Is a church's financial health somehow connected to its spiritual vitality? The new survey, American Congregations 2008, is released today and suggests this is the case. A press release from the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford Seminary gives the broad strokes.

Produced by Faith Communities Today, the survey is based on responses from more than 2,500 Oldline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, Catholic & Orthodox and World Religions congregations.

The Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership (CCSP) conducted the survey. It updates results from surveys taken in 2000 and 2005, and is the latest in CCSP's series of trend-tracking national surveys of U.S. congregations.

Several of the key findings of the survey were reported earlier:

American congregations, as a group, continue to struggle, facing declining attendance at worship, eroding financial health, waning spiritual vitality and increasing uncertainty about their mission and purpose.

At the same time, some congregations have shifted to a contemporary style of worship that has catalyzed growth, and other congregations have benefited from focused leadership.

...

Among the new findings:

• Oldline Protestant congregations spend close to half their budgets on salaries and benefits compared to 31 percent spent on salaries and budgets by Evangelical Protestant congregations. Oldline congregations' pay premium is even more striking when one recalls that Oldline congregations are, on average, considerably smaller than other Christian congregations.


• American congregations have gone electronic. Web access is more the norm than the exception.


• A newly emergent trend is satellite congregations in which sermons are beamed in from the primary congregation.


• Congregations that changed to contemporary worship in the past five years show elevated levels of spiritual vitality and growth in worship attendance.


• Conservative congregations place more emphasis on the quality of their internal relationships than do liberal congregations; liberal congregations place more emphasis on ministry to the world outside their doors.


• As in 2000, money, worship and leadership lead the way as the areas of congregational life most riled with conflict. Conflict about leadership is the most likely to produce serious negative consequences.


• Creating strong interpersonal bonds and purposefulness decrease the likelihood of conflict.


• In clergy time usage, worship and teaching about the faith are the top task priorities for both Protestant families. The Oldline congregations put higher priority on worship and the Evangelical congregations put higher priority on teaching. Catholic/Orthodox leaders spent more time and attention on administration than any other task.

You can download the survey here. Check it out and come back to discuss.

WKRN News 2 reports on "Losing our Religion."

Reporter Jamey Tucker provides analysis of the state of the church in America, examining and discussing research and future trends in North American faith. He interviews several leaders, pastors, and experts in this eleven-minute "Extra" segment.

I'm impressed to see a news affiliate (ABC in this case) pay such attention to issues of faith and culture. It has been a long time since I have seen anyone do a TV news story that lasts more than 10 minutes-- let alone something on faith.

You can watch the video here:

WKRN News 2 Nashville Reports on Religion in America from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Much of what I mention is in my recent article on "stats abuse" in Christianity Today.

Feel free to share your comments (or perhaps even corrections) below.

Trevin Wax, has written a helpful book that's generating a lot of good discussion. I'm happy to have Trevin on the blog today, answering a few questions about his book, Holy Subversion. It's a great book that challenges us all to live a distinctly Christian life, one that is truly subversive. After you read the interview, stick around to talk with Trevin. He'll be hanging around the blog today to interact with us all.

What does it mean to live "subversively" for Christ?

Continue reading Trevin Wax: Holy Subversion.

In our previous installments of the "Mondays are for Missiology" series, we investigated the unique connections between the kingdom of God, eschatology, the church and mission (and all the interrelationships therein). As we've walked through this discussion I made the comment, "I see much missional historical naïveté." What exactly do I mean by that? Well, some of what I am hearing from some (not all) missional thinkers are the same words that other individuals said decades earlier-- and it subsequently led to theological ruin in the missio dei movement (something to which almost all, not just evangelicals, would agree).

So how do we not make those same mistakes again? I believe it helps by going back and looking at the roots of the missional movement and having a robust theological discussion that heightens our awareness of the issues at hand.

To that end, today I want to shift gears and begin to look at these missional issues through a more soteriological (the study of the doctrine of salvation) lens, covering the nature of salvation.

Tonight, I'm reviewing the message I'll share at Two Rivers, where I serve as Interim Pastor. I love the people there, and am happy to be able to serve the body and work along side them. The Tennesean (our Nashville paper) recently did a story on Two Rivers focusing on its healing and movement forward. If you aren't from around here you probably don't know the details, but it has had some rough days.

On Thursday, we do another session of "The Exchange."

Here is how I explained the whole idea:

Here is my most recent column in this month's Outreach Magazine. If you were a subscriber, you would have already read it and many others. So, click here to subscribe.

Here is something that has been posted at several places on the web today:

David Fitch once said that most missional thought leaders "emphasize incarnational forms of church over attractional; the church as Missio Dei over mission as program; organic forms of missionary living in neighborhoods over ministry set in a building." Yet many others seem to add the term to the current program they are attempting to promote or make cool sounding. As Ed Stetzer noted, "The word missional is used to bludgeon legalism and antinomianism alike. To some it is a sign of freedom from all established forms of the church and to others it is a degeneration into syncretism with the world."

So, do we abandon the term and move on? Not yet, because the concept behind missional is really big and words help us when we can agree on their definitions-- or at least we can agree what we mean when we use a word.

Continue reading Prologue to Missional Discussions.

Over the last few weeks we have looked at the relationship of the church, the kingdom of God, and mission. I want to bring these ideas to a close this week and move onto a new theme beginning next week. Please join the conversation in the comments. I enjoy the discussion!

The Church on Mission for the Kingdom

We may now see how when everything becomes mission, nothing is mission. The church does not point to a reality in itself, but rather to the kingdom of God and the reign of Jesus Christ. The church stands for something more elemental and invasive than itself. Because the kingdom is more all-encompassing and far-reaching than the church, the church must be recognized as a servant to Christ's kingdom.

Tomorrow is a crazy travel day. I actually speak at three events in two states. Yep, crazy.

Here is the plan:

Monday morning, Main Stage at the Orlando Hard Rock Cafe

I am speaking at the Student Leadership University to 2500 student pastors.

Monday afternoon, Harvest Church in Warner Robins, GA

I'll be taking questions about church planting at the end of the (free) NEXT Church Planting Seminar. (Interesting note: this is my first time ever speaking at anything meeting in a United Methodist church.)

Monday night, Central Baptist Church in Warner Robins

I've be preaching at the Georgia Baptist Evangelism Conference followed by a late night Q&A.

I'm tired already... but I love pastors and church leaders and look forward to encouraging lots of them tomorrow! Please pray for strength and that I can make much of Jesus and God's mission.