Gellman lists the following five trends as characteristic of the church in 2005. What do you think?
Pathetic prayer. Churches are more concerned with programming than with prayer.
The continuing demise of the black church. Using the measures of church attendance, Bible knowledge, the priority of faith in a person's life, and the reliance on the religious community for support and relationships, Barna concludes that things are not looking good for black churches.
The energizing of the evangelicals. Although only 7 percent of adults are evangelicals, their voice is the loudest and their energy, charity, Bible study, and prayer life is the greatest.
Biblical illiteracy. The Barna Group has discovered that most Christians are in increasing numbers biblically illiterate.
Revolutionaries. Barna labels as “Christian revolutionaries” the more than 20 million people who are pursuing their Christian faith outside the box.
Gellman uses Barna's research to show these top five religious trends of 2005 as a wake-up call for clergy worldwide. I found them interesting because many try and guess what trends will effect us in 2006, but few back it up with Barna's research. Rabbi Marc Gellman puts forth the list above. After you read the article in full drop me a comment and chime in with your own, here is my list of trends and predictions before I read Gellman:
- Rise of the Pentacostal Movement worldwide ushering in the next Great Awakening
- American churches borrowing leadership trends from Chinese churches
- Post-modernism becomes an outdated phrase as generation-X labels are today
- A homosexual "mother-theresa-type" emerges changing gay perception
- New biblical archeology sheds doubt on reliability of scripture and millions doubt
- New Pope Benedict XVI is assassinated by an Iraqi militant as an act of terrorism
- Evangelicals champion evironmental issues and change outcome of next election
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