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October 25, 2005

The Revolutionaries

George Barna is up to it again. He is surveying and asking questions and using statistics to help the church see where we are and where we may be headed. In a recent article posted online, Barna tells us that in "Relying upon national research conducted over the past several years, (he) profiles a group of more than 20 million adults throughout the nation labeled “revolutionaries.” He noted that although measures of traditional church participation in activities such as worship attendance, Sunday school, prayer, and Bible reading have remained relatively unchanged during the past twenty years, the Revolutionary faith movement is growing rapidly.

“These are people who are less interested in attending church than in being the church,” he explained. “We found that there is a significant distinction in the minds of many people between the local church – with a small ‘c’ – and the universal Church – with a capital ‘C’. Revolutionaries tend to be more focused on being the Church, capital C, whether they participate in a congregational church or not.” He projects that "by 2025 the local church will lose roughly half of its current “market share” and that alternative forms of faith experience and expression will pick up the slack."

Maybe we can turn this projection on its head by concentrating our energy on being the Church rather than the church. So what do you think about this?


Posted by Bishop at October 25, 2005 11:53 PM

Comments

I agree that there are those who are more concerned about the Church rather than church. As postmodernist thinkers, we are drawn to a culture. the Church provides that to us. Sometimes church does not. I think that the more important question is how do give people the sense of Church in the church. So often, members of our churches do not look beyond their four walls. Belonging to Christ's church is a universal calling--not a denominational calling, not a church calling but is the CHURCH calling. I see young people putting stop to the boundaries between "church lives" and other time lives. Those of us in this postmodern generation want to permeate our lives with Church, not settle for what church gives us. However, I believe that church must do a better job of portraying itself as part of Church. Without church to guides us and provide us stability, the ideal of Church because an skewed and we lose our focus.

Posted by: Brooke [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 10, 2005 09:28 AM