Author: Jonathan Dodson

Resources for Wisely Engaging Culture

Posted on October 30, 2008

The issue of how to engage the fuzzy issues of culture came up last night in our Partners Class. How should Xns respond to the so-called ethical “gray areas”? In order of most to least accessible, here are a few resources to help you cultivate cultural discernment:

Articles

Journals/Magazines

Accessible Books

Academic Books

The Bible/Book/Best Marketing Story Ever Told?

Posted on October 29, 2008

Ever feel uncomfortable carrying your leather Bible around? Now you don’t have to. The Book is a glossy, magazine-style version of the New testament filled with modern images to illuminate the ancient text. Everything from Coca-cola to Angelina Jolie, all in your New testament–the Good News translation or TEV.

Dag Soderberg, former marketing guru and former CEO of one of the largest advertising firms in Scandinavia, is the visionary behind this project. Soderberg says the aim of this edgy Bible is to get non-readers to read the Bible. He notes that the text is more powerful than the church. Is there agenda? They claim no agenda and write:

“The goal is to drive an emotional reaction and get people to think, discuss and share. It’s meant to trigger bigger moral questions. It in turn will help people to understand the common heritage between all religions through the Bible’s text. We hope people will find the images, design and layout intriguing—intriguing enough to talk about the actual stories in the Bible and what the morals and lessons mean to them and to each other.“

Ten percent of Stockholm turned out for the release of The Book. Bible sales in Sweden increased by 50%. Director of Marketing for The Book points out that “smart, educated, urban influencers, young, who know in their heart of hearts that they should probably have read the Bible but never have.”

It appears that Soderberg’s impetus isn’t evangelism; it’s moralism and education. To discuss and learn the morals of the Bible, to learn our history, to be touched by its message. Other literary texts are scheduled to undergo similar publication. Will you be picking up a copy?

You can preview The Book here and order it from Amazon and read an NPR interview here.

Fresh Stats for Mission in America

Posted on October 29, 2008

The following stats on church in American are culled from The American Church Research Project, which is endorsed by the Lausanne Movement and led by David T. Olson.

  • According to George Barna, 47% of American adults attended church on a typical weekend in 2005. This is not accurate. Only 17% of the US population attended an orthodox Christian church in 2007. Nine percent of that is evangelical church attendance. The rest is Roman Catholic and Mainline attendance. Of course, church attendance does not account for all believers, but these figures are staggering nonetheless.
  • While the US population has increased, church attendance has remained the same, resulting in a net loss of church attendees. Numbers from actual counts of people in orthodox Christian churches show that 20.4% of the population attended church on any given weekend in 1990. That percentage dropped to 18.7% in 2000, and to 17.0% in 2007.
  • Evangelical church growth slowed down significantly in the last year – from an average growth throughout this decade of 0.8%, to a gain of only 0.3% in the last year.
  • More Catholics and Mainliner are switching to Evangelical churches than vice versa, meaning that Evangelical growth through the conversion of the unchurched is limited.
  • The church plant rate declined until 1937, then grew until it had doubled by 1957. Then it entered a period of steep decline from 1957-1970, reaching the lowest point in history. Since then it has increased marginally. Many, many more churches need to be planted in the U.S, just to keep up with population growth. These statistics also show that the strongest ratio of church attendance is in the South. Two thousand five hundred additional new churches are needed per year to keep up with population growth.

For more info go to www.theamericanchurch.org or download this presentation.