Taken from churchrelevance.com:
QUESTION:
Do you have any statistics that show the top 5 reasons why people stay or connect with a church? - Debbie :: California
ANSWER:
In recent years, there have been several research studies hoping to discover what motivates church attendance. I previously blogged about research from LifeWay Research and Gallup. Both of those studies offer good insights but can be general.
My favorite resource on the topic is Thom S. Ranier’s book Surprising Insights from the Unchurched. It discusses the following three surveys.
Top 13 Reasons that Unchurched People Choose a Church
(research conducted by Ranier)
1. 90% - Pastor/Preaching
2. 88% - Doctrines
3. 49% - Friendliness of Members
4. 42% - Other Issues
5. 41% - Someone Church Witnessed to Me
6. 38% - Family Member
7. 37% - Sensed God’s Presence/Atmosphere of Church
8. 25% - Relationship Other than Family Member
9. 25% - Sunday School Class
10. 25% - Children’s/Youth Ministry
11. 12% - Other Groups/Ministries
12. 11% - Worship Style/Music
13. 7% - Location
Top 9 Reasons that Church-Attenders Choose a Church
(research conducted by the Barna Group in 1999)
1. 58% - Doctrine/Theology
2. 53% - People Caring for Each Other
3. 52% - Preaching
4. 45% - Friendliness
5. 45% - Children’s Programs
6. 43% - Helping the Poor
7. 36% - Denomination
8. 35% - Like the Pastor
9. 26% - Sunday School
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
prayer.
"Prayer is not made so that God can find out what we need, because Jesus tells us, "Your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:8). God wants us to pray because prayer expresses our trust in God and is a means whereby our trust in him can increase. In fact, perhaps the primary emphasis of the Bible's teaching on prayer is that we are to pray with faith, which means trust or dependence on God."
-Wayne Grudem
-Wayne Grudem
Monday, August 24, 2009
give it away.
The following is a reply from Steve Sellers to a question about Campus Crusade's biggest ministry opportunity:
"I think the greatest opportunity for us as an organization is in giving the ministry away.
I feel God is calling us to take all that we have and using it to empower others to do ministry.
Home Depot has the saying, "You can do it, we can help." I often think about how that phrase applies to us.
Too often we think of ministry as what we do. But what we ought to do is work with others and tell them, "You can minister, we can help."
The question then becomes, "How do we give the ministry away? How do we help people own it so when they are out in the workplace, campus and inner city, they minister to those around them?"
Instead of just thinking about what we do as staff members and how the professionals do ministry, we need to make it simple, motivational and exciting so the average person is able to take the lead and do it on their own.
Right now, with the economy the way it is, people are worried about home foreclosures. Their families are struggling, people can't make their payments and they're losing their jobs.
We can try to run out and do more ministry, but we can only do so much on our own. The real answer is to help people learn how to minister to those around them who are going through these trials.
Campus Crusade for Christ has about 500,000 donors who give regularly to the ministry. Instead of thinking about how we can make our 5,000 staff members more effective, we need to enlist 500,000 people in ministry and help equip them to minister in the context that God has placed them in."
"I think the greatest opportunity for us as an organization is in giving the ministry away.
I feel God is calling us to take all that we have and using it to empower others to do ministry.
Home Depot has the saying, "You can do it, we can help." I often think about how that phrase applies to us.
Too often we think of ministry as what we do. But what we ought to do is work with others and tell them, "You can minister, we can help."
The question then becomes, "How do we give the ministry away? How do we help people own it so when they are out in the workplace, campus and inner city, they minister to those around them?"
Instead of just thinking about what we do as staff members and how the professionals do ministry, we need to make it simple, motivational and exciting so the average person is able to take the lead and do it on their own.
Right now, with the economy the way it is, people are worried about home foreclosures. Their families are struggling, people can't make their payments and they're losing their jobs.
We can try to run out and do more ministry, but we can only do so much on our own. The real answer is to help people learn how to minister to those around them who are going through these trials.
Campus Crusade for Christ has about 500,000 donors who give regularly to the ministry. Instead of thinking about how we can make our 5,000 staff members more effective, we need to enlist 500,000 people in ministry and help equip them to minister in the context that God has placed them in."
Thursday, August 20, 2009
this world.
From John Piper’s biography on Wikipedia:
“On January 11, 2006, Piper announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. According to a letter sent to his church, he and his doctors believed that the cancer was fully treatable. Piper's reaction to his diagnosis was: "This news has, of course, been good for me. The most dangerous thing in the world is the sin of self-reliance and the stupor of worldliness. The news of cancer has a wonderfully blasting effect on both. I thank God for that. The times with Christ in these days have been unusually sweet." Piper underwent successful surgery on February 14, 2006.”
The “stupor of worldliness.” Wow, I love that he calls it what it is, and I hate that I am in that stupor more than I should be. Aren’t we all, though? It's bad when we are, but what's worse is when we think we aren't.
“On January 11, 2006, Piper announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. According to a letter sent to his church, he and his doctors believed that the cancer was fully treatable. Piper's reaction to his diagnosis was: "This news has, of course, been good for me. The most dangerous thing in the world is the sin of self-reliance and the stupor of worldliness. The news of cancer has a wonderfully blasting effect on both. I thank God for that. The times with Christ in these days have been unusually sweet." Piper underwent successful surgery on February 14, 2006.”
The “stupor of worldliness.” Wow, I love that he calls it what it is, and I hate that I am in that stupor more than I should be. Aren’t we all, though? It's bad when we are, but what's worse is when we think we aren't.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
the desk.
I am typing this from my old laptop, which is sitting on allison's desk in the office of our little white house. I thought, now that people have stopped living with us over the summer, maybe I could use the office/guest bedroom as an office. But I gave away my old hand-me-down desk. Allison is allowing me to use hers. She is very nice. So is the desk.
The desk is a key piece of furniture in my eyes. I need a place to focus, peace and prayer- there will be many, many prayers said aloud, and in silent, at this desk. Depends on the day. Depends on the hour of the day, really. Or even the minute. Raising support is such a rollercoaster somedays. Most days. Speaking of frustrations, no word on when the new laptop will be fixed. Hoping soon. And hoping free.
Hm. Well, for now, back to singing along to a burned cd whirring in the background, and back to work. It's a nice desk, and I think it will serve me well while I am here.
The desk is a key piece of furniture in my eyes. I need a place to focus, peace and prayer- there will be many, many prayers said aloud, and in silent, at this desk. Depends on the day. Depends on the hour of the day, really. Or even the minute. Raising support is such a rollercoaster somedays. Most days. Speaking of frustrations, no word on when the new laptop will be fixed. Hoping soon. And hoping free.
Hm. Well, for now, back to singing along to a burned cd whirring in the background, and back to work. It's a nice desk, and I think it will serve me well while I am here.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
t-shirts.
I saw a guy with his wife and two children in a coffee shop the other day. He had on a t-shirt with a screen-print image of a gun that said "Guns don't kill people. Abortions do." Wow. I have no idea if he is a Christian and I'll probably never see him again. I couldn't not stare at his shirt and wonder if this guy enjoyed the kind of reactions he probably gets from people. Such a harsh statement for an issue that is really raw. I don't really even know what to write.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
big brother.
A loyal fan for the last several years, this season included, I've seen my fair share of strategies played out on the tv show big brother. I'm going out on a limb here to say that I predict Michelle to win BB11. She's intelligent, friendly, flies under the radar, doesn't get dragged into drama, (and stays quiet when she does), and is an all-around good player. I think she has a super good shot.