout issue.

Men Less Attached to Religious Affiliation

The latest statistical blurb from Pew Research is not surprising: men are less likely to have a religious affiliation than women. Much has been written on the lack of male representation in the congregation, but Pew gives us the exact percentage. Approximately one in five men (19.6%) is totally unaffiliated with a religion.

What seems to be an anomaly, however, is that men are more likely than women to be attached to a religion other than Christianity. You can read the full article here; below is an excerpt:

Men are significantly more likely to claim no religious affiliation than are women; nearly one-in-five men have no formal religious affiliation, almost seven percentage points more than women. Men are also twice as likely to say they are atheist or agnostic as compared with women (5.5% vs. 2.6%). Women are more likely to be affiliated with nearly every major Christian group; nearly 54% of women are Protestant, for instance, compared with 49% of men. But men are slightly more likely than women to associate with other religious traditions, including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

What say you guys? Is this trend getting worse or better? Is the church beginning to reach out to men more? There certainly is more talk about this subject, which is good. But do any of you have success stories about reaching this half of the population?

Hot Topics in the Southern Baptist Convention

LifeWay Research recently unveiled statistics on hot topics in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and where SBC pastors stand on these issues. Since I pastor an SBC church, the results interested me. One piece of the study I found fascinating involved a name change:

Among Southern Baptist pastors, 7 percent strongly agreed – and another 20 percent somewhat agreed – with the statement, “Having the name ‘Southern’ in the ‘Southern Baptist Convention’ is a hindrance to the work of SBC churches.” Forty-one percent strongly disagreed with the statement while 27 percent somewhat disagreed and 5 percent “don’t know.”

To further clarify opinions on the denomination’s name, Southern Baptist pastors were also asked their level of agreement with the statement, “Having the name ‘Southern’ in the ‘Southern Baptist Convention’ is a hindrance to the work of SBC churches outside of the South.” As the focus shifted to Southern Baptist congregations outside the convention’s historic strongholds, 16 percent of Southern Baptist pastors strongly agreed and 26 percent somewhat agreed, while 29 percent strongly disagreed and 21 percent somewhat disagreed. The remaining 9 percent “don’t know.”

You can read an article containing all of the hot topics here.

What do you think about a name change? Does it make a statement about a greater area of focus? Or does it represent a compromise of identity?

Preaching to the Younger Generation

Dan Garland over at LifeWay recently compiled some material in an article on the importance of preaching. You can read the full article here. He included an excerpt from my book, Essential Church, which I’ve posted below.

Is preaching still important? Yes! Even in today’s hyper-techno-driven conversational-wiki-culture, preaching is of the utmost importance. Of the several church-related or pastor-related issues noted by dropouts, preaching came up several times as a critical issue in retaining college students and young adults.

While most think that students are turning off the sermon, tuning into something different, and dropping out of the church, nothing is further from the truth. Students in the church, both high school and college, view the pastor’s sermon with a level of importance. They have their eyes on him and what he is saying to them (or not saying to them, for that matter).

It shouldn’t surprise you that biblical truth must be conveyed to all age groups, especially through to sermon. But shockingly, students desire for the pastor to preach to them! The problem is not a willingness on their part to listen. Rather, the problem is the fact that the pastor is not engaging them where they are. The charts below reveal how two separate age groups view the importance of their pastor’s sermons.

Not only are the pastor’s sermons critical to the assimilation of those under 18 (above), they gain a level of importance with those between the ages of 18 and 22 (below). In other words, the older teens become, the more important it is for the pastor to relate to them through the weekly sermons.

As seen in these two charts, the spread between dropouts and those who stay increases with the age of the student. This spread is driven by how well the pastor’s sermons relate and engage each of these specific age groups.

Particularly with those over 18, how well a pastor engages and relates to this age group correlates directly with how long they will stay in the church. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these teens will “grow into” the message you preach. Our research proves the opposite – the older the teen, the more critical it is to reach them at their stage in life. Rather than creating sermons for the 45 and above crowd, gear sermons or segments of sermons specifically for the teens in your church. The pastor’s sermon still remains one of the lynchpins in keeping students in the church. As a result, the buck still stops in the pulpit with this generation.

Stalled Megachurches

An article in USA Today suggests that megachurches may be taking micro dips in attendance. While the number of megachurches has grown (from 600 in 2000 to more than 1,250 in 2005), recent data indicate attendance growth rates are slowing or have stalled. You can read the full article here.

Ed Stetzer, head of LifeWay Research, points to the lack of transformation as one of the possible catalysts for the decline:

You can create a church that’s big, but is still not transforming people. Without transformation, the Christian message is not advanced.

I don’t think megachurches will vanish any time soon. Nor do I believe they should. But one of the weaknesses of these larger churches is the tendency to drift towards a transactional environment – a feel good show and message in exchange for bodies in the seats

I agree with Dr. Stetzer – all churches (large and small) should be places of transformation, not transaction. The body of believers should exemplify how God can transform people. When churches simply transact for attendees, growth will ultimately stall.

What do you think? Is the megachurch trend slowing? Will they take on different forms, such as multi-sites? What will the future hold for these larger congregations?