George Barna’s Revolution
George Barna�s lastet book, Revolution, is raising some eyebrows around the country and in one of our next podcasts we�ll take a look at the content of his book and its implications for those thinking outside the box. Barna, head of a polling firm on Christian issues, identifies a growing segment of the Christian population who are deeply committed to Christ but live that faith outside of the traditional congregation. He says 30% of committed Christians now live that way and in the next 20 years that will increase to 70%.
In previous books Barna has been aware of this trend for some time, but he approached it as a negative trend and tried to advise congregations how to build a better mousetrap to keep those people contained. Now he identifies this trend a revolution in Christianity and says that those outside are more spiritually passionate, more relationally engaged with other Christians and more concerned with their unbelieving neighbor as those on the inside. He suggests that this trend be encouraged, rather than denounced, and that it will redefine significantly the church in the culture.
He even challenges some of the great myths upon which local congregational commitment is built: �You should realize that the Bible neither describes nor promotes the local church as we know it today. The local church many have come to cherish�the services, offices, programs, buildings, ceremonies�is neither biblical or unbiblical. It is abiblical�that is, such an organization is not addressed in the Bible.�
You can see a summary of the book at his website at his website, or order it from Amazon.com. If you have comments, questions or observations you�d like us to interact with on our podcast on this topic, you can leave them in the comment section here, email them to us or phone them in to our question/comment line 24 hours a day at (805) 626-4212.
