Post by Daniel on Apr 3, 2017 6:59:43 GMT -5
Growing Number of Americans Love Jesus but Don't Go to Church, Barna Finds
By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
Apr 2, 2017
While an increasing number of Americans are reportedly abandoning the institutional church and its defined boundary markers of religious identity, many Americans still believe in God and practice faith outside its walls, a new Barna study has found.
Barna has released a report on the first of a two-part exploration of faith and spirituality outside the church, looking at the "fascinating segment of the American population who, as the saying goes, 'love Jesus but not the church.'"
One-tenth of the population comprises those who self-identify as Christian and who strongly agree that their religious faith is very important in their life, but are "dechurched," meaning they have attended church in the past, but haven't done so in the last six months or more, the Barna study says, adding that only seven percent of the population belonged to this category in 2004.
More than 60 percent of the people in this group are women, and 80 percent are not millennials, between the ages of 33 and 70.
"This group also appears to be mostly white (63%) and concentrated in the South (33%), Midwest (30%) and West (25%), with very few hailing from the Northeast (13%)," the study reveals.
"This group represents an important and growing avenue of ministry for churches," says Roxanne Stone, editor in chief of Barna Group. "Particularly if you live in a more churched area of the country, it's more than likely you have a significant number of these disaffected Christians in your neighborhoods. They still love Jesus, still believe in Scripture and most of the tenets of their Christian faith. But they have lost faith in the church."
What's more, their beliefs about God are more orthodox than the general population, even rivaling their church-going counterparts, the study shows.
continue reading
www.christianpost.com/news/americans-love-jesus-dont-go-to-church-barna-179227/
By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
Apr 2, 2017
While an increasing number of Americans are reportedly abandoning the institutional church and its defined boundary markers of religious identity, many Americans still believe in God and practice faith outside its walls, a new Barna study has found.
Barna has released a report on the first of a two-part exploration of faith and spirituality outside the church, looking at the "fascinating segment of the American population who, as the saying goes, 'love Jesus but not the church.'"
One-tenth of the population comprises those who self-identify as Christian and who strongly agree that their religious faith is very important in their life, but are "dechurched," meaning they have attended church in the past, but haven't done so in the last six months or more, the Barna study says, adding that only seven percent of the population belonged to this category in 2004.
More than 60 percent of the people in this group are women, and 80 percent are not millennials, between the ages of 33 and 70.
"This group also appears to be mostly white (63%) and concentrated in the South (33%), Midwest (30%) and West (25%), with very few hailing from the Northeast (13%)," the study reveals.
"This group represents an important and growing avenue of ministry for churches," says Roxanne Stone, editor in chief of Barna Group. "Particularly if you live in a more churched area of the country, it's more than likely you have a significant number of these disaffected Christians in your neighborhoods. They still love Jesus, still believe in Scripture and most of the tenets of their Christian faith. But they have lost faith in the church."
What's more, their beliefs about God are more orthodox than the general population, even rivaling their church-going counterparts, the study shows.
continue reading
www.christianpost.com/news/americans-love-jesus-dont-go-to-church-barna-179227/
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