This is like... the Truth? You know?

I must say right of the bat that I don't know who Taylor Mali is, except for what I've read on his personal site. But I found this video while doing my daily blog-reading routine (sounds familiar?). Watch it.

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

How Different Generations View The Bible

I was going through my typical Monday-blog-reading routine today and came across something very interesting. Sam Rainer (author of Essential Church?) posted the results of one of Barna Group's latest research topics. Since we started talking about Truth at our last Wednesday night meeting, I thought this information was entirely relevant.

The post is about how different generations view the Bible. There are essentially four different groups generational trends researchers refer to:

1. Mosaic: ages 18 to 25 (1984 - 1991)
   
2. Busters: ages 26 to 44 (1965 - 1983)
   
3. Boomers: ages 45 to 63 (1946 - 1964; post WWII)
   
4. Elders: ages 64+ (pre WWII end)
   

Here's how young adults (Mosaics and Busters) view the Bible (source: The Barna Group):

• Less Sacred – While most Americans of all ages identify the Bible as sacred, the drop-off among the youngest adults is striking: 9 out of 10 Boomers and Elders described the Bible as sacred, which compares to 8 out of 10 Busters (81%) and just 2 out of 3 Mosaics (67%).

• Less Accurate – Young adults are significantly less likely than older adults to strongly agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. Just 30% of Mosaics and 39% of Busters firmly embraced this view, compared with 46% of Boomers and 58% of Elders.

• More Universalism – Among Mosaics, a majority (56%) believes the Bible teaches the same spiritual truths as other sacred texts, which compares with 4 out of 10 Busters and Boomers, and one-third of Elders.

• Skepticism of Origins – Another generational difference is that young adults are more likely to express skepticism about the original manuscripts of the Bible than is true of older adults.

• Less Engagement – While many young adults are active users of the Bible, the pattern shows a clear generational drop-off – the younger the person, the less likely then are to read the Bible. In particular, Busters and Mosaics are less likely than average to have spent time alone in the last week praying and reading the Bible for at least 15 minutes. Interestingly, none of the four generations were particularly likely to say they aspired to read the Bible more as a means of improving their spiritual lives.

• Bible Appetite – Despite the generational decline in many Bible metrics, one departure from the typical pattern is the fact that younger adults, especially Mosaics (19%), express a slightly above-average interest in gaining additional Bible knowledge. This compares with 12% of Boomers and 9% of Elders.
  

What does all this mean?

A trend has been formed toward disputing the veracity of the Bible (showed through just about every question asked in the research). The Bible is viewed less and less as the infallible (definition: incapable of failure or error) Word of God. And the research shows there is a great increase (jumped from 43 to 56%) in the universalism of God's Word, which means the Bible is seen as being just as true as other religious writing such as the Koran and the Book of Mormons.

These are not very good news. They are the product of relativism and subjectivism (we talked about these last week) which have shaped our culture in the last 30 to 40 years. And we need to be aware of these positions.

However, the most interesting result in the research by the Barna Group is that there is a trend among our generations (Mosaics and Busters) to want more Bible knowledge and spend more time learning about it. In other words, an increase hunger for spiritual things. We often talk about how this is a generation that's seeking spirituality (of any kind), and here's a great opportunity. We need to recognize the need and this hunger to meet people where they are in life. Perhaps engaging someone in a conversation about the Bible is exactly what they needed (and wanted), but the need goes unmet because of our fear of turning someone off by "meaningless church talk."

Know the Bible, know the truth (John 17:17 says "Your word is truth"), and go fish.

Free Breakfast Church

Here's an idea:

http://freebreakfastchurch.com/

Go to their site. Watch the video. Read the few lines they have written. You'll get it. Nothing fancy. Just living it out at its best. I love it!

Are you ready for it?

Healing at Disneyland! (Definitely worth reading)

Last week, Matt Zeglen brought up this account of God's amazing healing power (and willingness) during our meeting on Wednesday:

Four friends (I believe) from Bethel Church in Redding, CA, went to Disneyland on some free tickets (God orchestrated too!). While there, God decided to release His healing power through them. Around 150 got healed, 100 or so received Jesus Christ, and about 50 or so received Him for the very first time in about 4 hours of ministry.

Check out the full scoop at:
http://www.ibethel.org/features/testimonies/index.php?f=testimonies.php&d=882

YOU HAVE GOT TO WATCH THE VIDEOS THOUGH. HERE THEY ARE:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

(If you are pressed for time, you've got watch at the very least Parts 1 & 4).

Truly amazing! What would it be of our communities if God would choose to work through us like this?

Coming Soon to a PC near you!

I've been working on getting Catalyst up and running on the web. It's coming soon. Stay tuned.