Archive

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Ben Windle & Jay Kim on Digital Community

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Jo Saxton on Fostering Meaningful Relationships

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Skye Jethani & Kimberly Deckel on Rethinking Worship Spaces

New Research Points to Gaps in How Churches Support Congregants' Gifts

Pastors and churchgoers alike believe an individual's unique gifts and talents point to God and draw people to him. So are churches adequately helping to identify, support and celebrate congregants' gifts? For a recent report titled Gifted for More, Barna explored how U.S. adults, practicing Christians and pastors view giftedness—and suggests the U.S. Church is due for a fresh framework for gifts.

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Derwin Gray on the Lord's Prayer

56% of Practicing Christians Believe Understanding Their Calling Is a Solo Journey

New Barna data—now published in You on Purpose, a book by Dr. Stephanie Shackelford and Bill Denzel—sheds light on how U.S. adults, practicing Christians and professional career coaches think about the process of discovering one's calling.

Missions in Review—Trends Impacting Global Missions & Evangelism

How are U.S. Christians currently thinking about "making disciples of all nations?" Much of international missions work adapted or was even put on hold last year due to the pandemic. Yet, even well before then, the overall perception of how to practice missions and global evangelism has been shifting, especially among younger generations. There are plenty of reasons for leaders to be curious about how Christians’ thoughts on the topic of missions are evolving.

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Rob Peabody & Derek Sanford on Volunteer Ministry

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Bill Willits & Libby Hempen on Small Group Ministry

Helpful or Hurtful—How Practicing Christians View Race’s Impact on Their Lives

When it comes to getting ahead in life, do practicing Christians think of their race as something that has helped or hindered them? Today's article features recent data from Beyond Diversity, exploring whether or not practicing Christians from various racial backgrounds think their race offers them an advantage in life, as well as how they feel when the term "white privilege" is mentioned.

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Mark Matlock & David Kinnaman on Resilient Discipleship Post-COVID

41% of Black Church Churchgoers Favor a Hybrid Church Future

Data from Barna's Trends in the Black Church study show that the pandemic pushed Black Church pastors to innovate and challenged their ability to disciple people digitally during the pandemic. Even now, as churches emerge from COVID-era regulations, pastors and their people wonder if or how these shifts will continue to shape the trajectory of their ministry strategy.

Did 2020 Shift Americans' Perceptions of U.S. History?

Data collected in 2019 showed that Christians are far more likely than all American adults to view the U.S. as historically blessed and chosen by God, a Christian nation and a leader to the rest of the world. But that was before the events of 2020, including the COVID-19 pandemic, a racial justice uprising and an extremely divisive election season. In January of 2021, Barna once again polled U.S. adults to see if their perceptions of the nation had shifted or stayed put since 2019. Today’s article offers a breakdown of what has and hasn’t changed.

The U.S. Cities Most Committed to Weekly Bible-Reading & Prayer

Periodically, Barna zooms in from nationally representative data on the Church to focus specifically on U.S. cities, equipping pastors to lead better in their context with reporting on topics like habits of generosity, post-Christian environments, relationship status trends and more. With other measures of church attendance and affiliation in flux, especially as leaders and congregants emerge from COVID-era church life, the infographics in this article focus on two key measures of personal faith practice—Bible reading and prayer.

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Nona Jones on Having Better Conversations About Racism

Caring for the Orphan: Are U.S. Christians Doing it Right?

State of the Bible 2021: Five Key Findings

Since 2011, our team at Barna has worked alongside our friends at American Bible Society to track the State of the Bible, representing one of the largest data sets on how the population perceives and engages the Bible. This article offers five notable findings from American Bible Society’s State of the Bible 2021 report.

ChurchPulse Weekly Conversations: Juli Wilson & Kayla Stoecklein on the Mental Health Struggles of Ministry