No Surprise Here

George Barna* just released another study that caught my attention, this one indicating that Christians in America who attend house churches are significantly more likely to be satisfied with their church life than those who attend traditional churches.

I've been involved with only one actual house church, and that one was unorthodox even as house churches go. We were all members of a nondenominational church and had been active in church leadership, but we were bored to tears there. So we started meeting in each other's homes on a rotating basis, with the host family leading that particular "service." In other words, we had no official leader. Granted, that's not likely to work for most groups, but we were good friends who trusted each other. We still considered ourselves affiliated with the church we belonged to; we just didn't attend it anymore (well, one couple did, so we shifted our services to Sunday night so they could still go to regular church on Sunday morning).

Our most memorable service had to be the night the pastor of the church decided to pay a visit. He seemed to be a really nice guy, but we didn't know him very well; the church had gone through several pastors in as many months. So he came to our meeting and listened politely to whoever gave the teaching that night. When he finally spoke, he said, "This is a really good group, and I keep hearing good things about all of you, but I don't get it -- you never go to church!" We all burst out laughing -- it was a truly priceless moment. One member said something like, "Well, yeah, I can see where that could be confusing." Even the pastor understood that we weren't laughing at him, but rather at how absurd our group must have seemed to him -- sort of in the church but not of the church. Or maybe it's the other way around: of the church but not in the church. Yeah, that's it.

Anyway, the point is that Barna's findings reflect my experience. Whenever I've been involved in a home group or other small group, that became my "church." I could take or leave Sunday morning services (except in a liturgical church, but that's another blog entirely), but don't take my home group away from me. That's where my longest-lasting friendships were forged, where we shared our lives, our joy and our pain, our successes and our failures, our ever-deepening relationship with Jesus.

Home groups, small groups, house churches--all have enabled me to serve, to worship, to fellowship, to be the body of Christ, like nothing else ever has.

* Disclaimer: I have no stake in The Barna Group despite the number of my blogs that cite its research. Honest.

Back to Barna

Okay, now that all the partying and revelry is over (it is, isn't it?), let's get back to Barna. Here's another finding from the report I mentioned in my Dec. 29 blog:

Five of the highest-profile Christian leaders – Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye and T.D. Jakes – were unknown to a majority of the population. Most of those leaders were also unknown to most born again Christians.

This one should give pause to anyone who is an author, radio personality, pastor, or leader of any kind in the Christian community. Let's take these one by one:

• Rick Warren: This one should be most alarming to authors. How many weeks was The Purpose-Driven Life number 1 on so many bestseller lists? For years, you couldn't even enter a bookstore without the risk of tripping over a freestanding display of PDL and its myriad ancillary products. And you could hardly find a church that wasn't following the "40 Days of Purpose" program (I tried). If it hadn't been for PDL, Warren's relative obscurity outside of Southern California and his church network wouldn't be such a surprise. But post-PDL, I can't imagine how so many Christians could be unfamiliar with him.



• Joel Osteen: No surprise here. Yes, he's a bestselling author, but his bestselling book has nowhere near the title recognition that Warren's PDL has. He's known in Texas and among charismatics, but that's about it.



• James Dobson: You've got to be kidding me. Christians don't know who Dobson is? With the exception of LaHaye, Dobson's been around longer than anyone else on the list, and for decades he was well-known and highly regarded among evangelicals for his teaching on child-rearing. Even secular parents bought his books. Plus, he had, and has, a huge radio audience. He lost some followers and gained some more when he started getting all political, but he also attracted the attention of secular audiences at that point. They hated him, but still. The man has name recognition. Who on earth did Barna's people ask?



• Tim LaHaye: This one should alarm co-authors. Either the "Left Behind" mega series is better known by its titles than its authors, or Jerry Jenkins is getting all the credit. Actually, the latter may be the case; I've been familiar with LaHaye's work since the 1970s, and I almost never think of him in the context of "Left Behind." He's just always been there, like evangelical wallpaper. I swear, the pollsters must have been talking to teenagers, because anyone who's been around the church for a while should at least know LaHaye's name, even if they can't figure out where they know it from.



• T.D. Jakes: Another bestselling author who is apparently living in obscurity despite his millions of followers. Go figure. Granted, he's best known among charismatics and African-Americans, but he was also well-known in a liberal, liturgical church I attended. Like Warren and Osteen, he's a relative newcomer, so maybe that's part of the problem.

What do you think? Are these people as obscure as the poll suggests, especially among Christians?

Seriously, Now

Right before Christmas, George Barna released a report on the "12 Most Significant Religious Findings from 2006 Surveys." I could comment on all 12, but I'm trying to use a bit of restraint here. Here's just one of his findings:

Most Americans have a period of time during their teen years when they are actively engaged in a church youth group. However, Barna’s tracking of young people showed that most of them had disengaged from organized religion during their twenties.

Well, of course. The study apparently didn't ask the respondents why they left the church, though a few commentators offered their expert opinion. But no one mentioned the two main reasons young people "disengage" from organized religion, based on my most unscientific observations: 1) It's as boring as all get-out; and 2) They discovered they've been lied to for years -- often unintentionally, but still, the distrust runs deep. Jesus didn't harp on the things the church had harped on for their entire lives, in His holy name no less. The twentysomethings I know, and they are legion, have no problem with God or Jesus. Just don't get them started on church.

Thoughts?