Study: The unchurched believe churches are still relevant but not trustworthy
Body
“While biblical doctrine will always offend some, the bulk of church perception problems are self-imposed, self-inflicted, and largely fixable.” - ChurchAnswers
As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“While biblical doctrine will always offend some, the bulk of church perception problems are self-imposed, self-inflicted, and largely fixable.” - ChurchAnswers
“Trust in pastors fell for the third straight year and reached an all-time low. Around 1 in 3 Americans (34%) rate the honesty and ethical standards of clergy as high or very high, according to the latest Gallup survey.” - Lifeway
“In the struggle to reduce problems of over-policing and over-criminalization and improve public trust in law enforcement, what is the role of local community organizations and institutions?” - Acton
“The latest Gallup survey of Americans’ opinions and trust of specific occupations found clergy improving from 37% last year to 40% in 2020, marking the first increase in a decade. Overall, medical practitioners dominate the top of the list, with nurses ranked highest (85%) for the 18th straight year.” - Facts & Trends
Reprinted with permission from Voice magazine, Nov/Dec 2010.
The associate pastor of Country Bible Church is a multi-talented young man with great people skills. His senior pastor, also a highly gifted ministry servant, values and trusts his young associate. The younger adults of Country Bible are calling for some changes to be made in the worship services and children’s ministries of the church. The senior pastor pays attention to these calls for change, but inclines to move slowly, to allow the church body needed time to adjust to and embrace the changes. The reach and the rate of the initial phase of changes fall short of the younger adults’ desires and expectations. These younger adults begin to voice their complaints to the associate pastor. He commiserates with them, but expresses that he is basically powerless to move things along faster and further.
With frustration mounting several of the young adults begin to voice the idea of breaking away from the larger group, perhaps becoming their own congregation, but remaining under the umbrella of their present church’s organization. As that conversation continues over a period of weeks, the younger adults decide that even that idea would move too slowly and would probably not produce the results they desired. So, they begin to talk about breaking away completely and starting their own church. They approach the associate pastor with the idea and invite him to become their pastor. He finds the idea appealing, but cautions that the discussions of that possibility need to be kept secret until final decisions are made. Secrecy is preserved and the group moves persistently toward forming a new church, gathering more young adults to the idea as the weeks pass by.
Discussion