Fall 1990

Reformed Quarterly Volume 9, Issue 3

George Barna is the president of the Barna Research Group, a marketing research company located in Glendale, California. Founded by Barna in 1984, the company specializes in conducting research for Christian churches and parachurch organizations, the media, advertising agencies, and non-profit organizations.

Barna graduated summa cum laude from Boston College, then earned two masters degrees from Rutgers University. He is the author of several books, including Vital Signs and The Frog in the Kettle: What Christians Need to Know About Life in the Year 2000, as well as numerous articles and syndicated reports. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars related to marketing, research, and church growth. He also serves on the faculty at Biola University. In the following interview, Barna discusses cultural changes in the next decade and how the church and its leadership must address them.

Q. An increasing number of people today think that the church is irrelevant and losing influence. Why is this?

A. Essentially, people have come to realize that many, if not most, of the Protestant churches in this country are not responding to people’s felt needs. They are mired in tradition and not changing with the times, not on the cutting edge. No longer is the church a trend-setter in the areas of ethics and scholarship; we are falling behind. People are unimpressed wit the church’s ability to help people deal with difficult situations in their lives.

Q. The clergy are one of the most frustrated professional groups in the United States. Why is that and what can we do about it?

A. I think that, by and large, the clergy feel they are not having much of an impact. They are doing everything they can think of to make an impact on people’s lives, and nothing seems to be working. This irritates and frustrates them.

They are also stymied because they sense that they are doing ministry alone. Many church members see the minister as the person paid to do ministry while the rest of us cheer them on from the sidelines. The clergy know that this is not the way it is supposed to work, yet many have not figured out how to break out of that mold. They are under a great deal of pressure to perform, and many sense minimal appreciation for their efforts on the part of the congregation.

How do we deal with the situation? First, I think we need to help the clergy focus not merely on their failures, but also on their successes. Second, I think we need to create new leadership strategies to involve more people in ministry. Part of this means communicating the vision for ministry to the people so that they can become more involved. As they understand the reason for their participation, they will find it a much more fulfilling experience. As it stands now, many refuse to be involved in ministry because we have not given them a compelling reason to do so. We have simply said, “Your function is to be in ministry.” In America today, that is not a good enough reason. We must give them a solid explanation of why they must be in ministry and model that behavior for them.

Also, I think the pastor must redefine his role to help his people understand that he is not a super-human and is not the only person to be engaged in ministry. He must remove himself from the ministry pedestal. The more transparent a pastor is, the less frustrated he will be. He is willing to let the congregation see that, even though he is a committed Christian, he, too, is struggling with how to make his faith practical, real, and significant. This transparency frequently helps to bridge the gap that can separate the clergy and the congregation.

Q. If evangelicals are to increase their influence, what must they do?

A. First, the church must become much more market-driven than product-driven. Currently we are product-driven; we focus on what we think we are capable of doing. To be market-driven means to focus on what people are looking for from a ministry. Whatever that commodity is will determine whether or not they are going to give it their attention, resources, or commitment.

Second, we are going to have to offer much more creative solutions to some of the dilemmas with which we are faced today. We will not necessarily have a lack of resources in the future, but we must use them more efficiently than we currently do. We must prioritize our spending and put our money in really key areas instead of traditional allocation.

Moreover, we will have to articulate the vision of the ministry consistently for our people. Many churches today could not state their vision – or God’s vision – for their ninistry. In the future, if we want to tave an impact, it is imperative that a church’s leaders understand what heir vision is and continually articulate it for the congregation so that they not only understand it, but also can articulate it for others. It becomes the motivation for their own personal ministries and for the ministry they conduct within that church.

Q. What are some of the significant changes that will occur during the next decade and how will those changes affect churches?

A. Lifestyles are going to be very different. Convenience and speed will be important. People will not ascribe credibility to institutions. Commitment and loyalty will be low. People will be looking for options, and they will want the choice from those options to be theirs, not the church’s.

It will be a very difficult time to minister effectively. We will be struggling for a greater share of people’s attention. People will be looking for meaningful religion, but they may not be looking at the Christian church even as an initial possibility for finding that religion.

The most significant resource in people’s lives will no longer be money; it will be time. To judge the value of a program or project, you will have to decide how much time people will be willing to devote to it.

What effect will this have on churches? First, it will make obsolete the traditional definition of a church home. In other words, people will no longer have a single church home but multiple church homes. On any given Sunday they will wake up and choose a particular church which they feel will meet the needs they feel most keenly that morning.

Because of this, we may have to redefine our notions of success. Low loyalty and commitment will make people less willing to join organizations. Perhaps we will not be able to use the standard measures, such as church membership, to determine growth. We may have to redefine participation in and our expectations from programs, because in the future people will not automatically come to an event because the church is sponsoring it. Rather, we will have to prove to people that it is worth their time.

We will also have to be more quality-conscious. Since people will be considering multiple options for their time – many of them high-quality options from other institutions, activities, and lifestyles – we will have to show them every time out of the box that we are offering them absolute excellence, relevant activities which will meet their needs.

Q. What do you see as the most significant marks of growing churches?

A. Probably the single most significant characteristic is a well-defined and clearly articulated vision for ministry. It is not simply the vision of the senior pastor for his own life, but it is a clear understanding of God’s vision for that particular church. It is the pastor’s ability to gain God’s insight into what that church has been called to do, then to pass that vision on to the church leaders and ultimately to the entire congregation.

Another mark of growing churches is that all of the people who belong to that church, whether regular attenders or actual members, see themselves as ministers. Whether they are involved in evangelism, discipleship, or church development, they see themselves as being the people who really have been called by God to be ministers. Those churches have a tremendous pool of talent to call upon when it is time for ministry.

Growing churches also have an enormous commitment to prayer. They have members whose ministries are prayer These are not people who can’t do anything else and have been told, “Well, why don’t you go and pray?” People who have a prayer ministry in these churches are vital cogs in the overall ministry. In such churches, the entire staff from the senior pastor on down model prayer for the congregation. Secondly they spend significant time teaching about prayer, allowing time and forums for prayer to take place.

Fourth, in growing churches, people, not programs, are important. The congregation knows exactly why they are in ministry, and they are excited about it. They also have a tremendous passion for ministry.

Fifth, churches that grow do not try to be all things to all people – a situation that can easily undermine the viability of a church and keep it from growing. A church can do only so many things with excellence.

Finally strong churches have strong leaders, beginning with the senior pastor. Based upon that leadership, the church will grow.