Remember that Bon Jovi song from the late 80s, "Living in Sin?"

Well, I'm guessing half of you do.

It's about "love" justifying living together as a married couple, without a marriage covenant.

The song shouts, "I call it love, they call it living in sin!"

Remember? Rock ballad, black and white video?

Anyway, people are still talking about it and more people are living together today than they were back in the 1980s. At LifeWay Research, we wanted to know more.

In June of 2008 (and September 2007), we conducted related surveys (thankfully, not about Bon Jovi) for a recent book on parenting, The Parent Adventure: Preparing Your Children For a Lifetime With God, by Selma & Rodney Wilson and Scott McConnell.

In our study, we found that 6% of all parents with children under 18 years of age in their home are living with a partner to whom they are not married.

To give this some context, we first determined that 69% of all parents are married and 31% are single. We asked these single parents the following questions:

I have never been that guy who geeks out over Bible study software. I've always been old school. You know, I'd go with the hardcopy, printed editions of study helps and commentaries. These large, multi-volume works have taken up shelf space in my study/office for at least 20 years. And come on, who doesn't like shelves lined with books? It's a great aesthetic for a study.

Needless to say, heading out to study for my sermon at a coffee shop or a park was next to impossible. Well, unless I stuffed my bag so full of books that the zipper began to pray.

The Logos Scholar's Library: Gold has changed the way I study, where I study and the results of my studying. I am consistently impressed with it and thought I would share my review here at the blog.

The Pew Forum provides a helpful service and aggregates religion news stories. They recently pointed to story by the Religion News Service covering research done by a team from Trinity College. It is part of the American Religion Identification Survey, mentioned earlier here at the blog, that provided a "Profile of the No Religion Population." The study essentially showed that people who profess no religion ("Nones") are similar to the general public in marital status, education, racial and ethnic makeup and income, and are increasing in number. According to the study, because this "silent minority" is so similar to the general public it's growth in the 90's went largely unnoticed.

"The number of American adults who do not identify with a particular religion is growing and may comprise more than 20 percent of the population in two decades.... According to the study, it is possible that one in five Americans will put themselves in the 'None' category by 2030." Now, keep in mind that "it is possible" does not mean"it will be," but the trend is still important to consider.

Don't misunderstand the label. "Nones" are not necessarily atheists, rather they simply do not affirm a particular religious category. In fact, "most Nones would not consider themselves atheists. More than 50 percent believe in either a higher being or a personal God, while only 7 percent are self-proclaimed atheists. One in three say they 'definitely' believe that humans developed from earlier species of animals."

Politically, many Nones will not identify with a particular party. Over 40 percent are independents; 34 percent are Democrats; and 13 percent Republican.

The most notable difference between Nones and the religious population is the gender gap. Only 12 percent of American women are Nones while 19 percent of American men claim no religion. According to the study, women who grew up in non-religious homes are less likely to stay non-religious. Women are also less likely to switch out of religion. (source)

You can download the the actual report by Trinity College here. Check it out and then come back to the blog to to discuss. What does a growing percentage of "Nones" mean for the church? Will people not identifying with a particular religion make connecting between individuals and the gospel more difficult, or easier?

I have tended to think that the fact the large majority consider themselves Christians actually is unhelpful in some ways-- it confuses what a Christian really is.

What do you think?

This fall, I will be again presenting research at the Catalyst Conference main stage. The theme of Catalyst this year is built around the idea of "making a mark" and is tied in to the 10-year anniversary of Catalyst.

I would like to get your feedback about the questions we should ask in a survey of 1000 Protestant pastors. Here are some ideas we have-- help us to think of more or to make these questions better. If you could ask 5-10 questions of 1000 pastors that would help understand their views of leadership, the future, and making their mark, what would they be?

Here are some of our thoughts. As you can tell from the numbering they are part of a larger survey.

According to a variety of sources, "house churches" appear to be increasing in number as some people move away from traditional forms of church. However, how many "house churches" are out there and how many people are involved? A new study by the Barna Group says it really depends on how you define "house church" and ask the questions in the survey. And, they are right.

From Barna:

When a question asks whether the survey respondent has "attended a worship service in someone's home, known as a house church," the results generally find about 10% of the adult population claims to have done so in the past month...

A different approach is to ask people how often, if ever, they attend a religious service - not a "worship service" - in someone's home or even in some other place that is independent of a congregational-form church. This more inclusive question typically finds that 22% to 24% of all adults claim to have had such an experience during a given month.

Continue reading Counting People Who Attend House Churches.

Tomorrow, I will be in an all-day conversation about what we need to know about church planting and evangelism (details here). Although this meeting is related to the North American Mission Board, I'd like to open up the conversation to all my blog readers and ask you:

• What do we need to know about church planting and evangelism?
• What research is already out there that needs to be considered on the subject?

I need your help in finding anyone and everyone you know who is actively working to reach first generation immigrants in the U.S. and Canada. Please email them a link to this online survey, www.LifeWay.com/immigrantsurvey and ask them to tell us about the work they are doing. I'm looking for EVERYBODY working with immigrants: it can be someone working at the national level with a denomination, missionaries, church planters, or it can be a lay believer in a church who coordinates a small local ministry.

We have been working on this for several months and have connected with quite a few leaders, but we are discovering new groups everyday-- but, I would like to ask for some help to make sure we get the word out to as many churches, networks, and leaders among immigrants as possible.

The survey is at www.LifeWay.com/immigrantsurvey and is in English and 19 other languages. Individual surveys are confidential, so you can feel comfortable sharing this information with groups concerned about security issues. The North American Mission Board is sponsoring this project and they have offered to share the results and insights from this study with partnering leaders and organizations across the U.S. and Canada. Our hope is that the results will assist everyone in more effectively sharing the gospel and planting churches among the immigrant groups in our communities.

Please forward this link and blog post to as many people as you know who are connected to this type of work! And, feel free to post this on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

I am always encouraged when I see research into non-Anglos. Now, don't misunderstand, I am not anti-Anglo. I married one (and she was Canadian, which sounds more Anglo to me) and my three children are Anglo. Oh, I am too.

However, there is a lack of good religious research on non-Anglos and I want to point it out and affirm it when it does come out.

The Barna Group recently released a study that profiles the religious/spiritual thought and practices of gay and lesbian individuals. Head on over to The Barna Group and read the entire article. Here are a few things I wanted to point to from the research.

My friends at Leadership Network surveyed 232 pastors of churches with an average weekend worship attendance of at least 2,000. Here are 10 things you might not know about megachurch pastors. Read the whole thing here, with some explanation, and then come back to discuss.

1. They think of themselves more as teachers and directional leaders than as pastors.
2. Preaching tops the list of things they do best.
3. They haven't always worked in churches.
4. Being an extrovert isn't mandatory.
5. Family stays at the top of mind when it comes to prayers.
6. They usually like the people they work with.
7. They believe their top gift is leadership.
8. They are actively involved in sports.
9. They find worship at their church helpful for personal spiritual growth.
10. They're not thinking about quitting.

Surprised? Concerned? Pleased?

Barna found many similarities with the general American public, but also points out the differences in the faith of American Hispanics. From the Barna report:

How did the two populations differ spiritually? Based on the questions asked, gaps were discovered in just a handful of areas, including:

• Hispanics remained somewhat more likely to believe that a good person can earn his or her way into Heaven
• Americans, overall, were significantly more likely to claim that they are "absolutely committed" to Christianity (58% vs. 46%, respectively)
• Hispanics are twice as likely as the aggregate adult base to be aligned with the Catholic church (44% vs. 22%, respectively)
• Americans at-large were slightly more likely to be born again Christians (46% vs. 40%), based on their theological views

There is much more at the Barna site. Read the full story here.

Last night, I presented data to the state convention newspaper editors of my denomination. (Over 1 million people subscribe to these papers across my denomination.) These editors are great people working hard to communicate truth in an often tumultuous denominational environment.

Thanks to some good work of our team, we put together this data and released it to them last night. LifeWay released the data this morning from our LifeWay news people. You can find the charts here.

Here is the story:

The National Congregation Study has been released via Duke University, and it contains helpful information to those of us trying to understand what is happening in and around churches in North America. The publication gives bullet points of the "most important observations."

Check it out:

• Most congregations are small but most people are in large congregations.
• Worship services are becoming more informal.
• Congregational leaders are still overwhelmingly male.
• Predominantly white congregations are more ethnically diverse.
• Congregations embrace technology.
• Congregations and clergy are getting older.
• Congregations' position in the social class structure remains unchanged.
• Congregations' involvement in social service activities remains unchanged.
• Only a small minority of congregations describe themselves as theologically "liberal," even within the Protestant mainline.
• Congregations are more tolerant and inclusive than we might expect them to be, even when it comes to hot-button issues.
• There has been no significant increase in congregational conflict since 1998.
• Congregations' involvement in political activities is largely unchanged since 1998.

This is fascinating research and very well presented.

You can download the entire PDF here where the observations above are unpacked.
Check out the NCS blog here.

We Americans value independence, exploration and going out on our own... unless you're one of those new college grads who have moved back in with mom and dad because you don't want to get an unpleasant job and live in a small apartment and pay your dues. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Americans like to do things their own way. We always have, and that doesn't seem to be changing. In fact it continues to impact new areas of American life - like faith and spirituality.

A recent nationwide Barna survey points out that while Americans are tiring of traditional church forms and experiences, they continue to see themselves as deeply spiritual, open to religious experience.

The study showed that,

-88% of American adults say that "my religious faith is very important in my life."
-75% say they sense that "God is motivating people to stay connected with Him, but in different ways and through different types of experiences than in the past."
-50% say "a growing number of people I know are tired of the usual type of church experience."
-64% say they are "completely open to carrying out and pursuing [their] faith in an environment or structure that differs from that of a typical church."
-45% say they are "willing to try a new church."

Don't miss that one. The Barna Group notes,

A staggering number of Americans - almost half of the nation's 230 million adults - are open to changing their church home, demonstrating their lack of connection with their present community of faith and their desire to have a more significant connection. It may also be a reflection of people's increasing lack of loyalty to both organizations and personal relationships, and the growing sense that there is always something better available if you can simply find it.

71% say they are "more likely to develop my religious beliefs on my own, rather than to accept an entire set of beliefs that a particular church teaches."

People often call this approach to religious belief "buffet theology," where individuals simply pick and choose what they believe based on personal preference. "I'll take a little of this, none of that, some of this over here, I can't tell what that is so I'll leave that alone..." While that criticism is valid, we should also be asking why Americans are so distrustful of organized religion, systems, and meta narratives.

This recent survey offers a lot of interesting data, so check it out, but I'll point out one more thing.

Across the board, the research showed that women are driving these changes. This is particularly significant given prior research from Barna showing that women are more spiritually inclined, are the primary shapers of family faith experiences, and are the backbone of activity in the typical conventional church. Specifically, Barna discovered that women were more likely than men to pursue their faith in a different type of structure or environment (68% of women, 59% of men); to sense that God is motivating people to experience faith in different ways (79% vs. 60%, respectively); and to be willing try a new church (50% vs. 40%).

Check out the article and come back here to discuss.

How does the church respond to these trends? What should churches and church leaders do, do different, or so the same?

A recent study by LifeWay Research in partnership with the Cornerstone Knowledge Network showed a correlation between ministry expansion and church growth. Seven types of expansion were included in the survey:

• Building new or additional ministry space at the same site where your church is located.
• Building a new facility at a new site.
• Adding an additional worship service or venue on site.
• Adding an additional worship service or venue off site.
• Beginning to offer streaming video of worship services or teaching on the Internet.
• Directly participating in helping start a new church or churches.
• Merging with another church.

Mark Kelly summarizes the findings:

Of these seven types of ministry expansion, the pastors surveyed indicated that adding an additional worship service or venue on site is most closely related to higher growth in attendance, followed by building new or additional ministry space at the same site where the church is located. Churches that expanded in those two ways experienced significantly higher levels of growth in average worship attendance over a five-year period, according to the pastors surveyed.

It's an interesting study worth looking at. Read the study first at Lifeway Research and at The Christian Post.

This study actually includes both opinion questions and the reporting of facts by pastors.

The fact questions included asking pastors if their church had made any of the 7 changes in the last 5 years. We also asked their current average worship attendance and their attendance 5 years ago. The recollection of the church's attendance 5 years ago could be off slightly for some. After all, this was a phone survey, but it should be close in most cases. Overall, we do consider the number of growing churches reported in this study to be a little higher than when annually reported data is available for comparison.

We ran statistical tests on these facts as reported and the first point in the story is related to these tests. The title we released the information with was stated in the negative, "Ministry expansion doesn't automatically lead to attendance growth." The fact is that causality is not something that we can test at all. However, since it is safe for us to rule out causality if there is not even a statistical relationship we felt comfortable stating this as we did in our release.

The opinion questions show that more than two-thirds of Protestant pastors agree (strongly or somewhat) that 5 of the ministry changes we tested "lead to additional growth." Pastors whose churches have actual made that type of change are more likely to agree, and this was true of all 7 we tested.

We wanted to see what the rest of the pastors believe.

It is interesting to note that all pastors did not agree without hesitation. A look at the PowerPoint that is now up on the LifeWay Research website shows that more pastors somewhat agree than strongly agree in all cases. Also, keep in mind our questions did not ask whether the pastors believe this is the only thing that leads to growth. For example, I can understand why many pastors did not want to disagree that you get some visitors when you open a new building and that some stick around.

The statistical tests we ran that showed a real relationship between two of the changes and growth also prove that only a small portion of the attendance growth is explained by the items we tested. There indeed are other things that lead to growth and some of the spiritual things related to growth would never be able to be tested through research.

Jump into the comments below and share your thoughts and experiences. Has expansion of your church led to, or been a result of, growth.

I believe that those who have a real concern for communicating the gospel to the people God has sent them to will find great value in research that explores and exposes cultural and religious trends. So, of course, I want to share a few things with you that are worth noting.

The ARDA Archives have been updated
I've blogged about The Association of Religion Data Archives before (some great stuff there). Well, the website has recently been updated with several new improvements and features.

ARDA's GIS Maps now have an improved interface that is much easier to use. It provides one-button access to a report for the displayed error and changing areas is as easy as enter a zip code and clicking a button. Try it out at here.

Our U.S. Congregational Membership feature now includes advanced reports. View membership reports for any selection of counties, metro areas or states that you want! Our advanced state reports provide quick links for maps of census divisions. Try it out here.

ARDA's National Profiles have been updated. The Adherents page for each country and region has been updated to include agnostics. The Socio-Economic page includes education measures such as the adult literacy rate and gross enrollment rate.

Check out the Census 2000 Foreign-Born Population Map Series by Selected Countries of Birth

These state level maps show percent distributions and some detailed socio-economic characteristics from Census 2000 for the foreign-born population in the United States and Puerto Rico for selected countries of birth, such as Mexico, China, the Philippines, India and El Salvador. Comparative maps for the native and total foreign-born populations are also provided. The socioeconomic characteristics include poverty rate, public assistance income, labor force participation rate, language ability and year of entry for noncitizens. Internet address. (Check it out)

Getting Current: Recent Demographic Trends in Metropolitan America
The Brookings Institution has released some helpful stats in their March 2009 report on recent demographic trends across the United States. It's a 28 page report that breaks down trends concerning migration, immigration, aging, educational attainment, and poverty in the United States. The report reveals:

Migration across states and metro areas has slowed considerably in the past two years due to the housing crisis and looming recession.

Racial and ethnic minorities are driving the nation's population growth and increasing diversity among its younger residents.

The next decade promises massive growth of the senior population, especially in suburbs unaccustomed to housing older people.

Even before the onset of the current recession, poverty rose during the 2000s, and spread rapidly to suburban locations.

There's a lot more. Download the report here (PDF)

This month Leadership Network and Lifeway Research conducted national research projects to find out how churches are being affected by the current economic slump. Warren Bird and I recently got together to talk about the findings from both surveys in this fast-paced interview with Dave Travis.

Weathering the Storm - How Churches Are Holding Up in the Current Economic Downturn
Download (it's free, people!), listen, and give your thoughts below.

How is your church being impacted by the recession? And, what are you doing in the midst of the recession?

Here is an excerpt from my recent blog on our economy research:

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.

Nearly two in three pastors (62%) report more people from outside their church asking for help, and nearly a third (31%) see more such requests from church members, according to a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors.

.....

The survey, by LifeWay Research, a Christian polling firm based in Nashville, finds that 40% of pastors say they have church members out of work, and 37% say their church has increased spending to help the needy. (The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.)

What we found is that while the needs are greater at this time, most of our churches are ready and working to serve those in need and may be in a better place than other sectors of society. The average church actually saw their offerings grow by 4 percent in 2008. Only 12 percent of churches saw their giving decline by 10 percent or more in 2008.

This doesn't mean our churches aren't experiencing difficulty. These are challenging times that demand sacrificial giving by membership and wise spending by churches. And, depending on where they are in the country (and thus the severity of the recession), the situation can be and is different.

We just released this article at LifewayResearch.com that provides much more information about the economy research.

This last year has also brought changes in how those within congregations approach expenditures. Thirty-five percent of churches have a heightened sense of caution within their congregations about trying new things that cost money. A small number of congregations (11 percent) have seen increased reluctance to attend church functions or church-sponsored events that carry a cost or admission charge. Among the other effects the economy has had on churches:

• Seven percent delayed hiring that was planned.
• Six percent reduced staff salaries.
• Four percent laid off one or more employees.
• Four percent reduced insurance benefits for staff.

With these challenges comes greater opportunities for our people to demonstrate love, kindness and support to one another and those outside of the church. In fact, these difficult circumstances are motivating churches to mobilize people for the work of mercy ministries. Be sure to read the USA TODAY article, "In times like these, more people are going to church for help." and "Bad economy challenges churches but provides opportunities" by our team at LifeWay Research. And, as always, you can find the full PowerPoint at LifeWayResearch.com or download it directly here.

How is your church being impacted by the recession? And, what are you doing in the midst of the recession?

I am in Atlanta today talking about two research projects from LifeWay Research.

The first focuses on younger evangelicals and their views of social justice. I am presenting that data at the Flourish Conference. Thus part of that will deal with our recently released data on global warming which was all over the news a few weeks ago. There is much additional data which I will comment on here when it is published.

This afternoon, I am at the North American Mission Board presenting data on first generation immigrant groups and their receptivity to the gospel.

Below is a recent blog post I wrote on our global warming research. Below that is information about our soon-to-be-completed research on first generation immigrant groups.

Lifeway Research recently conducted a phone survey of over 1,000 randomly selected Protestant pastors concerning global warming. The question was not just whether or not global warming is happening, but if it is happening and is the result of anthropogenic greenhouse gases.

Participants were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the statement, "I believe global warming is real and man-made," and it turns out that Protestant pastors are split right down the middle. 47% agree (either strongly or somewhat), and 47% disagree (either strongly or somewhat). But the study is also interesting in that it shows that these views tend to settle in particular denominations, locations and ideologies.

Here's some of the breakdown...

75 percent of pastors in mainline denominations agree global warming is real and man-made, but only 32 percent of pastors in evangelical denominations agree. Pastors in rural areas are less convinced than large-city pastors. Forty-three percent of rural pastors and 55 percent of large-city pastors agree. Pastors in the Eastern and Western United States are more persuaded, 60 percent and 53 percent respectively, than pastors in the South (45 percent) and Midwest (40 percent).

When the pastors' personal beliefs are factored in, the differences grow even more pronounced. Among pastors who consider their political ideology liberal or very liberal, 93 percent agree that global warming is real and man-made, and 79 percent of self-perceived moderates agree. Among those who identify themselves as conservative or very conservative politically, however, agreement is only 37 percent and 16 percent respectively.

Go and read the entire article here, and the PowerPoint presentation of the data is available here.

Here is some information on the people groups research we will complete this summer (excerpted from an earlier blog post):

The latter project, focusing on first-generation immigrants, is some desperately needed research, and the first of its kind. The need for this study "stems from the fact that between 1970 and 2005, the foreign-born population in the United States doubled from about 5 percent to more than 12 percent. By 2050, half the U.S. population is expected to be of a different race than non-Hispanic white."

Why does this matter?

Well, the NAMB leadership explained it this way:

"Out of all the people groups in North America -- and there are 587 based on ethnicity and language -- we need to decide which groups to address first," said Van Kicklighter, senior church planting strategist for NAMB in Alpharetta, Ga. "Who are the most receptive? Which groups are most readily engaged in the Gospel or spiritual things?"

You see, research like this can help us better what people what people believe and how they behave. It can uncover presuppositions, prejudices and preferences, and therefore help us to see what we as the church can emphasize with ease, and what we will have to work at building a case for. I believe in research because it can aid us in developing strategies and determining emphases that allow us to preach and teach with precision. So, I'm grateful for what the North American Mission board is doing as they seek to plant biblically faithful, culturally relevant, counter-cultural churches for the glory of God.

So, a full day of research... but that's a good day if you are me. ;-)

Here is a picture of our team looking for your attendance numbers for the Outreach Magazine/LifeWay Research Special Report that will be published in Fall 2009. If you are a church currently running over 1000 on weekend worship, please fill out this form and fax it to our offices (FAX # is on the form). We would love to hear from you!

The folks at Pew released some new research worth your time.

They explained:

Americans change religious affiliation early and often. In total, about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives. Most people who change their religion leave their childhood faith before age 24, and many of those who change religion do so more than once. These are among the key findings of a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. The survey documents the fluidity of religious affiliation in the U.S. and describes in detail the patterns and reasons for change.

The reasons people give for changing their religion - or leaving religion altogether - differ widely depending on the origin and destination of the convert. The group that has grown the most in recent years due to religious change is the unaffiliated population. Two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated and half of former Protestants who have become unaffiliated say they left their childhood faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, and roughly four-in-ten say they became unaffiliated because they do not believe in God or the teachings of most religions. Additionally, many people who left a religion to become unaffiliated say they did so in part because they think of religious people as hypocritical or judgmental, because religious organizations focus too much on rules or because religious leaders are too focused on power and money. Far fewer say they became unaffiliated because they believe that modern science proves that religion is just superstition.

Read the full report here.