The State of the Church – Barna Research Review with Savannah Kimberlin (Part Two)

Show Notes

Show Notes:

If you missed last week’s episode of the show where we started our conversation with Savannah Kimberlin from Barna, you need to stop right now and go back one space and watch or listen to that episode.

It will really give you context going into Part Two of our chat with Savannah.

Savannah Kimberlin is Barna’s Director of Published Research.

Today, with Savannah, we are going to be talking about what the New Sunday Morning looks like for a Christian family, what do the stats show that people actually do on Sunday now? Are they skipping church? Are they gathering the family to watch? What do they do with the kids?

We’re talking about the burning question of Millenials and Gen Z and how those age groups are engaging or disengaging with Church online.

Carl and Savannah talked about:

One in Three Practicing Christians have stopped attending Church completely.

• Are people still attending the church they were attending before COVID?
• What is the age group breakdown? Are Millennials attending church online?
• How is lack of church attendance affecting people emotionally?

Race Issues and Injustice have been a major topic of the last year.

• Do you think white Christians have become less motivated to address Racial Injustice?
• Do you think the lack of motivation is due to people thinking everything is politically motivated? That it’s hard to tell the difference between real and politics?
• Why do you think that those who might have been on the fence in the past be more firmly opposed to addressing race issues now?
• Its interesting that there are more high-profile incidents in the news, but less motivation to address the topic. Any other reasons why?

Practicing Christians are now a smaller segment of the Population.

• How long has this been declining?
• Where did these practicing Christians go?
• 1/3 fewer Christians attend church now than in 1993.

• What does the new Sunday morning look like for a Christian family?
• Are families just skipping church altogether? Do they gather their family to watch online?
• You said 96% of pastors report that their church has been streaming their services online, how many people are actually attending?
• Why do you think that is?
• Did you guys see a major increase in online attendance at first and then a decline? How real is screen fatigue?
• What about the level of attentiveness? You report that 15% of practicing Christians multi-task while they watch church.
• How should this have an affect on how we craft our Worship Experiences?
  • Meaning is there elements we should cut out of our services?
  • Should we shorten services?
  • What suggestions do you have about Worship Experiences that we should consider?

• What is working to engage Gen Z and Millennials in Worship?
• How can we help Millennials and Get Z wisely navigate Screen Time?
• How can we address issues of Loneliness and Anxiety in Young Adults?
• How can the Church support and Encourage Disciples to grow in their faith?
• How can we reframe the concept of outreach and sharing our Fatih?

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