Bible Use in the U.S.
According to the national Study of Christian Attitudes and Behavior conducted by Christianity Today International and Zondervan in 2006, 95% of all U.S. people who label themselves as Christians have a Bible in their home. Active Christians have an average of six Bibles. 25% of Active Christians bought a new Bible in the past 12 months. 57% of respondents say they have read the Bible, and 63% of Professing Christians make this claim compared with 98% of Active Christians. However, only 18% of respondents read their Bibles daily, 19% 2-3 times a week and 39% once a month. Among Active Christians, 35% read their Bible daily, 28% 2-3 times a week and 37% once a week. Christianity Today 4/09
Are Christians Driving Church Attendance Down?
By Paul Proctor | April 4, 2009 | NewsWithViews.com
The reports are everywhere now about the declining numbers of church members and baptisms – especially among Southern Baptists; so much so that church leaders address it at almost every opportunity as if attempting to somehow spark a zeal in remaining members like a coach might do in the locker room of a losing team at halftime.
Everyone is trying to figure out what’s wrong.
This might come as a shock to many, but I would suggest that the answer here might just be nothing is wrong – that those declining numbers that are troubling the pulpits of American churches right now may well be God’s will being carried out by His own being called out of a growing apostasy flourishing within them.
In no way am I condemning all established churches and religious institutions – so don’t misquote me or suggest to anyone that that is what I am doing here. It is not. I am only pointing to another exodus obviously underway and the largely overlooked reasons for it.
Being the recipient of untold numbers of emails over the years from heartbroken readers who have left or been thrown out of their churches for taking a biblical stand on important issues has given me a perspective that many pulpiteers and pew warmers are not privy to. It is, unfortunately, the view of the majority that those who don’t run with the majority are backsliders.
I don’t agree.
Churches and “The Big Game” Copyright Issues
Photo Source: The Christian Post.
Every year, churches across the USA face huge competition from an event that has become known as the Super Bowl. In fact, as National Public Radio commentator Frank Deford observed in a piece called “A Merry Super Bowl To All, And To All A Good Game”:
Like Halloween and Valentine's Day, Super Sunday isn't an official paid holiday, but let's face it, it's become as much an accepted part of the modern American calendar as President's Day or Memorial Day…And at the end of the day, I'd suggest that Super Sunday is actually much more Father's Day than is Father's Day itself. Why don't we just combine the two and send out cards to Daddy now?
Rather than fight the growing interest in Big Game, churches started taking an “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude. In fact, as more and more churches installed video projection equipment, Big Game Sunday became a big draw for local churches. That was until two years ago.
In 2007, the National Football League decided to crack down on Indianapolis area churches who held Super Bowl Parties in honor of their home-town Colts.
Last year, the NFL went out of its way to alert churches that showing the Big Game on anything larger than a 55-inch screen was indeed a copyright violation, and that if churches violated the NFL’s copyright, they may face legal consequences. [See NFL Pulls Plug On Big-Screen Church Parties for Super Bowl, by Jacqueline L. Salmon, The Washington Post, Feb. 1, 2008.]
Obviously, no one was happy with this turn of events. Churches found themselves once again in direct competition with the Big Game, and for its part, the NFL came out looking like a money-hungry bully unwilling to play with Mainstreet America.
Last year, all of the legal threats and ambiguity put a chill on the entire event. It was like dumping a five-gallon bucket of Gatorade down the backs of America’s churches. No one knew what to do.
After the game was over, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell softened the NFL’s stance and brought clarity to the issue. In a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Goodell stated, “The League would not object to live showings of the Super Bowl by religious organizations, regardless of screen size, as long as the viewings are free and are on premises that the church uses on a routine and customary basis.” The NFL stated its intention to implement the policy starting with this year’s Super Bowl. [Source: Television Broadcast cited in “The NFL Goes to Church.”]
So, as you prepare for the Big Weekend featuring The Big Game on The Big Day, make sure you don’t mention the name of The Big Game in any of your promotions. Beyond that, may you have a blessed Big Day and enjoy the Big Game.
IT Needs to Prepare for $200 A Barrel Oil
Tech Republic is alerting readers to begin preparing now for the increased demand for for remote connections if oil continues to climb. Bill Detwiler states:
Many IT organizations, particularly in large enterprises, already support a distributed workforce. IT leaders within this category should ensure their infrastructure has the capacity to support increased demand. IT departments not currently supporting remote users should begin exploring their options now. At the very least, you should make certain your network can support existing remote workplace technologies. Also, IT will not be immune from this trend. IT leaders must develop the skills and techniques required to manage a distributed workforce.[1]
Unlike Mike Rhodin, General Manager of IBM Lotus Software, who sees the virtual workplace becoming the rule rather than the exception[2], Detwiler believes a hybrid model will emerge. Employees will work from home a few days each week.
As business and enterprise consider the trend towards the virtual workplace, educators and churches need to consider the virtual classroom. Anytime the words "travel" and "training" are used in the same sentence, we need to think "virtual." It will be too costly to send learners to remote locations for training...we must find effective methods to use technology to bring the learning environment to them.
From a church's perspective, we need to rethink models that require learners to travel to and from the church several times a week. How can the church employ technology to meet its teaching objectives? Leaders need to start exploring how to utilize the tools available to us now. Moreover, given that most churches rely on volunteer teachers, there will be a steep learning curve in helping volunteers develop the skill sets needed to communicate and teach to their classes via collaborative tools.
References
[1] "IT must prepare for $200-a-barrel oil and a rise in remote workers" - May 07, 2008. As transportation costs rise, organizations and workers will look for ways to reduce travel. For many employees, this will mean working from home to eliminate the daily commute. Tech Republic
[2]"IBM Predicts Five Future Trends That Will Drive Unified Communications" - March 19, 2008. Mike Rhodin, General Manager of IBM Lotus Software, made five predictions during his keynote address at the VoiceCon conference in Orlando, FL in March 2008. These include:
- The Virtual Workplace will become the rule. No need to leave the office. Just bring it along. Desk phones and desktop computers will gradually disappear, replaced by mobile devices, including laptops, that take on traditional office capabilities. Social networking tools and virtual world meeting experiences will simulate the feeling on being there in-person. Work models will be changed by expanded globalization and green business initiatives that reduce travel and encourage work at home.
- Instant Messaging and other real-time collaboration tools will become the norm, bypassing e-mail. Just as e-mail became a business necessity, a new generation of workers has a new expectation for instant messaging (IM) as the preferred method of business interaction. This will fuel more rapid adoption of unified communications as traditional IM becomes the core extension point for multi-modal communications.
- Beyond Phone Calls to Collaborative Business Processes. Companies will go beyond the initial capabilities of IM, like click-to-call and online presence, to deep integration with business processes and line-of-business applications, where they can realize the greatest benefit.
- Interoperability and Open Standards will tear down proprietary walls across business and public domains. Corporate demand for interoperability and maturing of industry standards will force unified communications providers to embrace interoperability. Converged, aggregated, and rich presence will allow businesses and individuals to better find and reach the appropriate resources, removing inefficiencies from business processes and daily lives.
- New meeting models will emerge. Hang up on routine, calendared conference calls. The definition of "meetings" will radically transform and become increasingly adhoc and instantaneous based on context and need. 3-D virtual world and gaming technologies will significantly influence online corporate meeting experiences to deliver more life-like experiences demanded by the next generation workers who will operate more efficiently in this familiar environment.
Paradigm Shift
What does the economy and soaring oil prices have to do with educational technology and the church? If oil prices continue to climb, and the cost at the pump starts to hit $4.00 per gallon, $5.00 per gallon, and up, then the U.S. is in for a major paradigm shift unlike anything this generation has witnessed.
Recently, I visited with a couple of missionary friends who are serving in Western Europe. Fuel in Europe hovers near $9.00 a gallon! At this price, all decisions are funneled through the lens of cost per mile. You can no longer afford to travel 30 miles for a meeting, class, or Bible study. Here in the U.S., high fuel prices are impacting the cost of food and transportation, but as of this writing, the cost per gallon isn't slowing consumer travel.
In a church setting, we are already discussing how high fuel prices could impact ministry. Grace Church (where I serve as pastor of adult education) is a regional church. We have families who travel as far as 45 to 60 miles each way to attend church. Many of our families travel 10 to 20 miles each way. Multiply this times the number of trips each week families attend church, and you have an average of 50 to 150 miles each week per family.
Right now it's not a problem. If gas prices tripled, however, it would be a problem. We would have to rethink how we do everything.
To start, we would have to rely much more on a home church model of ministry. We might be able to bring everyone together to one central location for a weekly service, but multiple trips a week to the church would probably be too costly. As a result, many of the connection opportunities would have to take place in homes.
Second, we would need to place much more emphasis on training and teaching via the Internet and digital video or audio. Many of the classroom functions that happen now at the church would need to be moved to the digital classroom.
Third, we would need to enhance our social networking capabilities as a church to keep the church members feeling connected and plugged in to the mission and vision of the church.
This, of course, is only a microcosm of the larger problems facing the U.S. as the cost of energy slowly transforms our culture. As John Loeffler observed on a recent Financial Sense Newshour:
... these higher prices also means there is a great wealth transfer that’s taking place from energy-deficit countries to energy-surplus countries. But that also means power. Power always follows the money flow and I don’t think we have seen anything like this in world history before. This is a radical paradigm shift that’s occurring right before our eyes. And again, on the geopolitical scene, you don’t see that reflected in politicians’ eyes – not just in the US but in reading what’s going on in Europe they haven’t grappled with what this means yet. [Financial Sense Newshour for April 26, 2008]