let’s look at the kind of
transformation that is evident in the lives of the 77 million american adults
who are churched, born-again Christians . . . contemporary Christians . .
.
• Regarding worship . . . bi-weekly attendance at worship services . . . is the only time they worship God . . . 8 out of every 10 believers do not feel they have entered into the presence of God, or experienced a connection with Him, during the worship service . . . half of all believers say they do not feel they have entered into the presence of God or experienced a genuine connection with Him during the past year . . .
• Regarding Faith-based Conversations . . . the typical churched believer will die without leading a single person to a life-saving knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ . . .
• Regarding Intentional Spiritual Growth . . . the typical believer contends that the bible is accurate in what it teaches, he or she spends less time reading the bible in a year than watching television, listening to music, reading other books and publications, or conversing about personal hobbies and leisure interests . . . what constitutes success in life, few believers define ‘success’ in spiritual terms . . . when given the opportunity to state how they want to be known by others, fewer than one out of ten believers mentioned descriptions that reflect their relationships with God . . .
• Regarding Resource Investments . . . churched Christians give away an average of about 3 percent of their income in a typical year – and feel pleased with their ‘sacrificial’ generosity . . . fewer than 1 out of every 10 churched Christians donates at least 10 percent of their income to churches and other non-profit organizations. (more than 1/3 claim to do so.) . . . most believers are unable to identify anything specific they have ever donated money to that they would describe as producing life-changing outcomes . . .
• Regarding Servathood . . . in a typical week, only 1 out of every 4 beleivers will allocate some time to serving other people. Most of that time is dedicated to volunteering in church programs that serve congregants; little effort is invested in serving needy people outside the congregation . . . the typical believer would rather give money to an organization to allow it to do good deeds in society than personally assist in alleviating the needs of disadvantaged people . . .
• Regarding Family Faith . . . majority if churched believers rely upon their church, rather than their family, to train their children to become spiritually mature . . . fewer than 1 out of every 10 churched families worships together outside of a church service . . . most Christian parents do not believe that they are doing a good job at facilitating the spiritual development of their children . . .
it's a sad day for us now. it's an
exciting day for what we can do!
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