Seeing the Future?

Crosswalk.com editors Stephen McGarvey (News and Culture) and Cheryl Johnston (Spiritual Life) recently spoke with George Barna, founder and president of the Barna Research Group, about his new book Boiling Point and the future of Christians and the church in the US.

Crosswalk.com: Do you think the coming generation is more prepared to face the dilemmas of the future than past generations were?

Barna: Probably not. I think, certainly, they're going to face different kinds of challenges. But they've got different kinds of resources going for them too. Every generation has to go through very significant battles to understand its world. I think in some ways the Mosaics [Barna's name for children born later than 1985] have it a little bit tougher because their world is changing at such a rapid pace.

They are probably going to be more inter-reliant, relating to each other in deeper ways. Certainly they have some great tools to work with, but the challenges are continuing to grow.

Technology and Mosaics

Crosswalk: Do you think that technology has undermined education? Doesn't the technology dumb us down because a lot more is done for us than we can do for ourselves?

Barna: Well, I think we've got to understand that it is an entirely different world that young people today are being raised in.

People today are raised in a world of images. People of the old world were raised in a time when gaining access to information was a big deal. That's no longer a big deal in our culture. The big issue today isn't access, it's interpretation. People from the past lived in a world where hard goods were the stuff that you lived for. You produced things that you could touch and feel. Today we live in a culture, an American culture, where it's really services and information that we produce.

It's an intangible. Mosaics are not linear thinkers like people from the olden times. There's a completely different way in which information is processed. So, are people being less well-educated? No. I think people are being educated in a different way, to deal with a different cultural context.

Crosswalk: Is the problem a lack of biblical teaching in the churches or a lack of focus on studying the Bible for oneself in a church?

Barna: Well that's partly it. I think that there are a number of different issues that come into play. One has to do with modelling. We don't have many individuals that we can look to and say 'Aaaha! that is what it looks like in practice.' So we need those role models. Secondly, the whole notion of accountability. We have basically thrown that out and we don't want to bring that into the church.

Why? Because there might be conflict, there might be confrontation. We wouldn't be warm and fuzzy. It might not be really comfortable, we might not be secure if we have that accountability thing going. And yet the Christian faith is all about accountability.

Then thirdly you look at the nature of the teaching that we are getting and our commitment to growing in our faith. Most people do not really spend very much time or devote very much effort to any kind of systematic, long term, goal-oriented study of what Scripture teaches. We found that very few Christians really have any kinds of goals for what type of believer or spiritual person they want to be.

Small groups inhibit growth

Crosswalk: What role do you think small groups or cell groups play in that? I'm kind of surprised by a statistic that one out of six American adults is involved in some kind of a small group.

Barna: Surprised in what way?

Crosswalk: It seems kind of high, but even if one out of six are involved it seems that with small groups, they do tend to focus a lot on the touchy-feely. Would you say that the shift of the church from Sunday school programmes is helping or hurting the church?

Barna: One of the things that research has shown us is that even though more churches are moving towards small groups, those small groups may be doing more to inhibit people's spiritual growth than to facilitate that growth. Part of the reason is that, first of all, in most groups, you have an individual who's in charge of the group or leading the group who really doesn't know Scripture very well. So if they're leading a discussion or trying to teach on things, more often than not, what you wind up with is heresy rather than Christian orthodoxy. The group dynamics I think lend themselves well to building deeper relationships.

There is great potential for accountability, but we're not doing a very good job at that accountability, because, of course, most people don't have any goals that they can be held accountable for in terms of spiritual growth. The hope is that we can make people feel like they're really part of the church if they are integrated into this smaller, more intimate group that meets at a more comfortable time and a more comfortable place. But we found that, frankly, small groups are not a very effective means for communicating the truths of the faith. They're much better for helping people think through the applications that maybe they've been taught in another venue.

Cultural trends

Crosswalk: Would you suggest that churches change as rapidly as they can with the cultural trends for churches? Should more churches have attempted to become mega-churches in order to survive?

Barna: Absolutely not. Mega-churches are not the silver bullet that we're looking for in the Christian community.

There are some wonderful examples where large churches are doing great ministry. But there are also a number of examples where large churches have just become comfortable places for people to come and feel like they have done their duty and now they're off the hook for another week. So mega-churches, in and of themselves, have no particular value. You have to look at each ministry and evaluate it individually.

Should churches be changing as quickly as the culture is? Well, every church has its own particular culture and it attracts a particular kind of person. It has an individual or group of people who are providing, hopefully, a particular type or direction of leadership. To constantly be a chameleon, changing from week to week to week simply to accommodate the culture, has its own problems endemic in that process.

I think what makes more sense is that churches be organised around the particular vision that God has entrusted to the leaders, and that the church remain true to that vision. Which means, of course, that churches throughout our country would have to stop sniping at each other and recognize that the kingdom of God is made up of many different types of ministries.

Individuals, particularly youngsters, are saying: 'You know what, it's got to be genuine. It's got to be authentic. It has to reflect who I am, what I need, where I'm going.' So you are going to see all these other models: the house church; the cyber church; faith communes; eschatological forums and so forth.

Multicultural church?

Crosswalk: Don't you think something is lost if everyone who is 30-something with two or three little kids all congregate to one church, while another church attracts all the high schoolers in the area? Or do you think that is fine as long as each church is teaching Scripture accurately?

Barna: Well, we've got to be practical about this too. I think it's a really nice kind of politically-correct notion to say, well, it's inappropriate to have a church where you've got a single demographic: everybody looks, thinks, and feels the same. But on the other side of the coin, let's recognise, too, that people are going to make their decisions based upon what works for them. Can we therefore say it's not OK to have a church that's unicultural? Does everything have to be multicultural? We can say that, but then we're going to have a lot of empty churches and miss a lot of opportunities to minister to people.

What may make sense is to draw people to a ministry that they can relate to and where they can learn and grow. We can say we want people of all ages worshipping together at the same time. Well, it's just not going happen for the most part. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all ministry.

Crosswalk: How do you think churches will grow and what do you think they will look like in the next ten years?

Barna: Well, as I was noting before, there are so many different models of churches. But, what are they going to look like when they come together? They're not all going to be meeting on Sunday morning. They're not all going to have the introductory music and then the preaching and the announcements and the turn and greet and then we hit the parking lot. There will be many different ways in which these places express and experience their faith and allow people to interact with each other. So how will they grow? Primarily on the basis of word of mouth and relationships. Apart from that I'm not sure that we know very much about how exactly it is going to look.

An interview with American church researcher, George Barna

Technology and Mosaics

Small groups inhibit growth

Barna: Surprised in what way?

Cultural trends

Multicultural church?

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