The Barna report released this week (“Americans Open to Exploring New Ways of Experiencing God”) suggests that Americans are more and more inclined to find and practice faith outside the structures and context of traditional churches. The report verifies what many churches have already suspected and experienced. The report can be understood better by surveying some things that are already happening in our society and in our world. [The report is available at www.barna.org.]
The report includes a final section entitled “Changes are Already Happening.” Barna cites several statistics in suggesting that we are seeing a spiritual makeover taking place in America. About 7% of adults attend a house church in a typical month, seven times more than a decade ago. The number of people who rely upon marketplace ministries for spiritual experiences is about half of the number who attend a conventional church service during a given month. Millions of adults rely on faith-based media for religious experience and expression and the number is growing. These things represent a major realignment of religious behavior in the last decade. The rapid growth of the house church or simple church movement is especially significant.
A new book, co-authored by Barna and simple church pioneers Tony and Felicity Dale (The Rabbit and the Elephant), discusses the growth of the simple church movement and describes home-based churches as one place people are seeking faith experiences that are dynamic and genuine. The book describes the experience of the Dales in initiating a house church and explains what they have experienced and learned in the process. Barna’s summary of the major points in the book includes the following.
- how simple churches and conventional churches grow in different ways and with different methods
- the forms of accountability which help simple churches function
- facilitating and measuring success in a living, organic environment
- the different types of leadership required in conventional and simple churches
- the outreach and reproducibility models that characterize simple churches