George Barna has released “megathemes” of the American religious environment as discovered through his company’s research in 2010 (http://bit.ly/eBKWvG), summarized below in bold print. Any honest church leader in America would not be surprised by Barna’s findings.
Alongside those themes, I have included some of Michael Green’s conclusions in his classic work, Evangelism in the Early Church. A comparison of these viewpoints is enlightening.
1. The Christian church is becoming less theologically literate. Basic Christian truths are increasingly foreign, even to believers.
Green: “Primitive evangelism . . . included able intellectual argument, skillful study of the Scriptures, careful, closely reasoned teaching and patient argument. It was no doubt because of the careful teaching instruction they were giving that the authorities were worried about this new movement: ‘You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.’”
2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented. Believers are increasingly likely to be isolated from non-believers.
Green: “The little man . . . was the primary agent in mission. . . . This must often have been not formal preaching, but the informal chattering to friends and chance acquaintances, in homes and wine shops, on walks, and around market stalls. They went everywhere gossiping the gospel.”
