Evangelical Christians Have a Favorability Problem According to Pew Research Center
Also, Pastors Quitting, Churches Merging, and Membership in Denominations Defined
In This Edition
Pew Research Center Survey on Religious Favorability
41% of Pastors Considered Quitting Ministry
3 Pivotal Questions to Ask When Considering a Church Merger
Patterns: Defining Membership in Baptist Associations
Evangelical Christians Have a Favorability Problem According to Pew Research Center
Check out Pew’s report on Americans Feel More Positive Than Negative About Jews, Mainline Protestants, Catholics
Then see the Christianity Today article on Evangelicals Are the Most Beloved US Faith Group Among Evangelicals
ForthTelling Innovation Insights: The political and cultural advocacy of evangelical Christians impacts their favorability rating. In one sense that is fine if the goal is advocacy. If, however, the prime directive is to be personal and organizational representatives of the unconditional love of God, and the importance of a spirit-filled life that reflects the life and ministry of Jesus, then being seen as unfavorable by so many people is a huge challenge to mission. It may not be either/or, but there is a problem that must be addressed for people to appropriately hear a Christ-centered message of love.
41% of Pastors Considered Quitting Ministry
Check out the Barna article Excerpt: A Rapid Decline in Pastoral Security
“New Barna data shows that pastors’ confidence and satisfaction in their vocation has decreased significantly in the past few years, and two in five (41%) say they’ve considered quitting ministry in the last 12 months. What can be done to help pastors in crisis?”
ForthTelling Innovation Insights: The pandemic was not a friend to pastors. It increased emotional, economic, and ministry stress — as if the stress on ministers was not already high enough. Now the stress continues as some people in congregations want to go back to the way things were, and others what to go forward to a new normal of congregational ministry. Pastors also have their own sense of spiritual calling and ministry strategy. It has always been difficult to please everyone. Is it now more so where you minister?
3 Pivotal Questions to Ask When Considering a Church Merger
Check out this article by church merger expert Jim Tomberlin HERE.
ForthTelling Innovation Insights: Another post-pandemic issue is that some churches are sufficiently weaker that they are now open to merger, being adopted by another church, or becoming a campus of a multi-site church. Merging two churches is always a challenge. We believe merging three is better than merging two for reasons we could discuss with you. Adoption by another church has a good set of strengths. Becoming the campus of another church is more radical than one might think and needs to be considered carefully.
Patterns: Defining Memberships in Baptist Associations
In Baptist associations, and other local judicatories or denominations where congregational polity is the norm rather than connectionalism within the dimensions of the denomination, how is membership defined? (Click on the title to read this column by George Bullard in The Baptist Paper.)
ForthTelling Innovation insights: A big difference exists between membership that is a bounded and membership that is centered. Bounded membership has hard boundaries beyond which churches are not allowed to function without risking losing membership in the association or another local denominational organization. Centered membership says these are the essentials, and a diversity of churches may join. There still may be situations where churches get so far from the center that their membership is reconsidered by the association or other local denominational organizations. How far from the center that might be is defined differently in different places.