Barna’s 2007 Year in Review
December 3rd 2007
Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
unChristian?
October 21st 2007
Book Review
I’ve lost several hours of sleep over David Kinnaman’s and Gabe Lyons’s book, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity And Why It Matters. James Emery White, in his Serious Times email newsletter, said* in response to this book, “Christianity has an image problem.” With all due respect to Mr. White, one of the authors I most respect, I disagree. Christianity has a reality problem. The problem is shallow discipleship, and the rest of the world sees it for what it is. It’s a disturbing picture.
Technorati Tags: America, Barna, church growth, Methods, Research
“Popular Christian Literature as a Reflection of an Intellectual Crisis”
September 8th 2007
Sarah Scott analyzed sales at Christian Book Distributors and came up with distressing results. This is crucial for the growth and re-conversion of the church and culture in the West. Be sure to catch the comments.
Hat Tip to Douglas Groothuis.
Technorati Tags: Books, Christian Growth, Knowledge, Methods, Mind
What You Can Learn from Calvin and Hobbes about the Message and the Medium
August 28th 2007
From Scriptorium Daily:
It also explains why the Christian message seems so bizarre and irrelevant when it is communicated via slogans, marketing campaigns, fashion, and advertising knick-knacks….
If the subtle message of Calvin and Hobbes doesn’t fit on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and bedsheets, then it seems unlikely that the message of Christ does. That the almighty and entirely holy God would undertake the costly work of reconciling sinners to himself — that one of the Trinity died on the cross for us and our salvation — that the Spirit would be poured out and dwell in a created temple without consuming it — who is sufficient for these things? If we can easily rule out some media as being inadequate for containing this message, is it possible to identify any medium that could be adequate?
Keith Green concluded his rant with, “I think the world is completely sick to its stomach with our sayings and ‘witnessing tools.’ It’s time for us to be expressing the truth with our lives, and then the whole truth of God with our lips!”
Hat tip to Nihil Fit
In Europe, God Is (Not) Dead - WSJ.com
July 15th 2007
In Europe, God Is (Not) Dead - WSJ.com
Signs of a resurgence of Christianity in Europe are very encouraging. The article uses the term “supply-side economics” as a possible explanation. My first impression was that it was going to be some economically-based way of explaining the whole thing away. It’s not–it’s a metaphor applied to the way churches have changed from being government-based to being locally or free-church governed. It’s consistent with the theory that being too tightly tied to government–both in polity and in financial support–has hurt European state churches badly. Rodney Stark has advanced this theory in some of his work on the history and sociology of Christianity. He is quoted in the article; I’ve read it in his original work, though I’m having some trouble remembering which book it was. (I think it was probably One True God: Historical Consequences of Monotheism.)
Though some people may view “church economics” as the whole story, there’s nothing necessarily anti-Biblical about it. It’s a cleansing of a corrupt connection; a release from a strange system in which church leaders had no need to work for their positions, their congregations, or even their finances.
Technorati Tags: church growth, missions, Europe
Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power; by J. P. Moreland
June 25th 2007
Book Review
(Update June 27: Hear J. P. Moreland discuss this book on Converse With Scholars.)
I had to read twice through J. P. Moreland’s newest book, Kingdom Triangle, before I could even begin writing this review. This is not the way it typically goes for me, but this time it was a challenge to know where to begin. I’ve decided to jump straight to the easy part, which is my overall evaluation:
Get yourself a copy and read it, then read it again. Get your friends to read it. The legs of Moreland’s “Kingdom Triangle” may–or may not–be the three most important things Western Christians must do to make a difference in our world. Two of them, however, are very likely the things we have been most severely lacking.
Technorati Tags: Holy Spirit, Knowledge, missions, Moreland, Naturalism, Postmodernism
Barna Research on Teens
June 16th 2007
Most Twentysomethings Put Christianity on the Shelf Following Spiritually Active Teen Years: September 11, 2006
New Research Explores Teenage Views and Behavior Regarding the Supernatural: January 23, 2006
Teens Evaluate the Church-Based Ministry They Received As Children: July 8, 2003
Teens Change Their Tune Regarding Self and Church: April 23, 2002
Teenagers’ Beliefs Moving Farther From Biblical Perspectives: October 23, 2000
Teenagers Embrace Religion but Are Not Excited About Christianity: January 10, 2000
Technorati Tags: Research
Postmodernism and Christianity: A Brief Look
April 24th 2007
Jacob Stump, who was a frequent commenter here at one time, suggested I look at Ross Rohde’s overview of postmodernism and Christianity. It’s quite good, overall.
Technorati Tags: missions, Postmodernism
“Through a Glass, Darkly”
January 15th 2007
Jeff Sharlet, contributing editor to Harper’s magazine, has taken a serious look at American fundamentalism in Through a Glass, Darkly.
Christians reading this will be put off by his snide dismissal of our faith early in the article:
“Those unable to feel His soothing touch . . . snort at the notion of a god with the patience or the prurience to monitor every tick and twitch of desire, a supreme being able to make a lion and a lamb cuddle but unable to abide two men kissing. A divine love that speaks through hurricanes. Who would worship such a god? His followers must be dupes, or saps, or fools, their faith illiterate, insane, or misinformed, their strength fleeting, hollow, an aberration. A burp in American history. An unpleasant odor that will pass.”
But I recommend you read it anyway, and sincerely try to understand what he has to say.
Continue Reading »
Douglas Groothuis’ Fifteen Refusals for 2007
December 30th 2006
Excellent words from “The Constructive Curmudgeon,” an excellent Christian thinker.