Barnas Most Controversial and Interesting Findings

Feb 13, 2008 By Matt Farina in

This morning while I was looking for some research results by Barna I came across a list on wikipedia with some interesting findings to think about during this time as we prepare for Easter services. Here are some of the findings and how they can apply to Easter services:

  • Most "church growth" is simply the recycling of church-goers from one congregation to another. Who is your Easter service targeted at? Church goers or all the extra butts in the seats who only come on Easter and Christmas? Are the videos something that will get to the visitors or are they something that the members will be happy are being done?
  • Protestant churches are generally ineffective vessels for evangelism and discipleship. Does your technology stand out on it's own or does it foster discipleship? Does it help people learn and grow? Why? How? As an engineer I want to measure everything for effectiveness. How can we see that what we are doing is effective? Can we use technology to do that? This is especially important when our focus transitions from the regular attenders to all of the new faces that are there for Easter. These new faces are a group we know less about and don't understand nearly as well as the regulars.
  • Every church engages in marketing, but few do it well. How can we use technology to do marketing well? A website that we direct people to for after the service? If so, what does it have and do? How will that reach the people?
  • Less than one out of every ten born again adults possess a Biblical world view. This is one of the tough ones and one I've personally seen. How can we use technology to get someone thinking about their world view. To even realize how it has been shaped, by whom, and what that means? How can we use technology to teach and have 2 way conversations with them? Or, just get that conversation going?
  • Mass media has the most dramatic effect on people's behavior and beliefs. I've tested this on a personal basis. There is no doubt in my mind that this is true. People are in worship an hour a week. Some more die hard people may spend a few hours studying the bible every week. Yet, we consume many times that amount of mass media. This has a substantial impact on how we do services and use technology in them. How can we use technology in a way that people don't see it as just another thing like the mass media they are already consuming?

You can find the entire list over at wikipedia. How might these trends affect your Easter worship services?

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