{"id":10617,"date":"2024-05-29T09:10:09","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T13:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=10617"},"modified":"2024-05-29T09:58:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T13:58:16","slug":"what-are-the-biggest-threats-to-the-church-george-barna-sounds-the-alarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/05\/what-are-the-biggest-threats-to-the-church-george-barna-sounds-the-alarm.html","title":{"rendered":"What Are the Biggest Threats to the Church? George Barna Sounds the Alarm"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a recent interview<\/a> with The Christian Post,<\/em> George Barna, founder of the Barna Group which is one of leading voices on cultural trends, had a stark warning for a declining Christian Church. \u201cPeople have become more selfish, churches have become less influential, pastors have become less Bible-centric,\u201d said Barna of the current climate. \u201cFamilies have invested less of their time and energy in spiritual growth, particularly of their children. The media now influences the Church more than the Church influences the media, or the culture for that matter. The Christian Body tends to get off track arguing about a lot of things that really don’t matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

One thing Barna has seen that worries him is how churches focus more on attendance numbers and buildings rather than discipleship and knowledge of the Bible. \u201cYou get what you measure. So if you measure the wrong things, you’ll get the wrong outcomes \u2026 [pastors] measure how many people show up, how much money they raise, how many programs they offer, how many staff persons they hire, how much square footage they built out. Jesus didn’t die for any of that. So we’re measuring the wrong stuff and, consequently, we get the wrong outcomes,\u201d he said. The American Bible Society\u2019s \u201cState of the Bible USA 2024<\/a>\u201d found that the number of Americans who engage with the Bible three or four times a year outside of church has dropped to just 38%.<\/p>\n

Barna stated that the solution is to focus more on children and families. \u201cWe need to go back and recognize it starts with families; parents have the primary responsibility to raise their children to become spiritual champions … local churches need to support parents in that endeavor. Our primary focus needs to be on children \u2026 and growing their biblical worldview. If we do that, we’ll be able to grow the 3 percent of adults who are disciples in America today to a larger proportion,\u201d he said. He also emphasized the importance of worldview. \u201cWhat I’m seeing now is that we’re getting to this place where the typical American \u2026 will not have anyone in their circle of influence who has a biblical worldview. You’re not going to be influenced with God’s truth,\u201d he said. Barna\u2019s Cultural Research Center<\/a> at Arizona Christian University found that only 4% of Americans hold a Biblical worldview, dropping from 6%. According to Barna, a biblical worldview<\/a> is described as \u201cbelieving that absolute moral truths exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views. Those views were that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He stills rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings.\u201d Barna found that a Biblical worldview drastically changed an individual\u2019s behavior, such as more sexual purity, less gambling, and less drunkenness. \u201cThese are not perfect people,\u201d said Barna, \u201cbut once they catch on to the critical principles found in the Bible and train their minds to incorporate those views into their thinking, their behavior varies noticeably from the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a recent interview with The Christian Post, George Barna, founder of the Barna Group which is one of leading voices on cultural trends, had a stark warning for a declining Christian Church. \u201cPeople have become more selfish, churches have become less influential, pastors have become less Bible-centric,\u201d said Barna of the current climate. \u201cFamilies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":10662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Are the Biggest Threats to the Church? 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