Showing posts with label "Poll". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Poll". Show all posts

Lee Strobel and Other Evangelicals Admit They're In Trouble, Big Trouble

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In an email that went out to supporters (along with Ed Babinski who also subscribed) Strobel said:
We are facing a crisis in America. Skepticism is rising. Too many young people are leaving the faith. Few Christians are able to effectively share Jesus with others. At many churches, reaching spiritually lost people falls to the bottom of their priorities.

This is a crisis we need to confront — urgently!
Strobel joins Josh McDowell in being alarmed at the rise of skepticism in our day. So also are John S. Dickerson and others. Dickenson wrote: "In the next decades we will see a massive decrease in evangelical influence politically, economically, culturally, and financially" in The Great Evangelical Recession (p. 26). "260,000 evangelical young people walk away from Christianity each year. Of that number 35% will find their way back, and 65% do not find their way back. Why are they leaving? They don't believe anymore." [Dickerson, pp. 98-102]. "This is not a blip. This is a trend. And the trend is one of decline," said Ed Stetzer [as quoted in Dickerson, p. 32].

Then there is the rise of the "dones" who are done with church, not just the "nones" who have no church affiliation. At a recent Future of the Church conference, sociologist Josh Packard shared some of his groundbreaking research on the Dones:
He explained these de-churched were among the most dedicated and active people in their congregations. To an increasing degree, the church is losing its best.

For the church, this phenomenon sets up a growing danger. The very people on whom a church relies for lay leadership, service and financial support are going away. And the problem is compounded by the fact that younger people in the next generation, the Millennials, are not lining up to refill the emptying pews.

Why are the Dones done? Packard describes several factors in his upcoming book Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why the Dechurched Left and What They're Hoping to Find.Among the reasons: After sitting through countless sermons and Bible studies, they feel they’ve heard it all. One of Packard’s interviewees said, “I’m tired of being lectured to. I’m just done with having some guy tell me what to do.”

The Dones are fatigued with the Sunday routine of plop, pray and pay. They want to play. They want to participate. But they feel spurned at every turn.

Will the Dones return? Not likely, according to the research. They’re done. LINK.

This is all good news! We're winning. They are losing.

Quote of the Day, By Phil Zuckerman On the Rising Secular Demographics

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Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He is the author of Living the Secular Life, Faith No More, and Society Without God. He has also edited several volumes, including Atheism and Secularity, Sex and Religion, and The Social Theory of W.E.B. Du Bois. Zuckerman writes a regular blog for Psychology Today titled “The Secular Life.” His work has also been published in academic journals, such as Sociology Compass, Sociology of Religion, Deviant Behavior, and Religion, Brain, and Behavior. In 2011, Zuckerman founded the first Secular Studies department in the nation. He earned his PhD in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1998. He currently lives in Claremont, California, with his wife, Stacy, and their three children.
Here is what he said recently:
The stats are staggering when it comes to people in the West who are abandoning religion. Secularism is growing in virtually all nations for which we have data; even the Muslim world, which contains the most-religious societies on earth, has a growing share of secular people (many of whom, unfortunately, must keep their secularity well hidden because of the danger of prison or death for being open about their lack of faith).
[For the full text of what Zuckerman said in an interview with Sam Harris (from which I got his bio above), see below:

American Adults Are Leaving Christianity At 4x's the Rate They're Joining

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About one out of every eight adults is an "ex-Christian," a new survey reveals. These include those who left the Protestant or Catholic tradition that they were a part of as a child and who now report being atheist, agnostic or some other faith, according to the Barna Group. Meanwhile, those who switched from a non-Christian faith or non-belief (from their childhood) to Christianity as an adult represent three percent of the American population. Link.
American people are leaving Christianity at 4x's the rate they're joining. ;-) Hat Tip: Ed Babinski.