As a church leader, it’s vitally important to keep up on what’s happening in our ever-changing culture.  Each month in Ministry Briefing, we highlight the cultural news items that you really need to know as a church leader.  Here is just a sampling from this month’s Briefing in the area of culture.  You can download and read the whole issue here. Teen Birth Rates Decline Dramatically The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that between 2007 and 2011, teen birth rates dropped dramatically in America, with Hispanic girls falling an impressive 34%. Nearly every...

Each month, Ministry Briefing finds that top trends that are happening in the church and ministry world.  In June’s edition, we tackle the top 35 trends we’re seeing.  We think these are trends that you need to know about… some of them will… either directly or indirectly… affect your ministry in the next months and years. I would encourage you to invest in keeping up with the trends.  Matt Steen and I have done the research and groundwork to help you do that with Ministry Briefing.  Here are the trends we’re watching this month: -Research Into Religion and...

This quote stood out to me this morning: Many of us have grown up believing we must keep trying to “do church” better. It’s difficult for us to realize that our programs or performances, no matter how attractive, won’t interest a large part of our population. It’s easy for us to forget that the first church flourished and grew simply through intentional relationships, clear presentation of the facts about Jesus, and the witness of transformed lives. Today’s missional leaders are calling for all of us to employ that same strategy to reach unchurched people around us. I don’t know how...

Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God’s guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.   Thoughts? It’s interesting to me that a full 78% believe that God still played some type of role in creation. What’s your takeaway? More...

Fascinating infographic on how our younger generation communicates.  Take note people… this is the church or tomorrow.  Change or...

Russ Rankin writes: Professing Christians progressing toward spiritual maturity will have a firmer grasp on important doctrinal positions, according to findings from LifeWay Research. However, plenty of churchgoers still struggle with basic truths about God, the Bible and salvation. The LifeWay Research study on “Doctrinal Positions” shows that while 81 percent of churchgoers say “When you die, you will go to heaven because you have confessed your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior,” 26 percent agree “If a person is sincerely seeking God, he/she can obtain eternal life through...

More than half of Americans think the Bible has too little influence on a culture they see in moral decline, yet only one in five Americans read the Bible on a regular basis, according to a new survey. More than three-quarters of Americans (77 percent) think the nation’s morality is headed downhill, according to a new survey from American Bible Society. The survey showed the Bible is still firmly rooted in American soil: 88 percent of respondents said they own a Bible, 80 percent think the Bible is sacred, 61 percent wish they read the Bible more, and the average household has 4.4 Bibles. If the...

Do you have Facebook on your smartphone? How often do you check it? In a recent study commissioned by Facebook, smartphone users were found to be checking the social network an average of 14 times a day. The study also found that 79% of smartphone users use their phones within fifteen minutes of waking up while 62% grab their phone immediately upon waking. With this in mind, we ask the question: how are churches leveraging Facebook for the Gospel? In a story we covered in the just released April edition of Ministry Briefing, we discuss these stats, what they could mean for churches, and how the church...

According to a study by FaithCommunities, 75% of churches report that they are experiencing some kind of conflict in the past five year’s time.  And 25% report their current conflict as ‘serious’. Here are the sources of conflict:   Does this sound about right to you? Has your church experiences ‘serious’ conflict in the past five...

Are you a modern-day televangelist?  Chris Nye thinks that we have merely re-defined what a televangelist is (in the current day) with blogs, youtube, satellite campuses, tablets, smart phones, etc. He writes: We are not finished with the Televangelists, I’ve realized. We have simply rebranded them. We’ve changed the style but not the substance. When it comes to the habit of elevating certain gifted communicators, and trying desperately to be like them, little has changed. As our culture has moved from the television screen to the computer/tablet screen, the Televangelist has moved along...