Ministers Clueless About Congregations

This may certainly stir the nest. According to the latest information from Barna, ministers are clueless about the real state of those in the congregation.

On average, pastors contend that 70% of the adults in their church consider their personal faith in God to transcend all other priorities. Amazingly, as many as one out of every six pastors (16%) contends that 90% or more of the adults in their church hold their relationship with God as their top life priority!

In reality the picture was completely different.

To make an apples-to-apples comparison, the survey isolated those who attend Protestant churches and found that even among that segment of adults, not quite one out of every four (23%) named their faith in God as their top priority in life….

Regardless of how the population was evaluated, though, there was no segment of the adult population that came close to the level of commitment that Protestant pastors claimed for churchgoers.

Barn digs into why such poor assessments were being made. The top criteria used by ministers to make an overstatement of the congregation’s health?

1. How many were involved in church related activity

2. Church attendance

3. A life changing experience at some point

4. How much knowledge people received

5. How much money was donated

6. Comments made to the minister by the congregation

As the ‘churched’ number falls in contrast to overall population, those that remain are increasingly lukewarm. A good time for a healthy assessment as to who people are listening to while claiming to follow Jesus Christ. The news around the country fits the information Barna supplies.