A recent survey conducted by the Barna Group demonstrated some important differences between "liberals" and "conservatives" concerning faith, religion and spirituality.

A couple of updates:

If you want to dialogue about the story on Anderson Cooper's CNN blog, click here.

LifeWay News has posted the story with downloadable graphs here.

In this morning's USAToday, you will find Cathy Lynn Grossman's article pointing out the growing numbers of people in need looking to the church for help as we continue through this economic crisis. She includes research that Lifeway Research recently completed. Cathy brings out a few important details and provides some helpful examples.

This week is a particularly good one because I am staying close to family and still able to encourage a few folks along the way.

Updated: You can find the PowerPoint with the questions and data at LifeWayResearch.Com.

Yesterday I talked with Cathy Lynn Grossman for USA Today about Americans' receptivity to evangelistic contacts and outreach from a church. I pointed to some recent research done by Lifeway Research and the North American Mission Board where we surveyed over 15,000 people (read more on this report via Lifeway Research). It turns out most people said they would be willing to receive information about church in a personal conversation with a family member, friend or neighbor.

Steve Ogne's and Tim Roehl's new book, TransforMissional Coaching: Empowering Leaders in a Changing Ministry is a valuable read for those of you leading others in the church. I was privileged to write the foreword, and have shared that on the blog here. I had the chance for some Q&A about the book that unpacks some of their ideas on coaching.

Tim will be interacting in the comment section so feel free to add your questions.

You've entitled your book "TransforMissional Coaching"...where did the word "transformissional" come from?

Continue reading Church Leadership Book Interview: TransforMissional Coaching.

As you know, I often try to highlight religious research data. There has been much data on mainline denominational leadership as of late. Last week, it was the Mainline Protestant Clergy Survey. Now, it is the Pew Forum.

The Pew Forum is sharing some research that shows most mainline Protestants say society should accept homosexuality. Perhaps this is not "new news," but the strength of opinion is surprising, at least to me.

Here is an email I sent out to denomination and network leaders in the United States and Canada. If you fit that description, you might be interested in reading the content below.

This week I'm at Biblical Seminary teaching a D. Min. course titled, Entering the Missional Conversation. I thought you might find the syllabus interesting.

Biblical Seminary exists to produce missional Christian leaders-
men and women who incarnate the story of Jesus with humility and authenticity and who communicate the story with fidelity to Scripture, appreciation of the Christian tradition, and sensitivity to the needs and aspirations of postmodern culture.

Guest Professor, "Entering the Missional Conversation," Biblical Seminary, Hatfield, PA (March 23-27)

Well, I only have one speaking engagement this week, but it's a long one-- teaching a D. Min. seminar all week long at a seminary - Biblical Seminary in PA. 

Biblical Seminary asked me to lead their faculty retreat last year.  I was glad to spend a day walking through the history of the missional idea (Newbigin, DuBose, Van Engen, Guder, GOCN, Keller, etc), my thoughts how evangelicals can embrace the missional turn without falling into the same errors as the conciliar missions movement did during the missio dei emphasis of the 50s and following, and the challenges of the missional turn today.  We had a robust and stimulating day-- and it led to my "Meanings of Missional" series here at the blog. 

I am thankful that they asked me to come and teach a course with them and I look forward to the week in Philadelphia.

Advance 09 Conference Registration Now Open

Here is some info about an upcoming conference that just went live this week.  Be sure to visit the web page at www.advance09.com.

Christ promises to build the Church, and that no force will prevail against it. Yet, the local church has been heavily battered in battle. Sadly, churches in America are in steady decline, with over 4000 closing their doors and 500,000 members leaving each year--never to return. This is not what the Lord desires. The Apostle Paul tells us that " . . . through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places". The local church is called to lift-up Jesus so that all the world might see Him. The local church is called to make known the Gospel and to be the vehicle of redemption for the world. Led by local churches, Advance09 is a conference committed to the resurgence of the local church for the glory of God. Our aim is to equip attendees with the Gospel so that the local church might become all that Jesus calls it to be. At this conference, we hope to ensure that on our watch and in our time we honor Jesus and see the resurgence of the local church. Advance09 is open to anyone: pastors and lay-leaders; church members and regular-attenders. We invite you to join us in this Great Cause.

In the final part of our interview with Andy Stanley he gives some advice to young pastors related to the responsibility of preaching.

In case you missed them, here are parts one, two, three, and four.

I am glad to hear so many of you mention that you ordered Andy's book, Communicating for a Change. If you have not done so, I recommend you do so.

Here is a bit more from our interview and a some additional information from Preaching Magazine.

Question: If you had to give one word to young pastors about communication, what would you tell them?

Andy: Show up every Sunday morning with a burden that is so heavy that you feel like you will die if you don't deliver it. And pray for that. Because if you don't have that, then you just have information. The people will put up with all kinds of a lack of excellence if there is an intensity and a burden that has to be delivered. And many times I have looked at my notes and thought, "Yeah, this might be helpful, but God, what's the thing I can't wait until Sunday morning to deliver? And I honestly can't wait for Sunday morning.

The other thing I always tell pastors, "If you preach from your weaknesses, you will never run out of sermon material."

In an interview with Preaching Magazine, Andy was asked a similar question: "Are there some things you've learned about preaching that you wished you'd known years ago?"1 Two parts of his reply really struck a chord. The first part had to do with how he structured his messages; the second dealt with how he planned his message series. As for how Andy structures his messages, this is what he said:

In terms of how I structure messages and memorize them, what I finally figured out is that there's basically three or four, maybe five parts to every message. What it took me years to learn is this: if I'll just get those in my mind and understand my transitions, I can forget the details. And I am far more free to communicate rather than try to remember something... And so in terms of memorizing sermons, I figured out there are only three or four big chunks and when I can mentally go through the big pieces, then I am ready. It took me awhile to figure that out. This helped my memorization and my communication style tremendously. I became far more conversational. I also discovered it's about a journey and it's about one thing, not four things.2

As for how he plans his messages, Andy described it this way:

All of our series planning begins with a team of people and me just throwing things up on the board and at every level of preparation bringing people into the process and saying, "What do you think about this? Does this make sense?" The average person gives me all the credit for that wonderfully delivered message, but it had a lot of hands in it...I think the whole team approach to series planning is helpful. My best visual aids weren't my ideas but when you get a group of people thinking, they all have a gift. So I wish I'd done that earlier. It takes the creative pressure off sometimes. I'll have other people out there thinking about it while I'm in here working on the details.3

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1 "Preaching Without Fear," Preaching 20 (July-August 2004): 32.
2 Ibid, 32-33.
3 Ibid, 33.

In part four of our interview with Andy Stanley he shares his thoughts on the "hard work" of preaching and improvement - including the painful process of personal review and evaluation. In case you missed them, here are parts one, two, and three. Be sure to get a copy of Andy's book, Communicating for a Change.

Question: Andy, you make preaching look so easy. How hard do you work at being an effective communicator?

Andy: I listen to my own CD's all the time. In fact, on some Sundays I listen to all three services. And I want to get better and better, and I work on getting better. I listen for dumb habits that I have. I sometimes watch my own videos, which is horrible. That will either make you better or want to get out of ministry completely. I think I make it look easy, but it's not. I work very, very hard.

And every sermon I think, "What if this is it? What if this is the last time I preach?" And I psych myself up with that thought every single week. I want it to be the best sermon that has ever been preached by anyone anywhere. That is an unattainable goal and nobody cares. No one is giving out awards for that. But I just feel that all these people that got up and fought traffic and they got their kids here and they found a seat...I need to give them something that makes it worth all that. Why anyone would want to come to our 10:30 a.m. service? You must be starving. People are going to go through all that, and they are going to bring unchurched friends. They need to go home with something, just one simple thing. And I don't think I am successful every single time, but it is the goal every single time.

I ask our communicators all the time, "What is the one thing they've got to know? They may have three pages of notes, but what is the one sentence, idea, or phrase they have got to know? That's the thing. That's the take-away." So preaching with that kind of burden, bringing that kind of burden to the communication process is huge.

What do you do to continue to refine and improve your preaching?

LifeWay Research just released some new research on parenting, particularly the role of faith in parenting. (If you did not see our recent release on parenting, it might be good to take a look at that data as well.)

There are some additional resources here but I have posted the full story below. Feel free to comment below.

LifeWay Research looks at role of faith in parenting

NASHVILLE, Tenn., 3/17/09 - The vast majority of parents hope their children grow up to live good lives, but for many, parental success does not include faith in God - even among parents who are evangelical Christians, according to a new study from LifeWay Research.

Continue reading New Research on Faith and Parenting.

Today I am switching places with Thom Rainer. He was supposed to be preaching in chapel at Southeastern Seminary today, but we switched about ten days ago due to some scheduling conflicts. So, if you were coming to chapel to hear Thom Rainer today you will be greatly disappointed.

In the spirit of switching places, check out the program from this year's Christian Book Association / International Christian Retail Show (CBA/ICRS) in Denver. As you can see (below), I am no longer President of LifeWay Research but am now, according to the ICRS program, president of LifeWay. I am very excited about the promotion.

Oh, there will be new policies, fellow LifeWay employees. Many new policies. And many others will be deleted. I'm currently considering 4 day weekends, and lunches catered by PF Chang's. Please stay tuned.

Last fall, Dan Cox, Roger Finke, and I spoke at the Religion Newswriters Association at the Washington Post in D.C. Our topic was "Surveying Surveys," focused on how to tell the good religious research from the bad. We each presented and then served on a panel. Dan shared about the relatively new research organization, Public Religion Research.

While there, Dan mentioned several research projects, including the one that came out last week on mainline denominational clergy. I thought I would share a bit with you.

The 2008 Mainline Protestant Clergy Voices Survey is the largest survey of its kind in seven years, and covers more ground than any that has ever come before it. Mainline Protestants have received little attention due to declining numbers and a waning cultural influence, but the survey is important because even now Mainline Protestants "make up 18 percent of all Americans and nearly a quarter of all voters." Here are just a few of the results from the survey (quoted from the study):

Mainline Clergy are much more likely to identify as liberal and Democratic than conservative or Republican. Almost half (48%) of all mainline clergy identify as liberal, compared to about one-third (34%) who say they are conservative. A majority (56%) of mainline clergy identify with or lean towards the Democratic Party, compared to roughly one-third (34%) who claim a Republican affiliation, a 22-point gap.

Mainline Protestant clergy are broadly supportive of government's role in addressing social problems such as unemployment, poverty and poor housing. More than three-quarters (78%) agree that the federal government should do more to solve social problems, and more than 4-in-10 strongly agree.

Mainline clergy are strongly supportive of government action in the areas of health care and the environment. More than two-thirds (67%) of clergy agree that government should guarantee health insurance for all citizens, even if it means raising taxes. And nearly 7-in-10 (69%) clergy say that more environmental protection is needed, even if it raises prices or costs jobs.

On a broad range of issues, mainline clergy affirm equality for gay and lesbian Americans. Roughly two-thirds of mainline clergy support some legal recognition for same-sex couples (65%), passing hate crime laws (67%) and employment nondiscrimination protections for gay and lesbian people (66%). A majority (55%) of mainline clergy support adoption rights for gay and lesbian people.

Mainline Protestant clergy are strong advocates of church-state separation. A majority (65%) of mainline clergy agree that the U.S. should "maintain a strict separation of church and state." Mainline clergy are more worried about public officials who are too close to religious leaders (59%) than about public officials who do not pay enough attention to religion (41%).

Mainline clergy are more likely to publicly address hunger and poverty and family issues than controversial social issues. More than 8-in-10 clergy say they publicly expressed their views about hunger and poverty often in the last year, and three-quarters say they addressed marriage and family issues often. Only about one-quarter (26%) say they often discussed the issues of abortion and capital punishment.

Audrey Barrick over at The Christian Post point out that,"according to survey results, two-thirds of mainline clergy disagree that 'the Bible is the inerrant word of God, both in matters of faith and in historic, geographical, and other secular matters.' Only 29 percent of mainline clergy agree with the statement."

The whole report is worth reading. The results are not particularly surprising, but it does quantify some things in a helpful way. Download the topline survey results here (PDF) and come back to discuss.

In yesterday's "Saturday is for Seminars," I neglected to include that I am speaking on Tuesday night in Durham, NC (after speaking in chapel that morning at Southeastern Seminary). It is Tuesday, March 17, 7-8:30p.m. at The Summit Church, Brier Creek Campus.

My topic is, "Pitfalls in Church Planting: What We and Others Do that Undermine the Work and How to Avoid Them." It will be at Summit Church where my friend J.D. Greear serves (and I had the privilege to preach there a few months ago). You can register here.

I have a lot to share with you about upcoming seminars and conferences. Dates, places topics - and even a way to save you some money!

March 15, 2009
After services tomorrow, I'm speaking to the Georgia Tech (Atlanta, GA) campus ministry students who are coming up to Nashville for church in the morning. Should be good.
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March 17, 2009
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Spring 2009 LifeWay Conference (Wake Forest, NC)

Thom Rainer and I have switched chapel days so you might be surprised to see me there on Tuesday and Thom will be there on Wednesday.
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March 19, 2009
Protestant Church Owned Publishing Association Spring Conference I will be speaking on "Protestant Pastor's Today" at the annual meeting in Nashville, TN.
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March 23-27, 2009
Starting next Monday I will be teaching for a D.Min. class on "Entering the Missional Conversation" at Biblical Seminary (Hatfield, PA)
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I have mentioned the Exponential Conference before. While I am there we are planning a special dinner on Monday night. Here are the details:

Dinner and Dialog with Hirsch and Stetzer (April 20)
Let me give you a "heads up" about a couple events in the Orlando area in April around the Exponential Conference.

What if Alan Hirsch and I were starting a church together?
What would it look like?
What strategic considerations would we talk about?

Here's the blurb:

On Monday, April 20, at 6:30 pm in Orlando The Upstream Collective along with Christian Associates International will host Alan and Ed, who are among today's leading missional thinkers and church planters. Join them in a conversation about what church planting could look like in North America, what values a church planting team might espouse, what attractional and/or missional elements it might employ and more.

We have a limited amount of seats available. Tickets are 10.00 at the door and that helps cover the cost of the dinner that will be hosted by Houseblend Café in Orlando.

If you want to reserve your spot go to www.theupstreamcollective.org to sign up.

Also on Wednesday, April 22, at 6:30 pm The Upstream Collective will hosting a dinner with Derek Webster, a church planting strategist for Scandinavia. He will talk about some unique opportunities for North American churches to get involved in what God is doing in Scandinavia. You might be surprised to hear about the ways your church could be a perfect fit for this region of the world!

You can sign up for either or both of these upcoming dinner events online at www.theupstreamcollective.org until April 12.

May 12-13, 2009
And, if you are pastoring in a small town, you might want to check out "The Sticks," a conference for pastors and leaders in small towns. Their early bird registration is about to end. I will be at the SE regional conference along with Perry Noble, Tony Morgan, Gary Lamb, etc.

Here is an article we recently ran in our subscription newsletter, LifeWay Research Insights (lifewayresearch.com/insights). Some good insights on ways to reach our neighbors and their children that any church can do no matter its size or location.

By David Roach

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Although parents may warn their children against going places with strangers, most don't mind letting their kids go with trusted neighbors-- especially when the destination is church.

A study by LifeWay Research found that 76 percent of American parents agree with the statement, "If a neighbor I trusted invited my children to go to church with them, I would let my child go with them." Only 24 percent disagree.

Thirty-four percent strongly agree that they would let their child attend church with a trusted neighbor and 41 percent somewhat agree.

LifeWay Research conducted the study among a representative national sample of 1,210 American parents, allowing several subgroups to be compared.

"Research we conducted for The Parent Adventure shows that 44 percent of American parents indicate they attend religious worship services once a month or more," observed Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research. "We were interested to see how many parents were open to their children attending if they didn't have to be the ones to take them to church. The jump is sizeable yet not unexpected. Similar to Romans 1:21 many American parents know God but do not glorify Him. As they express openness to their children knowing God, the opportunity for these children to attend a Bible believing church rests with every believer who does glorify God."

Mothers are more likely than fathers to let their children attend church with neighbors. Seventy-nine percent of females agree that they would send their children to church with a trusted neighbor, but only 72 percent of males agree. Of fathers, 32 percent agree strongly that they would let their child attend church with a neighbor. Thirty-six percent of mothers also agree strongly.

Race is among the factors that make the greatest difference in parents' willingness to send their children to church with neighbors. African Americans (79 percent) agree that they are willing to send their children to church with neighbors more often than, whites (76 percent) and Hispanics (63 percent).

Only 21 percent of Hispanic parents agree strongly more compared to 34 percent of whites and 41 percent of African American parents.

Parents in the Midwest are more open to their children attending church with neighbors than parents in any other region. Eighty-three percent of Midwesterners agree that they would send their children to church with neighbors. Seventy-seven percent of Southerners, 74 percent of Northeasterners and 66 percent of Westerners also agree.

Single parents are more willing to let their kids attend than married. Of married parents, 73 percent agree that they would let their child attend church with a neighbor. Seventy-nine percent of single parents agree.

Age and education seem to have little effect on parent's willingness to send children to church with a trusted neighbor. Parents whose household income is $100,000 and above are less likely to allow their children to go to church with a neighbor. Sixty-eight percent of parents in this highest income group agree they would let their children attend compared with 79 percent of those making less than $25,000, 77 percent of those making $25,000-$49,999, 76 percent of those making $50,000-$74,999 and 75 percent of those making $75,000-$99,999.

McConnell added, "In a culture that struggles to learn the names of their neighbors, the benefit of loving one's neighbor clearly applies to families. With intentional involvement in our neighborhood, we can glorify God in word and deed in regular interactions with our neighbors. As relationships develop, our neighborhood friends will be increasingly comfortable having their children attend church with us. With Spring around the corner, we all need to make plans to get out in our neighborhoods and meet some new friends...How many does your car seat?"

METHODOLOGY
LifeWay Research asked this question as a part of an online survey conducted between October 13-16, 2008 among a national sample of Americans representative of the U.S. population in terms of gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, education, income and region of the country. The sample size of 1,600 provides 95 percent confidence that the sample error does not exceed +2.5%.

Parent Sample
LifeWay Research conducted the study among a national sample of Americans representative of the U.S. population in terms of gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, education, income and region of the country. The sample size of 1210 provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed +2.8%.

I have really enjoyed thinking through Andy's answers to the questions posted so far, and today's post, part 3 of our interview, is no exception. Here Andy talks about part of his process for preparing messages to be sure that the congregation "gets" it. In other words, this helps explain how he brings the listener to the text to find the answers.

His "Me--We--God--You--Us" is more fully developed in his book (published after our interview), Communicating for a Change. Let me encourage you to get a copy.

Andy shares his approach to sermon structure, basic preparation and keeping the message focused. If you are a preacher, you have your process and it hopefully works for you in your context, but we all need to continue to refine different elements of our processes.

Andy and I talked by phone last night and I continue to be encouraged by his passion for communication and his humility. After I post the fifth of these blog posts, we will do a final wrap up together as well. I look forward to that.

Here is the interview:

Question: What is your process?

Andy: At a recent "Grow Up Conference," I diagrammed my communication process as: Me--We--God--You--Us. The communication starts with Me-- let me tell you something about me. Then We, this is something we all have in common. Then God, this is what God says about it. You, this is what you need to do about it. And We, wouldn't it be great if we all did it. So it is a relational outline. Start with you. Connect to them. What does God have to say about this issue? What should you do about it? And what should we do about it?

So I talked structurally about what you hang on each of those pieces. You outline your communication relationally, and not just in terms of information. And it is so much easier. When guys bring their sermon outlines to me I say, "Alright, now where do you talk about you? They need to know who you are. And if you jump to the Bible, they've got to go with you. To me, that is the journey. It is me taking you into a conversation. And we start together and then we end together. We have a common problem and we find a solution. And we are all still on the same page."

It is so simple. You can do announcements that way. You can structure an entire worship service that way.

Question: How far in advance do you prepare your sermons?

Andy: I prepare at least three weeks ahead so I don't really pick up the sermon until late Saturday afternoon. I haven't really looked at my sermons for three weeks. That is how I like to do it. I like to be way ahead. On Saturday night I pick it up, and I usually take out and take out. And simplify, simplify, simplify to where hopefully everything just says the one thing and then I am done. So I make it look easy but making it simple is hard work. I study all day on Wednesdays, and as much as I need to on Thursdays. I spend at least a day and a half on the message, plus Saturday night picking it up and changing it. Or sometimes I start over or cut it in half. Saturday nights are dreadful for me, but I have learned picking it up cold makes me look at it with fresh eyes and it is going to be better. I don't recommend that for the faint of heart because it ruins your Saturday nights. But being way ahead is wonderful. When I go home this week, the next three weeks will be in folders. So if I get sick or we have an emergency and I miss my study day, then I am only two weeks ahead.

As you dialogue around this post, let me encourage you to consider how you do what Andy describes. We believe that the scriptures are complete truth, provide the guidance that we need, and need to be applied. How do we help our people see the same thing? How do we bring them to the scriptures? Is it just "here it is-- ready or not-- come & get it" or do we need to help them to see how the scriptures apply to our life today.

I knew the interview we did with Andy Stanley was good, and that it would be helpful and provocative. That certainly makes it blog-worthy. As I posted Part 2 of the interview where Andy shares some thoughts on preaching "verse-by-verse" through books of the Bible I knew it would generate a lot of discussion. But I find myself disappointed at some of the responses.

Some agreed and thought the interview was great. Thanks for coming by and commenting. I think many disagreed in a gracious and thoughtful way. That's good as well. But, many just make their typical drive-by comments and never took the time to learn from Andy. And, having listened to much of what is called "expository preaching" today but is really running commentary, some need to listen to Andy's ideas on communication.

I am disappointed that some people cannot dialogue about issues. I am not saying that about everyone's comments, but I will tell you it is amazing how quickly some decide they cannot learn from another because they disagree. I've already blogged on this, so let me just say I believe that we have a lot to learn from each other in the church.

You may not agree with how Andy Stanly preaches. That is fine. He can handle it. He is doing just fine.

But, it appears that many in the church believe that if you're not preaching verse-by-verse it isn't biblical preaching at all. That is an unfortunate conclusion that rules out so many great preachers in throughout church history; just about everyone before John Chrysostom, and for that matter, every recorded sermon in the Bible.

Now, I have written extensively on my view of preaching, in at least three books, several magazine, etc. So, I won't rehash that here. But, a few comments may be helpful.

Yes, Andy is right, there are no verse-by-verse sermons in the Bible. Not a one. You cannot make the case that there is verse-by-verse exposition in the scripture. The Nehemiah reference and the Lukan account of Jesus "explaining the scriptures" are grasping at straws to prove a preconceived notion. It is a serious case of eisegesis and I find it incredibly ironic that those who are most passionate about Biblical exegesis are so ready to read into their Bibles something that is not there.

Look, the reason I believe in verse-by-verse, expository preaching is not because it is "in" the text, but because of what the text "is." Though I do not only preach verse-by-verse, I preach exegetical, expository, text-driven messages because the text (Scripture) is inerrant, inspired, profitable, etc. and I need to teach the Bible, not my views with the Bible as scriptural footnotes proving common sense thoughts.

I was working late last night on my next message in my Ephesians series. Why? Because I want to teach faithfully the truths of Scripture to my congregation. But, I am also working on ways to be sure they know it is important-- and Andy Stanley helps me know how to do help them see it is as important as I believe it is.

The Bible is relevant in this and every culture. We do not need to make it relevant. However, I do believe we need to help people understand that it is relevant and how to apply it to their lives. And, Andy provides great insight of that process.

But those of you who believe that verse-by-verse preaching is the only valid form of preaching need to decide if those who do not are "allowed." Will those who hold such view be attacked for holding them rather than engaged with a disagreement?

For many in the comments and at other places on the web, it seems that preaching like the early Church Fathers or Spurgeon (to cite just two examples), makes you not a "real" preacher. That is a shame.

If there is no room for the topical preacher, particularly one who seeks to bring people to the Word of God faithfully apply the word to an important issue, allowing the word of God to provide God's direction on that topic, then you have just eliminated doctrinal preaching and dismissed the historic examples of doctrinal preaching throughout the history of the church. And, you will have an incredibly difficult time partnering with people inside existing denominations and in broader evangelicalism.

And I fear that some of you will continue to isolate yourselves in a ghetto of people who say they love the word, but in many cases are not communicating it well to anyone except other believers already passionate about the doctrine you preach.

I get that Andy's comment about "cheating" is provocative (and he intended it as such), but it was not demeaning. I wish I could say the same about all of the comments about his comment. Many of you have shown scorn, rather than disagreement, and I believe you need to change the way you speak of those with whom you disagree.

Andy has written more about his view of preaching in his book, Communicating for Change, and you should read it-- a blog interview does not say everything a person believes on an certain issue. Having been reared under Charles Stanley and trained at Dallas Seminary, I think he has some awareness of how verse-by-verse teaching works.

And, I do think that Andy is on to something-- verse-by-verse preachers are sometimes cheating and can be lazy. Hear me on this. I'm not saying they aren't working hard to study and put together a sermon, but many stop there and do not push on into the even harder work of making the truth comprehensible. It's cheating to develop a sermon only well enough to be understood by the people who agree with you. It's lazy to not put the time into making the truths we believe comprehensible. We all need to hear Andy, even if you disagree with him.

Of course, I also think there are lot of topical preachers who are cheating too, but that is another story for another day.

Anyway, I have an open blog and allow open comments (none of which have been edited or deleted so far), but I think we can do better.

Thanks to many of you who are Reformed (or not Reformed but feel strongly about verse-by-verse preaching) who took the time to read Andy's thoughts an interact with them, rather than posting (at times) bizarre comments about how everyone who preaches differently has practically abandoned the faith. I appreciate the thoughtful comments and I appreciate you.

My hope still remains that there are enough mature people out there who can learn from others and that will become more evident as we work through the rest of the series in the coming days.

Again, my thanks to Andy for being so gracious and letting John and I do the interview in the first place.

My next post will continue the series "Andy Stanley on communication."

I am teaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School all day and won't be able to interact in the comments, but don't let that stop you for doing so. ;-)

Discussion continues on the American Religious Identification Study (ARIS) study I mentioned yesterday. One important distinction might be helpful in that conversation.

The Out of Ur Blog has posted data from both that study and iMonk's article in the Christian Science Monitor in a a new post, "Goodbye, Evangelicalism."

They shared some of the ARIS data:

That means that religious people are not simply being redistributed from one religion or denomination to another, but that more and more people are abandoning all faith altogether.

And some of the comments from iMonk (aka Michael Spencer) and his article in the Christian Science Monitor (which you should read in its entirety):

Bleak news, perhaps. But not as bleak, or specific, as Michael Spencer's observations at The Christian Science Monitor. Spencer argues, "We are on the verge--within 10 years--of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West."

I posted this comment at the Out of Ur blog and thought it might be helpful to include that here:

Brandon,

I would add that this study is a well done project that should be disturbing to the church. Thanks for highlighting both the ARIS and the CSM article.

But, it is important to note that although iMonk provided an articulate and provocative case in his CSM essay, the ARIS study actually showed an INCREASE in the number of self-identified evangelicals, with a simultaneous decline in self-identified Christians.

So, the study shows the percentage of self-identified Christians is in decline but that is not the same thing as a great crackup of evangelicals. That may indeed be coming (and I have written on that myself), but the ARIS did not show such a trend.

Thanks for the good writing.

Ed Stetzer
www.edstetzer.com

Be sure to go by the Out of Ur blog, read the whole post, and join in the dialogue there.

Of course, feel free to comment here as well.

I forgot to post some promised notes from a recent conference!

Here is the explanation of the Lost and Found presentation and the actual presentation.

For the dropout research, click the the LifeWay Research archive page and scroll down to the dropout study.

Here is the trends PowerPoint.. It was based on my Innovation3 Presentation. (BTW, Leadership Network published the Innovation3 materials this morning.)

Thanks for having me!

I hate to post over this morning's post about Barna's new research, but the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) has caught everyone's attention today as it points out the decline of religion and the rise in secularism in America. Bloggers, news outlets and newspapers are buzzing. The Washington Post's Michele Boorstein explains, "The percentage of Americans who call themselves Christians has dropped dramatically over the past two decades, and those who do are increasingly identifying themselves without traditional denomination labels."

Cathy Grossman and the USA Today have done their usual fine job of analysis. They summarize,

The percentage. of people who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation. The faithful have scattered out of their traditional bases: The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers -- or falling off the faith map completely.

Denominations and denominationalism are in decline, the cultural influence of Christianity continues to slip, more people are describing themselves as non-religious (now at 15%) and minority religions are increasing in popularity (like Islam and Wicca). Baptists are shown to be an aging group that continues to lose the younger generations and leaders. And, be sure to check out this very helpful interactive chart at USA Today.

The folks at ARIS have been gracious to let many of us see the research beforehand (embargoed until today), and it is a well done project with a solid methodology and an excellent sample.

What are your thoughts? What do you think this means for the church?

Barna Research has published the results of a survey that "explored how many [adults] have what might be considered a 'biblical worldview.'" This is a helpful study that will confirm the conclusions many have already drawn - and may surprise some of us as well. What does Barna mean by a "biblical worldview?"

For the purposes of the survey, a "biblical worldview" was defined as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview.

The research indicated that only 9% of all American adults have a biblical worldview as defined above. The Barna study also indicated that a minority of people who describe themselves as "born again" actually share this worldview. So while "they were twice as likely as the average adult to possess a biblical worldview... even among born again Christians, less than one out of every five (19%) had such an outlook on life."

This is a survey Barna has conducted before in 1995, 2000 and 2005. Has the percentage dropped? Are their less or more people who hold to this "biblical worldview" today than a decade ago? Barna says the number have remained the same.

Take note that "less than one-half of one percent of adults in the Mosaic generation - i.e., those aged 18 to 23 - have a biblical worldview, compared to about one out of every nine older adults." Those who are working to share the gospel with the young are finding this out, and it has some serious implications for how we practice evangelism and ministry targeting younger generations.

Breaking it down:

One-third of all adults (34%) believe that moral truth is absolute and unaffected by the circumstances. Slightly less than half of the born again adults (46%) believe in absolute moral truth.

Half of all adults firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches. That proportion includes the four-fifths of born again adults (79%) who concur.

Just one-quarter of adults (27%) are convinced that Satan is a real force. Even a minority of born again adults (40%) adopt that perspective.

Similarly, only one-quarter of adults (28%) believe that it is impossible for someone to earn their way into Heaven through good behavior. Not quite half of all born again Christians (47%) strongly reject the notion of earning salvation through their deeds.

A minority of American adults (40%) are persuaded that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life while He was on earth. Slightly less than two-thirds of the born again segment (62%) strongly believes that He was sinless.

Seven out of ten adults (70%) say that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe who still rules it today. That includes the 93% of born again adults who hold that conviction.

George Barna points out several implications, but I wanted to share just one set. He said,

There are a several troubling patterns to take notice. First, although most Americans consider themselves to be Christian and say they know the content of the Bible, less than one out of ten Americans demonstrate such knowledge through their actions. Second, the generational pattern suggests that parents are not focused on guiding their children to have a biblical worldview. One of the challenges for parents, though, is that you cannot give what you do not have, and most parents do not possess such a perspective on life. That raises a third challenge, which relates to the job that Christian churches, schools and parachurch ministries are doing in Christian education. Finally, even though a central element of being a Christian is to embrace basic biblical principles and incorporate them into one's worldview, there has been no change in the percentage of adults or even born again adults in the past 13 years regarding the possession of a biblical worldview.

Go and check out the article an come back to discuss. What does all of this, or some of this mean for us as the church? In one sense, it changes nothing - we are called to preach Christ and him crucified and make disciples. Yet our context and culture does impact how we go about this. What are your thoughts?

Statement from Thom S. Rainer, President and CEO, LifeWay Christian Resources

A few moments ago I received the tragic news that Fred Winters, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Maryville, Illinois, was shot and killed while preaching in the church's 8:15 service. Fred was my former student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was also a friend and co-laborer in ministry. I am grateful that I got to spend time with Fred on February 24, where I was speaking at a meeting in Naples, Florida for large church pastors. We spoke one-on-one for several minutes, and I could tell that he was rejoicing in his ministry and life. My heart breaks for Fred's family, and I am already praying for them in this time of shock and grief. We also pray for First Baptist Church of Maryville. They have lost a great pastor and a dear friend.

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, D. Min Teaching Chicago, IL (March 9-12)

I'm back in "Chicagoland" teaching a D. Min seminar on church planting at Trinity. It's a great school with sharp students, and I always enjoy my time teaching there.

I will being two events this week as well.

First, on Tuesday night I will be meeting with a group of regional Evangelical Free Church pastors about church planting.

Second, as part of my class, we are incorporating a seminar for local pastors and church leaders. It is called the "Subtext Forum."

Subtext Forum at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (March 12)
The Subtext Forum is a one day conference organized by Steve McCoy and Joe Thorn and focuses on the preaching and practice of the gospel in the suburban context. The conference runs from 10am - 3pm, includes lunch, and only costs $25. I'm speaking in three sessions on:

The Missional Church in Principle and Practice
Breaking the Missional Code in Suburbia
Challenges to Missional Thinking and How to Overcome Them

And at the end we're making time for Q&A. There's still time to register - get all the details at Subtext.

I have been "tagged" by about 20 people (mostly on Facebook) and asked to share "25 Random Things" about me. If you're on Facebook you already know what this is. Even if you're not you probably do. Time Magazine covered it, as did most major newspapers. (Yep, they still print those things.) And yes, I usually ignore these things (see my earlier post on social networking) but the opportunity to talk about myself and blame others for it just took over. ;-)

So, here goes:

25 Random Things About Me

1. I signed papers to join the Army once but they rejected me (after accepting me) and I never served. I was rejected due to a unique eye deformity discovered in MEPS (Military Entry Processing Station), but the paper work was slow.

2. My grandfather was a fire battalion chief in Manhattan and my dad was a union iron lather and helped build the World Trade Center (among other things).

3. I participated in "Jeopardy" tryouts in Buffalo, NY. If I knew that the Volga was the largest North flowing river in the Soviet Union, I would have made it to the television.

4. I married my high school sweetheart. We even went to prom together.

5. In the seventh grade I was given the "most loquacious" award. I was very excited until I went home and found out what it was.

6. I own the web page, postmodernism.net. I never have used it. I also own about 40 others.

7. My wife and I started dating when we were 16 years of age and we had no other serious relationships.

8. My dream job was to be a professor until I became one and decided that was not for me (full time, at least).

9. Rick Warren recruited me to be the first Nehemiah Project church planting professor in a partnership with North American Mission Board and Southern Seminary-- that's right, Warren recruited me to consider a job at Southern. Al Mohler interviewed, approved, and hired me for the job that Rick Warren encouraged me to do.

10. My sister died in 1987 of a rare form of skin cancer. She wanted to sing at our wedding (August 13th) but instead saw if from heaven.

11. You can see the building of the very first church I planted (when I was 21) right
here. It was (and is) in a very rough neighborhood in Buffalo. It is now pastored by one of the layman we started with 20 years ago.

12. I have 4 graduate degrees and have never been a full time student. My wife told me I was not allowed to do any more education. Ever. ;-)

13. I have slept on the floor of an African hospital paying "extra" money to nurses to use new needles on a student I brought from America.

14. As best I can tell, I spoke to over 70,000 pastors and church leaders last year.

15. I graduated High School with a "D" average. I struggled in school from the second grade froward-- taking summer school classes for two years in high school.

16. I studied Spanish in Puerto Rico in a three week immersion school--it did not work. (Well, it got me through my PhD language test, but that is all.)

17. The first Christian book I read (other than the Bible) was The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

18. I've had my license suspended for speeding while driving home from speaking at Liberty University.

19. I have rolled my car and climbed out of the sunroof.

20. I was once on the Rush Limbaugh show and on CNN Headline news. But one does not know about the other.

21. I grew up on public assistance for much of my childhood.

22. I studied Reformation History at a Roman Catholic seminary... turns out, they have a different view of what it was all about. ;-)

23. I have lost 90 lbs without going on a diet (just exercise and changed some eating habits).

24. I have never been to Australia and have always wanted to go so that I can say I have "trained pastors on 6 continents" instead of five. ;-)

25. I think these lists are a pain and won't be tagging anyone else to do one. ;-)

And, #26, I am on vacation today with my daughter in Chicago. I hope your day is as good as mine!

If you missed the first post in this series, be sure to go back and read the introduction and Andy's philosophy of preaching. We had some good discussion on that post, and I am guessing we'll have even more on this one.

This five part interview reflects some of what you'll find in Andy's book, Communicating for a Change. It's a good book that should be read by anyone who speaks, teaches or preaches.

The book is actually number one in three different categories on Amazon.com right now. From Amazon:
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,967 in Books
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#1 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Evangelism > Preaching
#1 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Christian Living > Leadership
#1 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Evangelism > Sermons