Burnout can lead to inappropriate behavior or other circumstances that necessitate the removal of the pastor from the church. The Recovery Program of the Evangelical Free Church of America Ministerial Association identifies six crises associated with the traumatic experience of losing one’s ministry that must be addressed by a recovery program.

• Housing Crisis—Where can we live?
• Financial Crisis—How can we pay our bills?
• Friendship Crisis—Have we lost all our friends?
• Job/Career Crisis—Where can I work now? In the future?
• Spiritual Crisis—How do I deal with the guilt, shame, broken dreams and vision?
• Personal Crisis—Can I be helped? Can I change?

6 Jeremy S. Haskell, “An evaluation of the recovery program at the Evangelical Free Church of Hershey, Pennsylvania,” Wheaton College Graduate School, 2004, 16-17.

• A study by Lifeway Research and the North American Mission Board revealed that sixty-four percent of the respondents think "the Christian religion is a relevant and viable religion for today."
• Seventy-nine percent think Christianity "is more about organized religion than about loving God and loving people."
• Eighty-six percent of those surveyed believe they "can have a good relationship with God without being involved in church."

• Americans are most concerned with three issues, which are perceived as “major” problems facing the country by three-quarters of the general population.
  
• The problems are poverty (78 percent), personal debt of individual Americans (78 percent), and HIV/AIDS (76 percent), according to the Barna survey.

• According to a survey by Relevant Magazine, the younger generation of Christian voters shared some of the same moral values held by traditional Christian right leaders. 
  
• They differed significantly from traditional Christian right leaders in other aspects such as foreign policy, abortion, and healthcare.
• Abortion was still considered one the most important issues in the presidential election by younger Christian voters.
• Gay rights, a core issue for Christian right leaders, was selected out of a provided list (abortion, gay rights, church and state issues, bioethics, illegal immigration) as the least important presidential issue.

• A new study of attendance at Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings shows the percentage of messengers in the 18-39 age group steadily declining since 1980 – the early days of the SBC’s Conservative Resurgence – and dropping sharply since 2004.
• The percentage of messengers in the 60-plus age group, however, has increased dramatically.

• Every twenty-four hours the world has a population net growth of 219,000 people.
  
• Christians number 170,000 converts per day but find 91,000 defectors, so the net growth is 79,000 Christians each day.
  
• Of the 2,113,199,000 "affiliated" Christians, 1,476,690,000 are "church attenders." 
  
• There were 175,000 Christian martyrs worldwide this year, which means 480 per day.

• Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans say they celebrate Christmas this year. 
• Three percent say they celebrate Hanukkah
• Three percent will recognize the Winter Solstice

• According to the most recent Rasmussen Reports survey, 47% of Americans consider this holiday season joyous.
• A slightly less percentage (44%) however, regard the holiday season as stressful.
• More Republicans (61%) deem the season more joyous than Democrats (39%).   

• According to recent study released by the Harris Poll, sixty-two percent of Americans believe in a literal hell and the devil. 
• Forty-two percent of the Americans surveyed stated that they believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution. 

• Nearly 30 percent of recent SBC seminary graduates now serving as church pastors identify themselves as Calvinists, according to data presented during the opening session of a conference on Reformed theology and the Southern Baptist Convention. 
  • By contrast in the SBC at large, the number of pastors who affirm the five points of Calvinism is around 10 percent. 

• An Ellison Research study found that 66 percent of Americans believe their religious attendance before age 18 gave them a good moral foundation.
• Sixty-two percent say they are glad they attended church.

• The Lifeway Research study indicated that the majority of Protestant senior pastors (63 percent) and laity (51 percent) believe in the gift of a private prayer language.
• Of the Protestant laity surveyed, 15 percent responded "Don't know" when asked if they believe in the gift of private prayer language.
• Of the Protestant pastors, only 3 percent are unsure.
  

• Most teens also prefer a church that teaches how their faith should influence everyday decisions and lifestyle rather than one that teaches the traditions and background of their faith (39 percent vs. 16 percent, respectively).
  • At the same time, 45 percent said they would not care for either type of church.

• Presbyterian senior pastors have a higher salary than those of any other denomination, according to Christianity Today's latest church salary survey.
  • The average salary for the head pastor in Presbyterian churches was $78,000 (plus housing/parsonage).
• Baptist senior pastors earned next to last with $67,000.

• Although an overwhelming majority of Protestant pastors and lay people agree that Scripture indicates people should never get drunk, only less than a third say it forbids drinking, a new study showed.

• LifeWay Research released study results that showed that more than two-thirds of young adults who attend a Protestant church stopped attending church regularly (at least twice a month) for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22.

• Christians worldwide are simply becoming too busy for God according to the Obstacle to Growth Survey. 
• The Obstacles to Growth Survey found that on average, more than 4 in 10 Christians around the world say they "often" or "always" rush from task to task.

America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2007 is one in a series of annual reports to the Nation on the condition of children in America. In this report, three background measures describe the changing population of children and provide demographic context and 38 indicators depict the well-being of children in the areas of family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.

• Average Americans believe that immigrants have had more of a negative than beneficial impact on the crime rate, the economy, social and moral values, and job opportunities, according to the recent Gallup poll.
• The survey showed that 58 percent of Americans believe the crime situation is worst because of immigrants, while 46 percent say this people group has negatively impacted the economy in general.

• A Gallup poll recently discovered that healthcare rates behind only Iraq and immigration when Americans name the top problem facing the country.
• According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, workers' contributions toward the cost of family health coverage reached $2,973 in 2006, up $1,354 since 2000.
• The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) reports that 46 million people under the age of 65 had no medical coverage in 2005.

• Of those surveyed, only 46 percent said they have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in church/organized religion - one percentage point of being the lowest in Gallup's history since 1973.

• Half of Southern Baptist pastors say they believe the Holy Spirit gives some people a special language to pray to God – what is known to some as private prayer language – a surprising new study found.
  • Sixty-three percent of Protestant senior pastors believe in the gift of a private prayer language.
  • Within the SBC, 50 percent of pastors believe in the gift and 43 percent do not.

• Overall, the most popular view Americans hold today is that the Bible is the inspired word of God with 47 percent claiming such a view while 19 percent believe the Bible is a book of ancient fables, legends, and history as recorded by man.

Results show that 69 percent of teenagers believe heaven exists. Also, a majority of teens strongly agree with the traditional Christian belief in Jesus Christ’s death for their sins as the reason they will go to heaven (53 percent). While many teenagers believe they will go to heaven because of their belief in Jesus Christ, one quarter trust in their own kindness to others (27 percent) or their religiosity (26 percent) as their means to get to heaven.

Less Americans embrace a traditional view of God and Bible reading is becoming less popular according to a survey by the Barna Group. In a national study of 1,006 adults, the Barna Group found that while two-thirds of the American population firmly embraces the idea that their most important purpose is to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength, the public's beliefs have changed in the past year.

• About one-third of urban youth workers report significant levels of posttraumatic stress according to a survey by Fuller Seminary’s Center for Youth and Family.
• The realities surrounding an urban youth worker are violence, poverty, inadequate schools, juvenile hall and every-day injustices of urban life.
• Almost all youth workers interviewed in the survey agreed that the inner city can be a war zone and it can be easy to absorb the trauma that they deal with each day.

With the number of nonwhite Americans above 100 million for the first time, demographers are identifying an emerging racial generation gap. The Census Bureau estimated that from July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006, the nation’s minority population grew to 100.7 million from 98.3 million which is about one in three of all Americans.

• In a national study of 1,006 adults, the Barna Group found that two-thirds of the American population firmly embraces the idea that their most important purpose is to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength.  
• The study showed 66 percent of Americans believe that God is best described as the all-powerful, all-knowing perfect Creator of the universe who rules the world today.
  • The proportion is down from 71 percent a year ago and represents the lowest percentage in more than 20 years of similar surveys.

A new Zogby poll revealed 80 percent of parents think sex education in public schools should place more emphasis on promoting abstinence over contraceptive use.  Ninety percent think it is important for schools to emphasize abstaining from sex given the high number of STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) among teens.

Charlotte, NC--In 1872, Francis Galton inquired into the practice of intercessory prayer and concluded that it was not particularly efficacious. He came to this conclusion by studying statistical tables of average lifespans. In the halls of medicine today, scientists are also making serious inquiries into prayer’s efficacy using more sophisticated statistical measures. Prayer, specifically intercessory prayer, is being put to the test as an intervention in randomized clinical trials. Some Christians claim this is cause for rejoicing and science is proving God answers prayer. Others view the research more skeptically, raising questions of research quality but also of the plausibility of putting prayer and, by implication, God, to the empirical test.

• Pastors – perceived to be some of the most under-appreciated and on-demand workers in America – are actually the happiest and most satisfied in their jobs, a new study by the University of Chicago found.
  •  The survey is the most comprehensive of its kind to explore satisfaction and happiness among American workers, surveying 27,587 people in 2006.
• The least satisfying jobs are mostly low-skill, manual and service occupations, especially those involving customer service and food/beverage preparation and serving. Another recent study – released by the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love and conducted by such top universities as Harvard and the University of Chicago – had also found that people who give and help others on a regular basis feel the happiest.

• The most recent study by LifeWay Research reveals young adults are falling away from church and many are finding church irrelevant to their lives.
• The need to reach people age 18 to 34 can be seen by simply comparing the following statistics:
  • In 1980, more than 100,000 young adults were baptized in Southern Baptist churches.
  • In 2005, slightly more than 60,000 young adults were baptized in SBC churches
• Churchgoers or not, the study results indicate young adults are nonetheless longing for community and fellowship with peers, looking for ways to reach people in need and circling the church but not always finding a home in it.

• The Archives of Internal Medicine published a study by Dr. Farr A. Curlin on the impact that religion and spirituality have on a patient's wellness.   
• Over half of physicians interviewed believe that religion and spirituality has a major impact on patient wellness, according to a new study.
  • 2 out of every 5 doctors feel that it also helps prevent bad outcomes

• A recent study revealed what adults search for when switching churches and the most important factor is the beliefs and doctrine of the church. 
• According to LifeWay Research “church switchers” are Protestant Americans who have attended more than one church regularly as an adult  
• The most common search method among "church switchers" is in-person visits (83 percent).
  • 64 percent say they rely on recommendations from family and friends. 
  • 32 percent say they were first introduced to their new church by an invitation from a friend or acquaintance

• A study conducted by Zogby International in March learned that while Christians and documentaries try to prove the resurrection of Christ this Easter, many already believe Jesus rose from the dead 2,000 years ago.
• According to recent research by the Center for Missional Research of the North American Mission Board – the Southern Baptist domestic mission agency – 75 percent of Americans who say they are not born-again Christians still believe the biblical account of Jesus literally coming back to life in his physical body. 
• Based on response from the study, the research center suggests Easter messages may not require a defense of the physical resurrection but a focus that is more on the meaning and redemptive power for the individual.

• Newsweek conducted a Poll on March 28-29 on 1,004 adults aged 18 and older 
• The poll found that 6 percent of Americans do not believe in a God at all
• 10 percent of those polled identified themselves as having no religion at all
• 32 percent say religion has too much influence on American politics and 31 percent say it has too little
• 73 percent of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. 

• “Gay-adopted” children may be placed in vulnerable family situations, suggests a new report released amid an on-going debate over whether homosexuals experience shortened life spans.
• Psychologists and conservative scientists who analyzed the life spans and census registries from Denmark and Norway found that gay couples lived about 24 years less than heterosexual couples. 
• The findings suggest that the children of same-sex couples are placed in vulnerable situations as they are more likely to experience the death of one or both parents earlier on in life than they would with a married mother and father

• An Analysis of the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) led William Jeynes, professor of education at California State University, found no disparity in academic performance between highly religious African American and Latino students from "intact" families and white students. 
• The findings refute assertions that were made in the controversial and best-selling book The Bell Curve.
  • The 1994 book by Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray claimed that gaps in student achievement were the natural result of variation in students' genetic makeup and natural ability. 
• Jeynes' analysis of a study on a national sample of 20,706 12th-grade high school students indicated that highly religious African American and Latino students from intact families, when controlling for socioeconomic status, scored equally as well as white students on the social studies test and the Test Composite (combination of math and reading).

Prior to this year’s Easter Season, the Center for Missional Research wanted to find out how prevalent the belief in the physical resurrection of Christ really is among the general public. Through a random sample of interviews among 1,204 adults across the United States, we were able to find some interesting and somewhat unanticipated results.

• According to Barna Research, the percentage of adults who have steered clear of churches for at least the past six months has remained stable since 1994.
• An estimated 73 million adults are presently unchurched
  • When teens and children are added, the total swells to roughly 100 million Americans.
• If the unchurched population of the United States were a nation of its own, that group would be the eleventh most populated nation on earth (trailing only China, India, the churched portion of the United States, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Japan and Mexico).
• The survey reveals that one out of every three adults (33%) is classified as unchurched - meaning they have not attended a religious service of any type during the past six months.

• A recent study that looked at top box office movies from 1998 through 2006 has found that films with a strong Christian worldview tend to perform better at the theatres than those that include explicit sex and nudity and/or extreme foul language.
• According to the study, the highest and lowest averages for films with a strong Christian worldview were between $106.3 million per movie and $30.1 million per movie, respectively.
• Those films that have strong profanity, sex, and/or nudity had a range of high-lows from $27.7 million per movie to $6.3 million per movie, respectively.
• The vast majority of moviegoers, which includes the 142 million Americans who go to church every week, prefer positive Christian movies with morally uplifting content.

Buildings, baptisms, and budgets-the benchmarks most people use to evaluate church health. But are these the best measures? There are many who question which is most appropriate, but we wanted to see church plants that are reaching the lost through conversions. In most cases for denominations in our study, that was measured in baptisms.
                      
Among the factors associated with higher than average baptisms are evangelistic emphases, effective ministries, and expanding leadership.

Buildings, baptisms, and budgets-the benchmarks most people use to evaluate church health. But are these the best measures? There are many who question which is most appropriate, but we wanted to see church plants that are reaching the lost through conversions. In most cases for denominations in our study, that was measured in baptisms.
                      
Among the factors associated with higher than average baptisms are evangelistic emphases, effective ministries, and expanding leadership.

Why do some church plants experience higher attendance while others struggle to attract people? Are there commonalities among those with higher than average attendance that can be replicated in different settings? A recent study by the Center for Missional Research of twelve denominations or networks provides the answer as a resounding "yes."

Many of the churches did the same things—"shared Christ," had worship services; but when more than 100 factors were analyzed, the following ten categories proved to be the best predictors for higher worship attendance when compared to church plants at or below the average church plant attendance.

Why do some church plants experience higher attendance while others struggle to attract people? Are there commonalities among those with higher than average attendance that can be replicated in different settings? A recent study by the Center for Missional Research of twelve denominations or networks provides the answer as a resounding "yes."

Many of the churches did the same things—"shared Christ," had worship services; but when more than 100 factors were analyzed, the following ten categories proved to be the best predictors for higher worship attendance when compared to church plants at or below the average church plant attendance.

From GenerousGiving.org - The statistics below suggest that a majority of both pastors and lay members lack a fundamental understanding of biblical stewardship. One report states, “Eighty-five percent of pastors are untrained in the theology of stewardship and have no books in their libraries on Christian stewardship, money or giving,” and also, “Ninety percent of churches have no stewardship plan.” Happily, education appears to have positive results; the same report concludes, “Eighty-two percent of church members will increase their giving, if asked.”

We found that realistic expectations were a significant determining factor of success. When the church planter's expectations meet the reality of the church planting experience, the chance of survivability increases by over 400 percent. Of those who said their expectations were realized, 87 percent of their churches survived compared to only 61 percent of church plants survived among those who did not have their expectations met. It is evident that a realistic picture of the joys and difficulties surrounding church planting is beneficial for both the church plant and the church planter.

We found that realistic expectations were a significant determining factor of success. When the church planter's expectations meet the reality of the church planting experience, the chance of survivability increases by over 400 percent. Of those who said their expectations were realized, 87 percent of their churches survived compared to only 61 percent of church plants survived among those who did not have their expectations met. It is evident that a realistic picture of the joys and difficulties surrounding church planting is beneficial for both the church plant and the church planter.

• Only a small percentage of highly religious Americans -- 15% -- believe the best way to spread their religion is to change society to conform to their religious beliefs. 
• When asked the question, "How religious are you -- extremely religious, very religious, somewhat religious, not too religious, or not religious at all?"  those surveyed said:
  • 8% Extremely religious
  • 29% very religious
  • 39% somewhat religious
  • 14% not to religious
  • 9% not religious at all 1% no opinion 

• According to a Feb. 9-11, 2007, Gallup Poll, Lincoln is back at No. 1 President with Americans.
• Lincoln is followed by Ronald Reagan with 16%
  • John F. Kennedy with 14%
  • Bill Clinton (13%) 
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt (9%)
  • Harry Truman 3%
  • Jimmy Carter 2% 
• By contrast, of the top three presidents on The Wall Street Journal poll's list, only one, Franklin Roosevelt, is from the modern period.
  • Further down, Reagan, ranks 6^th, Truman 7^th, Eisenhower 8^th, George W. Bush 19^th, and Clinton 22^nd. 

• A recent USA Today/Gallup poll updated a question first asked in 1937 about the public's willingness to vote for presidential candidates from a variety of different genders, religions, and other backgrounds.
  • Of those interviewed 95% would vote for a Catholic and 4% would not
  • 94% said yes to a black person and 5% said no
  • 92% said yes to someone that is Jewish and 7% said no
  • 88% would vote for a women while 11% would not
  • 87% would vote for someone that is Hispanic and 12% said no
  • 72% would vote for a Mormon and 24% would not
  • 67% would vote for someone that has been married for a third time and 30% would not
  • 45% would vote for an atheist and 53% would not.
  • 42% of Americans say they would not vote for a 72-year-old candidate, even though the majority (57%) still would.
  • 55% would vote for a homosexual candidate

When you knock on a stranger's door, more people are open to a church invitation than a gospel presentation—but a significant minority are open to both. According to the survey, Americans are far more open to people coming to their door with that simple invitation than trying to tell them how to get into heaven (53 to 35%).

The only exception to this trend is among African Americans, nearly half of whom are okay with someone coming to their door with an evangelistic message—15 percent more than any other ethnic group surveyed.

The North American Mission Board (NAMB) partners with the six Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) seminaries and one Canadian seminary to train church planters. The partnership was launched in 1998 and has been in place at all the seminaries since 2000. As part of the original covenant, the parties agreed to evaluate its impact. This article is based on the first of several research bulletins birthed from a study undertaken by the Center for Missional Research at the North American Mission Board.

CMR shared data with 11 denominations and networks to survey more than 2,000 new churches planted from 2000 to 2005. We were able to determine the status of 1,000 of them and phone interviewed 500 of them. We found that the survivability rate of the church plants in our study was 68 percent after four years—and this was similar in all denominations. 

If, for the church planter, the expectations of the church plant meet the reality of the church planting experience, the chance of survivability increases by over 400 percent. For example, for those planters who said their expectations were realized, 54 percent of their churches survived. For church plants that failed, 79 percent of church planters stated that their prior expectations of the church plant did not meet reality.

CMR shared data with 11 denominations and networks to survey more than 2,000 new churches planted from 2000 to 2005. We were able to determine the status of 1,000 of them and phone interviewed 500 of them. We found that the survivability rate of the church plants in our study was 68 percent after four years—and this was similar in all denominations. 

If, for the church planter, the expectations of the church plant meet the reality of the church planting experience, the chance of survivability increases by over 400 percent. For example, for those planters who said their expectations were realized, 54 percent of their churches survived. For church plants that failed, 79 percent of church planters stated that their prior expectations of the church plant did not meet reality.

• Forty-two percent of Internet users aged 10 to 17 surveyed said they had seen online pornography in a recent 12-month span.
  • Of those, 66 percent said they did not want to view the images and had not sought them out.
• In the survey, conducted between March and June 2005, most kids who reported unwanted exposure were aged 13 to 17.
• Large numbers of 10- and 11-year-olds also had unwanted exposure
  • 17 percent of boys 
  • 16 percent of girls 

• A Gallup Poll conducted on Jan. 15-18 showed that 26 percent of Americans attribute Muslim countries’ unfavorable opinion of the nation to what the U.S. has done - up from 11 percent in 2002.
• The majority of Americans still believe the people’s negative opinion is due to misinformation (57 percent).
• Five years after 2002, the vast majority of Americans say Muslim countries have unfavorable views of the U.S. (81 percent).
• The minority of Americans, about one-third, report having an unfavorable opinion of Muslim countries, another third say they have neutral opinions, and one-fourth have favorable opinions.
• 20% of Republicans have a favorable opinion and 47% have an unfavorable opinion of Muslim countries
• 28% Independents have a favorable opinion while 32% have an unfavorable opinion
• 29% of Democrats have a favorable opinion while 29% have an unfavorable opinion.

• Thirty-two percent of those surveyed would like organized religion to have less influence "in this nation," 27% would like it to have more, and 39% say that the current amount of influence should be kept as is.
• The 2007 January survey included a separate question that asked Americans if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the influence of organized religion today:
  • On Jan 15-18, 22% were very satisfied
    • 34% somewhat satisfied
    • 16% very dissatisfied.
• 56% of Americans currently say they are satisfied with the influence of organized religion, while 39% say they are not.

• New Gallup Poll economic data show that consumers, investors, and small-business owners are now more positive about current economic conditions than they have been in years.
• Investor optimism soared to its highest level since 2004, with the UBS/Gallup Index of Investor Optimism reaching 103 for January 2007.
• The Index jumped 13 points from last month's reading, marking only the fifth time the Index has been above 100 since December 2000.
• In December the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index attained a record-high score of 114.
  • This is up four points from September, and is the highest level for the Index since its inception in August 2003, when it stood at 69.
• The Experian/Gallup Personal Credit Index (PCI) reached 105 in January 2007 -- up 22 points over the two months since November 2006 .
• The PCI is now at its highest level since its inception in February 2005, when it was benchmarked at 100.
• In a Gallup Poll conducted Jan. 15-18, 52% of consumers rated current U.S. economic conditions as good or excellent 
  • This is up from 42% in December and the highest consumer rating of current economic conditions since January 2001, when 67% of consumers gave the economy a "good" or "excellent" rating

• Gallup's annual Lifestyle poll finds more than 3 out of 4 Americans saying they sometimes experience stress in their daily life, including roughly 4 out of 10 who experience it "frequently."
• Thirty-eight percent of Americans say they frequently encounter stress, and an additional 39% say they sometimes do.
• Only about one out of four Americans say they rarely (20%) or never (3%) experience stress.
• At least three out of four Americans have said they frequently or sometimes experience stress in their daily lives each time Gallup has asked the question since 1994.
• The percentage saying they frequently feel stress has fluctuated between 33% and 42%
• 54% of Americans say they have enough time these days to do what they want to do, while 46% say they do not. 

• A LifeWay Research study found only 22 out of 43,000 SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) churches met the criteria of baptizing at least 26 people per year, overall attendance growth and a membership-to-baptism ratio of no more than 20 to 1 over the last 10 years.
• The study further noted that the average tenure of the pastors is 15 years.
• Across the 22 churches, pastors also stress the importance of preaching the gospel and providing opportunities for lost people to respond.
  • More than two-thirds say they make an altar call at the end of every service while others have people fill out a decision card.
• One-third of the pastors indicate they preach topically and almost half use expositional or textual preaching.
• Most pastors say their worship style is "contemporary," "informal," and "casual."
  • Others say theirs is blended in terms of music and only one pastor described his church's worship as "traditional."
  • Four of the churches consider their worship services to be “seeker- driven” or “seeker-targeted."
• Eleven churches use on-campus Sunday school as their primary fellowship groups, while six meet in off-campus small groups, and two have a mix of on and off-campus groups.

• One quarter of born again believers are less likely to view sexually explicit movies and magazines, to use profanity in public and to buy a lottery ticket compared to roughly one third of non-born again Christians.
• 28 percent claim to have said mean things to others about someone else when that person was not present
• 13 percent admits to having told someone something they knew was not true
• 10 percent of adults say they have gotten even for something someone did to hurt or offend them.
• The survey found that 28 percent say they have read a magazine or watched a movie or video that contained explicit sexual images in the past month
  • 10 percent visited a website that showed explicit or uncensored sexual content
  • 14 percent say they had an intimate sexual encounter during the past 30 days with someone they were not married to
• 16 percent of adults say they have consumed enough alcohol to be intoxicated or considered legally drunk at least once during the last month.

• More than half of Americans with household incomes over $100,000 can see themselves falling into poverty.
• Fifty-three percent of Americans in the wealthiest category said they can imagine themselves becoming poor
  • 82% of those with household incomes of less than $25,000 said they could become poor
  • 61% of Americans said they could imagine such a fate
• According to the Census Bureau Cable television would be the first thing to go for 50% of Americans
  • two-thirds said their car would be the last thing they would give up if their income plummeted
  • Half said they wouldn't give up their pets

• Based on public opinion related to 34 public figures from those four fields, Billy Graham emerged as the best known of the 11 religious leaders evaluated.
• The public figures generating the highest favorability scores were Denzel Washington (85%), Oprah Winfrey (83%), Bill Gates (80%), Tim McGraw (72%), Faith Hill (71%), Mel Gibson (69%), Jimmy Carter (68%), George Clooney (67%), Bill Clinton (64%) and Billy Graham (64%).
• The highest level of negative opinion expressed related to Paris Hilton (63%), Britney Spears (54%), George W. Bush (50%), Rosie O’Donnell (47%), Donald Trump (42%) and Bill Clinton (31%).
• Among the 11 religious leaders evaluated by adults, about eight out of every ten adults was aware of Mr. Graham, making him and Pat Robertson the only religious figures that were known to at least half of the population.
  • In total, 64% had a favorable impression of Mr. Graham, and 15% had a negative impression.
• The only other religious leader even known among a majority - Pat Robertson - had a more mixed public image, leaving a positive impression on 33% and a negative imprint on 25%. 
• Some of the highest-profile leaders in the Christian community are virtually unknown to the population at-large: Charles Colson (unknown to 85%), Rick Warren (unknown to 83%), Bill Hybels (unknown to 96%), and Andy Stanley (unknown to 95%).

• According to the Pew Research study, 84 percent say young adults today have better educational opportunities
  • 72 percent say they have access to higher paying jobs
  • 64 percent believe they live in "more exciting times."
• About half of Gen Nexters say the growing number of immigrants to the U.S. strengthens the country and 58 percent say that homosexuality should be accepted.
• 89 percent of young adults say it's all right for blacks and whites to date each other
• One in five members of Generation Next say they have no religious affiliation or are atheist or agnostic
• Less young people identify themselves as Protestant (44 percent).

• The study showed that 91 percent of them listed spiritual and religious development
  • 77 percent named adults mentors
  • 77 percent listed activity participation
  • 65 percent mentioned empowerment
  • 55 percent said school engagement
  • 53 percent said risk avoidance

• In January 2005, an estimated 744,313 people experienced homelessness.
• 56 percent of homeless people counted were living in shelters and transitional housing
  • 44 percent were unsheltered
• 59 percent of homeless people counted were single adults and 41 percent were persons living in families.
• In total, 98,452 homeless families were counted.
• 23 percent of homeless people were reported as chronically homeless, which, according to HUD’s definition, means that they are homeless for long periods or repeatedly and have a disability.

• Two-thirds of house church attenders (68%) were "completely satisfied" with the leadership of their church, compared to only half of those attending a conventional church (49%).
• Two-thirds of the house church adherents (66%) were "completely satisfied" with the faith commitment of the people involved in their gathering.
• Three out of five house church adults (61%) were "completely satisfied" with the level of community and personal connectedness they experience, compared to only two out of five adults who are involved in a conventional church (41%).
• A majority of those in a house (59%) said they were "completely satisfied" with the spiritual depth they experience in their house church setting.

• Downtown and central city congregations are more likely to decline than all other areas (26% are declining), followed by towns and small cities (23%) and rural areas (21%).
• Least likely to grow rapidly are predominantly white,  non-Hispanic congregations.
  • Among these congregations, only 31% experienced the highest level of growth from 2000 to 2005.
• Congregations where older adults (over age 60) comprise 20% or less of active adult participants are most likely to grow.
  • Congregations in which more than 40% of their regular participants are over 60 are very unlikely to grow. 
• 18% of mainline churches claim to be liberal, 25% are right in the middle, 32% are somewhat conservative and 25% are predominantly conservative.
• 12% of congregations have three services and 11% have four or more on a typical weekend.

• Gallup trends confirm that local newspaper readership has dipped in recent years and the once considerable nightly network television news audience has shrunk considerably. 
• Fifty-five percent of Americans today say they watch local television news daily, which is the same as when Gallup first measured this in 1995.
  • 14% say they watch it several times a week, enlarging the total group of frequent viewers to 69%.
  • About a quarter watch occasionally, leaving only 8% who never watch.
• The percentage of daily local TV news viewers is at 55%

• The research found that only three types of outreach are offered by U.S. Protestant churches.
  • Food oriented donations tops the list at 73 percent of churches
  • Vacation Bible School (68 percent) 
  • Holiday food programs for poor families during Christmas or Thanksgiving (65 percent).
• Other types of community outreach offered by much smaller proportions of churches in the last year include:
  • prison ministry (25 percent)
  • homeless outreach (24 percent)
  • Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts (20 percent)
  • blood drives (17 percent)
  • after-school programs for kids (14 percent)

• Eighty-four percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the way things are going in their personal lives, including 55% who say they are very satisfied. (Only 15% are dissatisfied).
• Americans have always reported a high level of personal satisfaction -- at least 8 in 10 have said so since 1993
• The poll also finds more than 9 in 10 Americans describing themselves as "happy."
  • 49% say they are "very happy,"
  • 47% "fairly happy,"
  • 4% are "not too happy."

• The poll found that 61% of Americans say big government will pose the biggest threat in the future.
  • Twenty-five percent of Americans say big business will be the greatest threat
  • 9% say big labor. 
• Solid majorities of both conservatives (65%) and moderates (59%) say big government will be the biggest threat to the country in the future.
• Democrats (34%) are more likely than independents (28%) or Republicans (19%) to say big business will be the biggest threat

• A recent Gallup Panel survey asked a representative sample of Americans to predict whether each of 15 possible events would happen in 2007.
  • Hillary Rodham Clinton will announce her intention to run for president-88% will happen, 11% will not happen
  • Congress will pass legislation to increase the minimum wage-78% will happen, 21% will not happen
  • Barack Obama will announce his intention to run for president-68% will happen, 26% will not happen
  • The average price of a gallon of gas will hit a new record high-64% will happen, 36% will not happen
  • Congress will increase federal income taxes-62% will happen, 37% will not happen
  • A major hurricane will strike the United States-57% will happen, 40% will not happen

• According to a Census Bureau report titled “A Child’s Day,” the number of children considered “on track” academically increased to 75 percent from 69 percent in 1994.
• In 1994, 54 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds were given rules regarding watching TV, but the number grew to 67 percent in 2003. 
  • Among 6- to 11-year-olds, the number grew from 60 percent to 68 percent.
  • The number grew from 40 percent to 44 percent among 12- to 17-year-olds.
• Among children under age 6, 57 percent have breakfast every day with at least one parent, compared to 51 percent in that age group in 1994. 
  • fewer than one-third of 6- to 11-year-olds and fewer than one-fourth of 12- to 17-year-olds have breakfast with at least one parent.
• Nearly four in 10 children have been in regular childcare.
• 41 percent of children participate in the National School Lunch Program.
• Seventy million children lived with a female designated parent, while 2.8 million children lived with a male designated parent.
  • Most children, 51.8 million, were living with a designated parent who was currently married; hence, they were living in a two-parent family.
  • Another 12.5 million children were living with a designated parent who was separated, divorced, or widowed

• 50 Most Influential Christians in America in 2006
  • Bishop TD Jakes
  • Joel Osteen
  • Billy Graham
  • Dr. Rick Warren
  • Bill Hybels
  • Paul Crouch
  • Joyce Meyer
  • President George W. Bush
  • Dr. James C. Dobson

• Cardiovascular disease accounted for more than one-third of all deaths in 2004.
• Mississippi had the highest fatality rate from cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease, at nearly 406 deaths per 100,000 people.
  • Oklahoma was next, with nearly 401 deaths per 100,000
  • Alabama, with 378 deaths

• Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that 57% of Americans are Optimistic About '07
• Americans remain fairly gloomy about the way things are going in the United States
  • 28% are satisfied with current national conditions, while 65% are dissatisfied
  • six-in-ten people (57%) say 2007 will be better.
• 62% of those that attend church on a weekly basis believe that next year will be better while 23% of them do not.
• 56% of those that attend church monthly or less believe 2007 will be better compared to 30% that don’t.
• 52% of those that attend seldom or never believe next year will be better.

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• 17 percent of U.S. youngsters are obese
• Overweight preschoolers have a five times higher risk of being fat at age 12 than do lean preschoolers according to data on more than 2,000 3-year-olds from a study that tracks from birth children born to low-income families in 20 large U.S. cities.
• Thirty-two percent of the white and black tots were either overweight or obese
  • 44 percent of the Hispanics.

Data from the 2007 Compensation Handbook for Church Staff, a publication of Christianity Today International, reveals that churches with more than 1,000 in worship attendance offer higher compensation than churches with 300 or fewer in worship attendance for the same job titles.

• Senior Pastor:
  • 300 or fewer, $64,266
  • Over 1000, $111,052
• Associate Pastor:
  • 300 or fewer, $44,741
  • Over 1000, $71,000
• In Changing Titles:
• Solo Pastor to Senior Pastor, 31%
• Bookkeeper to Administrator, 45%
• Associate Pastor to Senior Pastor, 35%
• Youth Pastor to Associate Pastor, 29%
  

• President George Bush tops the list of most admired men being named as such by 13% of Americans.
• Former presidents Bill Clinton (5%) and Jimmy Carter (4%) rank second and third on the list.
  • Followed by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (3%), the Rev. Billy Graham (3%), former Secretary of State Colin Powell (2%) and Pope Benedict XVI (2%).  
• New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton finished first as the most admired woman is her 11^th (13%).
• Talk show host Oprah Winfrey finished at 9% in second place for the fifth year in a row
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was third at 8%

• A Financial Times/Harris Poll surveyed adults in the United States and in five European countries, measuring their religious views on various aspects and found that Americans are more likely than Europeans to believe in any form of God or Supreme Being.
• Results showed that 73 percent of Americans believe in God or Supreme Being and 62 percent of Italians expressed this belief.
  • The French are the least likely with 27 percent agreeing.
• Among those who expressed their belief in a higher being, nearly half of Americans said they follow the same religious beliefs as their parents. 
• Adults in Italy (62 percent) are most likely to have the same religious beliefs as their parents.
  • In Great Britain, only 35 percent said the same.
• On the subject of religion and education, 68 percent of Italians said religion should be taught in state schools
  • 56 percent of British adults and Germans agreed
• Adults in the United States and France are the least likely to agree with religion being taught in state schools.

• More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study.
• The study, examining how sexual behavior before marriage has changed over time, was based on interviews conducted with more than 38,000 people — about 33,000 of them women — in 1982, 1988, 1995 and 2002 for the federal National Survey of Family Growth.
• According to Finer's analysis, 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
• Among women born between 1950 and 1978, at least 91 percent had had premarital sex by age 30
  • those born in the 1940s, 88 percent had done so by age 44.
• By the exact age of 20 years, 77% of individuals had had sex
• By age 44, 99% of Americans had had sex

• Barna selected the following dozen outcomes as the most significant findings of 2006.
• Although large majorities of the public claim to be “deeply spiritual” and say that their religious faith is “very important” in their life, only 15% of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as the top priority in their life.
• On average pastors believe that 70% of the adults in their congregation consider their relationship with God to be their highest priority in life.
• Three out of every four teenagers have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity.
• During the past year fewer than three out of every ten churched teenagers had received any teaching from their church about elements of the supernatural.
• While just 21% of adults consider themselves to be holy, by their own admission large numbers have no idea what “holiness” means and only one out of every three (35%) believe that God expects people to become holy.
• Four out of every five house church participants maintain some connection to a conventional church as well.
• Seven out of ten parents claim they are effective at developing the spiritual maturity of their children, but the Barna survey among 8-to-12-year-olds discovered that only one-third of them say a church has made “a positive difference” in their life

• A recent poll shows the concerns of the American public in 2006 
  • 69% discussed high gas prices
  • 54%-British officials stopping a terrorist plot to blow up planes flying to the US (Aug)
  • 47%-death of 12 miners in West Virginia coal mine
• More foreign-based stories drew intense interest than in the preceding year.
  • Terrorism again claimed a high place on the news interest list, with reports that British officials had foiled a plot to blow up transatlantic flights (54% of the public in August).
  • North Korea's nuclear test announcement (45% watching very closely in October)

• More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study.
• 99 percent of the respondents had had sex by age 44, and 95 percent had done so before marriage.
• Even among a subgroup of those who abstained from sex until at least age 20, four-fifths had had premarital sex by age 44
• The study found women virtually as likely as men to engage in premarital sex, even those born decades ago.
• Among women born between 1950 and 1978, at least 91 percent had had premarital sex by age 30, he said, while among those born in the 1940s, 88 percent had done so by age 44.

• Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were least likely to have ever gotten into a fight (27.1 percent)
• Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were least likely to have ever used hard drugs (8.5 percent)
• Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever committed a theft of $50 or more (11.7 percent)
• Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever shoplifted (6.1 percent)
• Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever run away (5.2 percent)
• Teen girls from intact families with frequent religious attendance averaged the fewest sexual partners (0.47)
• Teen boys from intact families with frequent religious attendance averaged the fewest sexual partners (1.04)   
• Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever been drunk (22.4 percent)
• Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever been expelled or suspended from school (17.3 percent)
• Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance earned the highest GPA (2.94)

Look around at your neighbors, co-workers, family, friends, acquaintances, or others you encounter who don't go to church—these next two weeks provide a great opportunity to reach out to them.  More than four out of ten Americans (41%) are likely to be receptive to an invitation during the Christmas season.

The Center for Missional Research commissioned Zogby International to ask people about their receptivity to  an invitation to church over the Holidays. The study also showed that 42% of the people surveyed would be very or somewhat likely to attend church more frequently in 2007 as a result of their New Year's resolutions.

The "revolution" has recently become big news—many committed believers are rethinking (or leaving) the established church for alternative forms of church and/or community.

• The term, "revolution," popularized by George Barna in the book by the same name, describes many trends, but the main focus is on the move to non-traditional expressions of church (marketplace faith communities, house churches, arts, etc.).
• Rabbi Gellman (who has some positive things to say about evangelicals in general), wrote about the move away from traditional, organized church in Newsweek as one of the top religious trends for 2006. (His excellent article is here.) Though this trend has not yet been noticed by many in the evangelical church, it is growing in prominence and reputation.

• Children under 10 think being a celebrity is the "very best thing in the world" but do not think quite as much of God, a survey has revealed.
• The poll of just under 1,500 youngsters ranked "God" as their tenth favourite thing in the world, with celebrity, "good looks" and being rich at one, two and three respectively.
• Just over three quarters of the youngsters said they would probably marry later in life, although 21 per cent gave a definite "No"
• When asked how much money was needed to be rich, the children quoted figures ranging from £1,000 to £10 million - down on 2005 when the range was £460 to £200 million

Bad weather, summer vacations, flu season _ all can seriously interrupt Sunday giving, the money that helps pay a church's utilities, maintenance, outreach programs and other bills. But if a church can convince its members to allow it to debit parishioners' bank accounts or charge their credit cards automatically, fluctuations in donations could become history.

The average family who gives electronically to their church gives 75 percent more than they did when they dropped a check in the offertory basket each week, said Dockery.

• Binge drinking among eighth and tenth graders continued to decline slowly in recent years, from 15 percent of eighth graders in 1999 to 11 percent in 2005 and from 26 percent among tenth graders in 2000 to 21 percent in 2005.
• Among students in the twelfth grade, the percentage engaging in binge drinking declined from 32 percent in 1998 to 28 percent in 2003, and remained at 28 percent in 2005.
• By twelfth grade males are much more likely than females to binge drink (34 percent versus 24 percent, in 2004, the latest year for which such estimates are available).
• The difference is much smaller in tenth grade (24 percent versus 20 percent, respectively, in 2004). However, in eighth grade in 2004, girls were slightly more likely than boys to report binge drinking (12 percent versus 11 percent, respectively).

• Research has shown that teens who are not regularly monitored by parents are four times more likely to use drugs.
• Only 7 percent of parents check up on their teens
• 21 percent ask questions to find out what's going on when it comes to drugs
• 29 percent go through their teens' belongings.
• 26 percent of parents did not speak up because they did not believe their teen would be influenced by drugs

• About 65 million people will journey between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, more than the record 63.5 million who traveled last year, according to a survey by the Travel Industry Association and the AAA
• Winter holiday travel — journeys of at least 50 miles from home — has been on a steady upswing since 2002, when 60 million people took to the road and the air.
• Most travelers — 53 million — will journey by car, truck or RV
  • 9 million will fly
  • 3 million will take buses or trains.
• During the first 10 months this year, the average domestic airline fare for a thousand-mile trip was $128, about $12 more than last year
• Gasoline prices averages $2.29 per gallon, up 7 cents from November and 12 cents higher than a year ago.

Several months ago a group of missional leaders came together to form NAMB's Young Leader Task Force. This task force was really more about a mindset than age or ministry style. Leaders from various backgrounds, ethnicities, and ministry paradigms were invited to discuss ideas and thoughts on how NAMB could be more effective in assisting missional churches in sharing Christ and starting new churches. The unifying vision for these young leaders was that they were missional-minded, and that the churches they lead can be identified as missional churches.

• The GOP held on to voters who attend religious services more than once a week, 60% of whom voted Republican compared with 61% in 2002.
• The GOP actually did well among white evangelicals in 2006:
  • 72% voted Republican in races for the U.S. House nationwide
  • In 2004, 75% voted for Republican congressional candidates.
• President Bush's approval rating among evangelicals on Election Day was 70%
• Only among white evangelicals did many express unhappiness as happiness with the Democrats' victory (41% each).

• There are more than 100,000 child porn websites that the U.S. Customs Service currently estimates is fueling a multibillion-dollar industry
• Among child molesters incited, 77 percent of those who molested boys and 87 percent of those who molested girls admitted to habitual use of pornography in the commission of their crimes.
• Hardcore pornography is outlawed in 45 of the 50 states
• More than one-third of the child molesters and rapists in this study claimed to have at least occasionally been incited to commit an offense by exposure to pornography.
• Among the child molesters incited, the study reported that 53 percent of them deliberately used the stimuli of pornography as they prepared to offend.

Mission (s) and mission education have always played a significant role in the life of Southern Baptists. A recent study conducted by Debra Bigler for a doctoral dissertation at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary focused on the factors which influence a call to career missionary service. The study was entitled "A Study of the Difference in Mean Ranks of Selected Factors Influencing a Call to Career Missionary Service Among Three Groups Affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention." The three groups were: seminary students preparing for a career in missionary service, career missionaries currently serving, and retired missionaries. The students were enrolled in missiology degree programs at five SBC seminaries. Career missionaries with both the International Mission Board (IMB) and the North American Mission Board (NAMB), and retired missionaries from both boards were surveyed.

• Adults and teens will spend nearly five months (3,518 hours) next year watching television, surfing the Internet, reading daily newspapers and listening to personal music devices.
• The U.S. Census Bureau forecasts people will spend 65 days in front of the TV
  • 41 days listening to radio 
  • A little over a week on the Internet in 2007
• Adults will spend about a week reading a daily newspaper
• Teens and adults will spend another week listening to recorded music
• Consumer spending for media is forecasted to be $936.75 per person. 
• Among adults, 97 million Internet users sought news online in 2005
  • 92 million purchased a product 
  • 91 million made a travel reservation
  • 16 million used a social or professional networking site
  • 13 million created a blog

• The number of things Americans say they can't live without has multiplied in the past decade, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
• The percentage of American adults who describe microwave ovens as a necessity rather than a luxury is 68%.
• Home air conditioning is now considered a necessity by seven-in-ten adults
• More than eight-in-ten (83%) now think of a clothes dryer as a necessity, up from six-in-ten (62%)
• 91% described a car as a necessity 
• 3% say the same about an iPod

• 83% of those responding to our survey say that their use of the Internet has helped Congregational life
  • 25% say it has helped a great deal
• 81% say the use of email by ministers, staffs, and congregation members has helped the spiritual life of the congregation to some extent 
  • 35% say it has helped a great deal
• 91% say email has helped congregation members and members of the staff stay more in touch with each other
  • 51% say it has helped a great deal

• The estimates of seminary trained black clergy vary from 20 to 30 percent nationwide.
• The majority of black rural church pastors live in urban areas and commute an average of over 40 miles to their churches.
• Cheryl Gilkes has estimated that African Americans constitute about 25 percent of the participants in megachurch congregations, both black and white.
• A study of 66 black megachurches were divided as follows:
  • Baptist, 46 percent
  • Nondenominational, 29 percent

• In our national sample of clergy, 10 percent of Protestant clergy were sons or daughters of clergy.
• Conservative Protestants have the largest percentage of Preachers Kids (P.K.s) (12 percent)
  • Followed by clergy in Historic Black denominations (11%)
  • Mainline clergy, with 7 percent P.K.s, are slightly less likely to reproduce themselves by having a child enter parish ministry.
• Preachers Kids (P.K.s) were also significantly more involved in church youth groups at age 16 than those with parents in other occupations 88 percent versus 69 percent

• In a poll by Zogby International, a respected polling firm, a total of 56 percent agreed with one of the following pro-life views:
  • abortion should never be legal (18percent)
  • legal only when the life of the mother is in danger (15 percent)
  • legal only when the life of the mother is in danger or in cases of rape or incest (23 percent)
• Only 42 percent of those surveyed agreed with one of the following statements supporting abortion:
  • abortion should be legal for any reason in the first 3 months (25 percent)
  • legal for any reason during the first 6 months (4 percent)
  • legal for any reason at any time during the woman's pregnancy (13 percent).
• 77% favor laws requiring that women who are 20 weeks or more along in their pregnancy be given information about fetal pain before having an abortion.

• 32% of those surveyed say they’re offended when a store clerk uses the generic but politically correct "Happy Holidays
• Zogby polling shows an overwhelming majority (95%) say they are not offended by being greeted with a "Merry Christmas" while shopping, including 98% for weekly Wal-Mart shoppers.
• One in three respondents who identified themselves as Jewish (32%) said they were upset by hearing "Merry Christmas" as were 10% of those of non-Christian faiths or who did not identify themselves with a religion.

• Seventy-three percent of church members and 47 percent of non-affiliated young adults indicated that community with other young adults is extremely important in their lives.
• The second most important thing for young adult churchgoers is participation in small-group meetings to discuss life application of Scripture (71 percent).

• Among men, median earnings of four-year college graduates were 19 percent higher than median earnings of high school graduates in 1975.
  • The gap grew to 37 percent in 1985, 56 percent in 1995, and 63 percent in 2005.
• Among women, median earnings of four-year college graduates were 37 percent higher than median earnings of high school graduates in 1975.
  • The gap grew to 47 percent in 1985, and 71 percent in 1995. It was 70 percent in 2005.  
• The difference in earnings between those with some college education but  no bachelor’s degree and those who have completed a four-year degree has  increased over time and is now about 37 percent for men and 41 percent for  women. 
• Almost half of parents with a bachelor’s degree speak with their tenthgraders often about current events, but less than a third of high school graduates do so. 
• Among those with incomes between $100,001 and $200,000, the savings rates were 54 percent for high school graduates, 73 percent for associate degree holders, and 85 percent for four-year college graduates. 

• The Barna survey found that 72 percent of adults say they have never heard of Rick Warren.
  • The megachurch pastor is also unknown among born again Christians with 63 percent saying they have never heard of him.
• James Dobson- 57 percent say they had never heard of him and nearly half of all born again Christians say they did not know who he was.
• T.D. Jakes - 68 percent of American adults have never heard of him and 55 percent of all born again Christians said the same.

• The annual PNC Christmas Price Index, based on the cost of the items in "The 12 Days of Christmas," rose 3.1% this year, with the sharpest increase coming from the 44% jump in pear tree prices. 
• According to the 22nd annual survey, the cost of "The 12 Days of Christmas" is $18,920 in 2006, compared with $18,349 in 2005.
• According to Philadanco, the Philadelphia Dance Company, the cost of nine ladies dancing was $4,759, 4% more than in 2006.
  • The women's wage increase outstripped those of their performing peers: The cost of lords a-leaping rose 3%, while the musicians -- the drummers drumming and the pipers piping -- earned 3.4% more than in 2005.
• Maids a-milking, who are paid the minimum wage, were the only service providers not to see an increase this year.

• 48% of pastors think their work is hazardous to their family well-being
• 45.5% will experience a burnout or a depression that will make them leave their jobs

• Here's Life Inner City, the urban ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, International, is sending out some 18,550 food-filled boxes through local churches and organizations to bring holiday cheer to the hungry.
  • The packaged "Boxes of Love" are enough to feed more than 111,300 people in the United States

• A new report found that Americans donate a greater share of the country's economic output to charity than do the people of 11 other countries.
• The Charities Aid Foundation in the United Kingdom revealed that giving in the United States equals 1.67 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.
• Donations to religious organizations accounted for about 60 percent of the difference between the United States and the United Kingdom 
  • which was at 0.73 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

• The typical pastor has his or her greatest ministry impact at a church in years five through fourteen of their pastorate.
• The average pastor lasts only five years at a  church
• The average American minister has held a paid job in ministry for 19 years
  • He has spent an average of 15.6 of those years as a senior pastor of one or more churches.

• Out-of-wedlock births in the United States have climbed to an all-time high, accounting for nearly four in 10 babies born last year
• About 4.1 million babies were born in the United States last year, up slightly from 2004.
  • More than 1.5 million of those were to unmarried women; that is about 37 percent of the total.
    • In 2004, about 36 percent of births were out of wedlock.
• The number of unmarried-couple households with children has been climbing, hitting more than 1.7 million last year, up from under 200,000 in 1970.
• The birth rate among teenagers declined 2 percent in 2005, continuing a trend from the early 1990s.
  • The rate is now about 40 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19.

• About 45 percent of respondents say a table grace on certain occasions; 19 percent do so at all meals.
• About 53 percent of respondents pray about world affairs.
• About 28 percent pray for financial security.

• Nearly one-third of all American children are born outside marriage which is one out-of-wedlock birth every 35 seconds.
  • Of those born within marriage, a great many will experience their parents’ divorce before they reach age 18.
  • More than half of the nation’s children will spend all or part of their child-hood in never-formed or broken families.
• A child raised by a never-married mother is seven times more likely to live in poverty than a child raised by his biological parents in an intact marriage.
  • Overall, some 80 percent of long-term child poverty in the United States is found among children from broken or never-formed families.

• It is estimated that more than two-thirds of our children and youth — 34 million Americans between ages 6 and 17 — are not receiving sufficient developmental resources that put them on a path to success in adulthood.
• Approximately 25% of all public high school students fail to graduate on time, if at all.
  • Researchers have estimated that for African Americans and Hispanics, the graduation rate could be as low as 50%.
• Among 15-year-olds from 39 nations who took standardized math tests, American students finished a dismal 24th. 
• Approximately one in six American children between ages 6 and 19 are overweight.
• One in 12 high school students has attempted suicide.

• Since 1992 the importance of religion to Canadians declined from 61% to 39%, in U.S dropped from 83% to 63%, Muslims have by far highest belief
• 48 percent of global respondents said religion was very important to them
  • 52 percent said it was not.
• France had the lowest percentage of respondents indicating religion was important to them, at only 17 percent.
  • Italy 51 percent
• The Muslim nations of Saudi Arabia and Egypt scored highest of all 20 nations surveyed, with 96 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population stating that the official religion of Islam was very important in their lives. 89 percent of Egyptians agreed.

• In 2004 there were 2,779,095 adherents in the Assembly of God church compared to 2,830,861 in 2005.
• In 2004 there were 12,277 churches with 280 new churches opened
• In 2005 the Council of the Assembly of God reported 12,298 churches with 258 new churches opened.
• In 2004 the membership of the Assembly of God Church was 1,594,062 compared to 1,612,336 in 2005.

• According to the 2006 Current Population Survey, among 35- to 39-year-old women living in medium-size cities, who earn more than $75,000 a year and have a master's degree, 92% are married.
• According to the same data, among married women who earn more than $60,000 per year or have a graduate degree, 84% have kids under 18 at home by age 40 to 44.
• A woman of 40 to 44 who had 19 years of education--college plus graduate school--had a 66% chance of being married

• Foreign student enrollment in U.S. colleges and universities last year appears to have stabilized after two years of declines 
• International enrollments reached 564,766 last year, a fraction of a percentage point less than the previous year's 565,039 released by the Institute of International Education
• This is the seventh straight year that the USA has hosted more than half a million foreign students
• In an online survey of enrollments at 921 campuses in October, 52% reported increases this fall, 20% declines and 28% no change.
• Association of International Educators says that foreign-student enrollments at U.S. higher education institutions are still down by more than 20,000 from the 2002 academic year
• Asia remains the largest sending region, accounting for 58% of U.S. international enrollments, but the total number of students increased almost 1%. 
• India is still the largest sending country, though the number of students declined by 5% to 76,503.

• 36 percent of pastors say they are very informed about politics
  • 55 percent claiming to be somewhat informed on the subject
• 29 percent of all churchgoers feel very informed about politics
  • 47 percent feel somewhat informed about it
• Twenty-four percent of clergy feel very informed about sports in today's culture
  • 44 percent are somewhat informed about this topic, with laity providing answers which are very similar.
• 20% of ministers feel very informed about the internet, compared to 43 percent of laity.
• 19% of ministers feel very informed about what's on television today, compared to 31 percent of laity.

• North Carolina, according to the center's statistics, is home to more than 400,000 Hispanics, the seventh largest Hispanic population in the country.
• South Carolina's Hispanic population is about 130,000 with a growth rate of more than 50 percent since 2000.
• 50% of all Mexicans are living below the poverty line and once they obtain jobs here they pay even less.

• Four percent of formerly churched adults are actively looking for a church to attend regularly (other than their previous church).
• Six percent would prefer to resume attending regularly in the same church they had attended.
• 62 percent are not actively looking, but are open to the idea of attending church regularly again.
• More than a third are motivated to consider returning "to fill a gap felt since stopping regular church attendance" (34 percent).
• The most common motivation of those who would consider returning comes straight from the soul: "to bring me closer to God" (46 percent).

• 19.3% of Chinese raised in the US are married to Whites as compared to 5.1 % of CHinese who are married to whites that were not raised in the United States 
• 26.5 % of Unmarried Asian Men are Living with Whites
• 5% of unmarried Asian Women are Living with Blacks
• 5.8% of Unmarried Asian Women are Living with Hispanics/Latinos

• Based upon Unity Marketing’s latest survey of over 700 gift givers (average age 43 years and household income $61,700), gifters are expected to spend a total of $949 on Christmas gifts this year, up 9.1 percent from the average of $870 spent last year
• Some 69 percent of gifters surveyed say they plan on shopping at discounters this year, down from 78 percent who planned to shop discount in 2005

• 56 percent of youths surveyed reported participating in some kind of community service and volunteer activity in the past year
  • 35 percent report volunteering to help the disadvantaged through their religious community
  • 40 percent volunteered in a civic or community organization devoted to health or social services
• Young people are not particularly political: only 17 percent report protesting in their community or school and 12 percent have worked to elect someone to office. 
• The 2004 presidential election witnessed a significant increase in turnout among young people with 1.8 million more youth voting than in the 2000 presidential election, an increase from 36 to 42 percent.

• Generation Y is significantly more likely to call itself liberal (31 percent) than older Americans
  • 34 percent call themselves political moderate 
  • 30 percent call themselves conservative
• Generation Y is also more likely to identify with the Democrats (39 percent) than the Republicans (28 percent) with a significant number calling themselves politically independent (31 percent).
• 62 percent of youth identify with some variant of Christianity,  but only 54 percent agree that the United States is a Christian nation.

• Young people report that they can turn to their parents for advice (68 percent strongly agree) 
  • few are terribly worried about their relationships with their parents (18 percent very worried).
• The connection to family is stronger among youth with married parents (71 percent strongly agree that they can turn to for advice) than young people with unmarried parents (63 percent strongly agree they can turn to for advice
• After family, religion and sexual preference rank second and third as a way youth would like to describe themselves.
• 33 percent of young people say they are very worried about finding a job (60 percent very and somewhat worried) 

• Less religious youth are concentrated among those who simply have no denominational preference (66 percent compared to 27 percent overall) and Jews (40 percent compared to 27 percent overall)
• Demographically, God-less youth are not that distinct from the rest of their peers.
  • They are more male (33 percent compared to 27 percent overall), especially college educated men (39 percent compared to 27 percent overall)
  • They are particularly likely to be found in the Northeast (41 percent compared to 27 percent overall).
  • A disproportionate number of Asian Americans (38 percent compared to 27 percent overall) are also God-less.
• Between 1972 and 2000, the percentage of young Americans identifying themselves as white steadily decreased from 88 percent to 65 percent.

• This survey put youth into three groups: the Godly, the God-less, and the Undecided middle.
  • The Godly (27 percent of Generation Y)
  • God-less (27 percent of Generation Y)
  • The Undecided (46 percent of Generation Y) Middle
• The Godly are people with a strongly religious family life and are more likely to attend worship services regularly (71 percent) and have friends who practice the same religion as them (56 percent).
• 70 percent of the God-less say they hardly ever or never attend worship services.
• Youth in the Undecided middle do not reject religion –over half strongly agree that religion is an important part of their lives and nearly half will call themselves religious (48 percent).

• 64% (total) of those surveyed agreed that the situation in Iraq/War is the top priority For Congress
  • 60% of white frequent church goers agreed
  • 68% of white infrequent church goers disagreed
• Nine percent of the religious whites who favor the Republicans worry about a Democratic-controlled Congress becoming too liberal
  • 7% are worried about abortion becoming more acceptable

• As of 2000, 10.8 million people live in the exurbs of large metropolitan areas
  • 5 million (47%) live in exurbian areas of the South
  • 2.6 million (one-fourth) live in midwestern exurbs
• Nationwide 245 counties have at least one fifth of their residents living in exurbs
  • Louisville metro area has 13 counties
  • Atlanta, Richmond, and Washington D.C. has 11 counties
  • These exurban counties grew by 12% between 2000 and 2005

• Four out of Five (81%) of professors say that they are a spiritual person
• Two thirds say they seek opportunities to grow spiritually to some extent and engage in self reflection to a great extent
• 47% of professors state that integrating spirituality into their life is essential
• 64% claim to be religious
  • 29% of this number claim to be religious to some extent
  • 35% claim to be religious to a great extent
• 61% claim to pray or meditate

• October contributions through the Southern Baptist Convention's Cooperative Program were 3.32 percent below CP gifts received in October 2005, according to a news release from SBC Executive Committee President and Chief Executive Officer Morris H. Chapman.
• As of Oct. 31, 2006, Cooperative Program gifts of $15,358,955.55 were $527,686.96 below the $15,886,642.51 received last October.

• There are approximately 300,000 Protestant churches in the United States.
  • the majority of these churches have an attendance of 20-200
  • sometimes the attendance is 300 or greater
• 99.6% of US churches have a weekly worship attendance of less than 2000
• There are 1210 churches with an attendance greater than 2000

• The total membership count for Roman Catholics, the ultra-conservative Southern Baptist Convention, Pentecostal Assemblies of God and proselytizing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) reported to the Yearbook is up nearly 11.4% for the same period.
• 10% to 14% of Americans say they have no religious identity.
• In 2001, 17.2 million people named a mainline denomination, down from 18.7 million in 1990.
• 26.1% of Americans described themselves as mainline in general.
• When asked to name a denomination, 22.1% named a mainline brand.

• "Busters" are those born between the years of 1965 and 1983. Currently, Busters are ages 23 through 41.  
• Among the 32 factors examined in the research, eight of them related to such topics as extramarital sex, pornography, homosexuality, and sexual fantasies.
  • In all eight of these areas, Busters were significantly different from older Americans.
• Busters were twice as likely to have viewed sexually explicit movies or videos
  • Two and a half times more likely to report having had a sexual encounter outside of marriage
  • Three times more likely to have viewed sexually graphic content online.
• Busters were more likely than older adults to say that in the past month they had used illegal drugs and had gotten drunk. (Smoking rates, however, were comparable between the generations.)
• Busters were twice as likely as their parents’ generation to use profanity in public, to say mean things about others behind their back, to tell something to another person that was not true, to do something to get back at someone who hurt or offended them, to take something that didn’t belong to them, and to physically fight or abuse someone.

• Penecostals account for 23 percent of Americans according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
• In six countries at least four of every 10 Pentecostals surveyed say they never speak or pray in tongues
• When U.S. adults in the survey were asked if they agree that Christians have a responsibility "to work for justice for the poor" 90 percent of Pentecostals and 85 percent of charismatic believers agreed.
  • Between 93 and 72 percent agreed in Brazil, Chile and Guatemala
  • In Kenya, 97 percent agreed

• Minority enrollments rose by 50.7% to 4.7 million between 1993 and 2003
• The number of white students increased 3.4%, to 10.5 million
• White high school graduates are more likely than black or Hispanic peers to enroll in college
  • 47.3% of white high school graduates ages 18 to 24 attend college
  • 41.1% of black and 35.2% of Hispanic high school graduates attend college

• About 25 percent of teenagers have a video game console in their bedroom, according to Harrison Group
• 7 percent  have a desktop personal computer in their room
• 18 percent own a laptop
• 58 percent own a cell phone, and most of those phones are capable of taking pictures and downloading games.

• The study found that Americans aged 25 to 34 are saving less and borrowing on credit more. 
• Just 55 percent of young people had savings accounts in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, down from 65 percent in 1985
  • a simple savings account with a bank, fell from 61 percent to 47 percent between 1985 and 2004.

From 2004 to 2005, every baptism category, by age, went down—except one. The one category that went up? Preschoolers—those under five years of age. That makes me nervous. Though I am not one to say that a five year old cannot trust Christ, it's hard to see the march toward infant baptism as good news.

Total annual baptisms by churches also show alarming trends:

• In 2005, 11,740 churches reported zero or one baptism, up from 11,122 in 2004. This is an increase of 5.6 percent.
• Over 55 percent of churches baptized no youth (12-17 year-olds) in 2005, up from 52 percent the previous year.
• The number of churches baptizing ten or more declined to 10,062 in 2005, down from 10,598 in 2004.

It's important to realize that many people are open to church attendance if they're asked. And that simple effort may help them make the initial step toward a decision for Christ. Certainly people come to faith in Christ without ever having stepped into a church. But it's much easier to plant, water, and cultivate in the context of community.

So, why don't many people come to our churches and consider the claims of Christ. The North American Mission Board's Center for Missional Research studied the attitudes and perceptions of the unchurched regarding Southern Baptists.

The news is out! According to the most recent census information released on August 15, the face of the United States is changing. CNN's headline for the U.S. proclaimed, "Explosion of diversity sweeps U.S." The New York Times, referring to New York City said, "Immigrant Numbers Swell New York." The Atlanta-Journal Constitution wrote of a local county, "Immigrants Transform Gwinnett." These recent stories reflect the missional opportunities that exist among this ever-expanding population within our country.

How are Southern Baptists doing in reaching North American immigrants for Christ? We have been trying to answer this question at the Center for Missional Research at the North American Mission Board. Our full study is available at www.namb.net/research.

• The 20 million Southern Baptists tallied in the "Religious Congregations and Membership: 2000" study are 4 million more than the convention's membership records indicate. 
• Southern Baptists, up 5 percent during the 1990s, are among the denominations experiencing growth

• According to the College Transition Project, 68 percent of those interviewed said it is "very true" or "completely true" they go to youth group because they like their youth pastor.
  • The second most popular reason was "I learn about God there," which was followed by 58 percent who said "It's fun."
  • Other reasons listed as "very true" or "completely true" by at least 50 percent of the students included "I feel comfortable there," "I've always gone to church/youth group," "It's a place where I can learn to serve," and "It feels like a real community."
  • The least likely reason students listed was that their parents make them go or that they feel guilty if they don't go.

• Students are entering seminary at a later age than previous generations and the average age of newly ordained priests has risen to 37, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
• In 2005, 32 percent of newly ordained priests had completed a graduate or professional degree beyond the baccalaureate, compared to 13 percent in 1998.
• Up to 80 percent of students enrolled in seminary drop out.
• In a poll of 1,854 Roman Catholic priests conducted in 2002 by The Morning Call and Los Angeles Times, seven in 10 priests said the sex abuse scandals are the church's biggest crisis in 100 years, but not their greatest challenge. The greatest hurdles were a secular society, the priest shortage and burnout.

• Church members gave 2.56 percent of their income in 2004 down from 3.11 percent in 1968.
• Benevolent funds giving for 2003 and 2004 both rounded to 0.38 percent, the lowest in the 37-year period empty tomb has tracked such numbers.
• For each dollar donated to a congregation, denominations spent 2 cents on overseas missions in 2004, down from 7 cents in the 1920s.

• According to new research by The Media Audit, affluent working women with family incomes of $75,000 or more are growing in number and 94.3 percent access the Internet during an average month.
• The percentage of working women that spent at least 430 minutes a week on the Internet (heavy users) jumped from 48.6 percent in 2004 to 50.8 percent in 2005
• Among affluent working women the percentage is 63.9; 31.0 percent have homes valued at $400,000 or more.

• The annual number of death sentences has dropped dramatically from a total of 300 in 1998 to 125 in 2004.
• Today, 38 of the 50 states allow the death penalty
• According to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, 1,045 individuals have been executed since 1976.
  • The largest number in a single year was in 1999 with 98 executions.
  • As of September, 41 individuals have been executed this year.
• Since the first recognized execution of a juvenile offender in 1642, the United States has executed at least 366 people for crimes committed as juveniles
  • Since 1990, the US has executed more juvenile offenders than all other countries combined

• Data from the 2006 assessment by the Mayo Clinic for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America shows professional leaders have an average of 4.3 risk factors
  • The data show that about 1.8 of the risk factors are related to "medical risk" or inherited conditions that a person cannot control.
  • About 2.5 factors are lifestyle risks, citing lack of exercise, poor eating habits, some smoking and some excessive alcohol consumption.
  • The 2006 data states about 71 percent of the participants have risk factors because of poor nutrition
  • 69 percent are overweight

Since 1970, the percentage of children living in mother-only families has increased from 11 percent to 24 percent in 1997 and was at 23 percent in 2005. Between 1970 and 2005, the percentage of children living in father-only families increased from 1 percent to 5 percent. The percentage living without either parent (with other relatives or with non-relatives) rose slightly from 3 percent to 5 percent.

• In 2005, 6 percent of all children lived in the home of their grandparents. In more than half of these families, however, one or both parents were also present.
• In 2005, 35 percent of black children were living with two parents, compared with 84 percent of Asian children, 76 percent of non-Hispanic white children, and 65 percent of Hispanic children.
  
• View pdf report. 

• 7/10 (70%) heterosexual adults in the United States say that they know someone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender 
• (54%) say that concern about being the victim of a hate crime would be a reason for a person to not come out
  • 39% say rejection by their families
  • 32% say rejection by their friends
• 83 % of gay or lesbian consider themselves out

• Using census data, the federal Corporation for National and Community Service has found that 3 in 10 college students, or 3.3 million, volunteered last year, mostly as mentors or tutors, and often with religious groups. 
• The number of college students volunteering grew by 600,000 from 2.7 million in 2002 to 3.3 million in 2005.
  • The growth rate of college student volunteers (approximately 20%) is more than double the growth rate of all adult volunteers (9%).
  • In 2005, approximately 30.2 percent of college students volunteered, exceeding the volunteer rate for the general adult population of 28.8 percent.

Research from the Vanier Institute of the Family shows weekly attendance at a religious service, which was down to 20 percent a few years ago, is up to 25 percent, monthly attendance is as high as 37 percent.  Weekly teenage attendance dropped from 23% to 18% between 1984 and 1992, but had grown to 22% in 2000

Eighty percent of Canadians identify with one of the following religions:  the Roman Catholic Church, Mainline Protestants, Conservative Protestants, or Other World Faiths.

• Cancer: Cancer risks increase with increasing amounts of alcohol ingested.
  • For women who have more than one drink a day, each subsequent drink up to six a day increases the risk of developing breast cancer by 9 percent. I
  • Three drinks a day result in an 18 percent increased risk of breast cancer.
• For young women who don't plan to get pregnant, one drink a day may have some health benefits.
  • There is no safe level for women who are pregnant or who suffer from addiction.

• There are 1,210 Protestant churches in the United States with weekly attendance over 2,000, nearly double the number that existed 5 years ago.
• The megachurches surveyed reported a 2005 average regular weekly attendance of 3,585 persons.
  • Only 16% have 5,000 or more in attendance each week.
  • The median seating capacity of the largest worship service was 1,400.
  • At least 50% of churches use multiple venues for worship as well as satellite locations to increase seating capacity.
• The four states with the greatest concentrations of megachurches are California (14%), Texas (13%), Florida (7%) and Georgia (6%).
• The groups with the largest numbers of megachurches in our survey sample included nondenominational (36%), Southern Baptist (20%), United Methodist (9%), and Assemblies of God (5%). 

In 1970, only 15 percent of Americans 25 to 29 were unmarried. Now nearly half are, according to 2005 census numbers. Census statistics suggest that young adults living in states where there is a high cost of living and a competitive career market often wait longer to marry. Statistics also show that today's young adults are making less, when adjusted for inflation, than people their age did 30 years ago.

Americans have become less likely to marry and this is reflected in a decline of 50% from 1970 to 2004

Read more from The State of Our Unions Survey 

About 80 percent of college students say they believe in God, according to a 2005 University of California study. But more than a third of adults 18 to 29 don't identify with one religion in particular and another 25%  classify themselves as nondenominational Christians, rather than identifying with a group like Baptist or Methodist, according to a 2001 American Religious Identification survey.

On a monthly basis, 68 percent talk about religion informally with friends, 64 percent of pray before meals, 55 percent read religious books, newspapers or magazines.

• 265 million is the preliminary estimate of turkeys raised in the United States in 2006.
• 664 million pounds is the estimate for U.S. cranberry production in 2006, up 6 percent from 2005.
• 1.6 billion pounds is the total weight of sweet potatoes produced in the United States in 2005.
• 1.8 billion bushels is the total volume of wheat — the essential ingredient of bread, rolls and pie crust — produced in the United States in 2006.
• $1.07 is the cost per pound of a frozen whole turkey in December 2005.

Read full article

In 1900 there were five billion hours spent in sharing the gospel, and ten billion listening hours accumulated, or two hours of hearing for every hour of preaching (2:1 ratio).  Today the ratio is nearly six to one.  There is a certain amount of intimacy that can be seen in this statistic.

By 2025 the number of denominations is expected to increase from thirty-eight thousand (2006) to fifty-five thousand and the space between preachers and their audience is to increase from 6:1 to 10:1. The two appear to have a symbiotic relationship.

ChristianityToday.com Staff: These are books that have shaped evangelicalism as we see it today—not an evangelicalism we wish and hope for. Books that have been published since World War II—not every book in the history of Christianity. Books that over the last 50 years have altered the way American evangelicals pray, gather, talk, and reach out—not books that merely entertained.We asked dozens of evangelical leaders for their suggestions, and they sent in their nominations. Then we vigorously debated as a staff as we ranked the 50 books. (We're still debating.)

A recent survey conducted by the University of Minnesota shows that atheists are the least trusted group in today's society.

• The survey asked if a parent would disapprove of a child's wish to marry an atheist, 47.6 percent of those interviewed said yes.
  • Asked the same question about Muslims and African-Americans, the yes responses fell to 33.5 percent and 27.2 percent, respectively.
  • The yes responses for Asian-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and conservative Christians were 18.5 percent, 18.5 percent, 11.8 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

Rural homelessness is a growing problem in many areas and is not known as much as the larger problems of the city.  Most studies estimate homeless people in small towns account for about 9 percent of the 600,000 or so homeless nationwide.

HUD provided $120 million for 700 projects in rural areas last year which has remained constant for several years.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life recently conducted surveys in 10 countries with sizeable renewalist populations…

• Pentecostals and Charismatics comprise nearly one-quarter of all Christians.
• 5% of the U.S. label themselves as Pentecostal, 18% charismatic. (23% renewalists)
• In the Philippines, the number of charismatics, most of them Catholic, is 10 times the number of Pentecostals.
• Majorities of renewalists in every country surveyed say that it is important to them that their political leaders have strong Christian beliefs.

• A clear majority of Latinos (57%) believe that immigrants have to speak English to be a part of American society and a significant minority (41%) says that they do not.
• Latino immigrants are slightly more likely (57%) to say that immigrants have to learn English than native-born Latinos (52%). 
• Two-thirds of Protestants (67%) and those who say they are born again take this view, compared with a little more than half (54%) of Catholics.

• The largest Lutheran denomination in the U.S. has reported that its baptized membership was 4.85 million in 10,549 congregations last year, a one-year decrease of about 1.6 percent and the 14th straight annual decline in membership.
• Income continues to grow, however, for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, up nearly 3 percent from the previous year to more than $2.67 billion.
• Though the ELCA's confirmed membership also decreased in 2005--to 3.63 million people--the average regular giving to the church grew to $598, an increase f of 4.8 percent over 2004.

UCLA--While today's college students have a very high level of interest and involvement in spirituality and religion, there are important differences among student subgroups, most significantly between African Americans and Whites, and between men and women, according to new research from UCLA.

• 95% of African Americans believe in God, compared to 84% of Latinos, 78% of Whites, and 65% of Asian Americans 
• 91% of African Americans pray, compared to 75% of Latinos and 67% of Whites 
• 53% of African Americans attend religious services frequently, compared to 42% of Whites, 39% of Latinos, and 35% of Asian Americans 
  
• The Spiritual Life of College Students: A National tudy of College Students' Search for Meaning and Purpose, Full Report.    Spirituality in Higher Education, Higher Education Research Institute, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA

• Metro Atlanta has at least 50 churches with more than 5,000 members, and dozens more with at least 3,000 members.
  • Nationally, attendance has increased 90 percent in the last 10 years at megachurches, typically defined as those that regularly attract 2,000 worshippers, while mainline churches have seen flat growth or a decline in attendance, according to the Hartford Institute for Religion Research
  • About 21.6 percent of people in Cobb were black in 2005, compared with 9.8 percent in 1990, the U.S. Census Bureau says.

• 80 percent of Americans think colleges and universities welcome students of faith 
  • 20 percent do not
• 81 percent of faculty consider themselves "spiritual beings"
• When asked to specify their current religious preference 31.2 percent of the professors surveyed said "none"
• Respondents were asked to select the statement that comes closest to expressing their views about God
  • 10.0 percent chose the statement, "I don’t believe in God"
  • 13.4 percent chose the statement, "I don’t know whether there is a God, and I don’t believe there is any way to find out." 
  • About 23.4 percent of respondents are either atheists or agnostics

• Of 9,300 U.S. hotels in the survey, 69% had upgraded their bedding in the last year, 72% were offering voice mail, 82% were offering wireless Internet, and almost all were wired to offer cable or satellite television.

Half say they miss one or two days of work a year because of stress, 46 percent say they come to work “one to four days a year when they are too stressed to be effective.”

“The most popular class at Harvard isn’t Intro to Econ or Survey of Dead White Poets,” Lauren Bradshaw writes in Glamour. It’s the Positive Psychology seminar taught by Tal Ben-Shahar who gives students research-based ways to live a more satisfying life. “In other words, it’s a course on how to be happier.”  Among teachings:

• Find what makes you happy.
• Failure is O.K.
• Don’t fake it.

Health Care – In one third of communities surveyed, older adults do not have access to a range of needed preventive health care services such as health education, community-based health screenings, and counseling on prescription drug programs.

Transportation – Many communities are not addressing the mobility needs of an aging population. For example, only 56% of communities reported having “dial a ride” or door-through-door transportation services and only 40% of communities reported having road signage that meets the needs of older drivers.

The full report is available at www.n4a.org/maturingofamericareport.pdf , and includes “best practices” from communities all across the U.S.

The 2005 ACS is designed to provide estimates of the size and characteristics of the population residing in households.

• Tables 1-32: Complete "Hispanics at Mid-Decade"
• Table 3: Detailed Hispanic Origin: 2005 
  • Mexican - 63.9%
  • Puerto Rican - 9.1%
  • Cuban - 3.5%
  • Dominican - 2.7%
  • Guatemalan - 1.9%
  • Honduran - 1.1%
  • Nicaraguan - 0.7% 
• Hispanic Population by State: 2000 and 2005 
   
• Table 17: English Ability by Age, Race and Ethnicity: 2005 
  

The Hispanic unemployment rate reached a historic low of 5.2% in the second quarter of 2006.  Wages for Latino workers also rose between the second quarters of 2005 and 2006, and at a faster rate than for other workers. The healthy job market for Latinos has been driven by the construction industry.

• Construction added nearly a half a million jobs alone between the second quarters of 2005 and 2006, the majority of them filled by foreign-born Latinos.
• Since the jobs recovery began in 2003, nearly 1 million Latinos have found jobs in construction, accounting for about 40% of all new jobs gained by Hispanics.
• The construction sector, however, is showing signs of a slowdown, and that could have an impact on Latino employment.

Download full report. 

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- The top 20% of U.S. households by income collectively spend more than the bottom 60% on goods and services. The richest 20% of households, feeding on the rapidly escalating value of their homes, accounted for 41% of the increase in spending that brought the country out of the 2001 recession. That means the top fifth of households do nearly 40% of the nation's consumer spending.

Download consumer spending chart. 

• Obesity cases increased from 24 percent in 1986 to 30 percent in 1994 among two Baptist groups -- the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention and the North American Baptists Conference, a group of roughly 400 churches in the U.S. Midwest and Canada.
• Fundamentalist Protestant congregations -- Church of Christ, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, and Church of God -- had the second-highest rate of obesity, at 22 percent.
• Catholic obesity rates remained steady at 17 percent during the research period

• Top 100 Churches in Worship Attendance (World)  (Jan 2006)
  
• Top 5 Churches in Worship Attendance by District (World)  (Jan 2006)
  
• Top 100 Churches in Worship Attendance (US/Canada)  (Jan 2006)
  1. Grove City, Central Ohio                  3,437
  2. Olathe College, Kansas City              2,759
  3. Pasadena First, Los Angeles              2,035
  4. Bethany First, Northwest Oklahoma   2,013
  5. Denver First, Colorado                     1,974
     
• Top 100 Churches in Worship Attendance by Numerical Gain (US/Canada)  (Jan 2006)
                     
  1. Yuba City First, Sacramento                 784 ('04)        1,201 ('05)
  2. Gold Creek Community, Washington 
     Pacific                                                780 ('04)        1,104 ('05)
  3. Pasadena First, Los Angeles               1,714 ('04)        2,035 ('05)
  4. Grove City, Central Ohio                   3,142 ('04)        3,437 ('05)
  5. York Stillmeadow, Mid-Atlantic           1,108 ('04)        1,352 ('05)
      
• Top 100 Churches in Worship Attendance by Percentage Gain (US/Canada)  (Jan 2006)
   
• Top 5 Churches by District in Worship Attendance (US/Canada)   (Jan 2006)
   
• Top 5 Churches in Worship Attendance by District and Numerical Gain (US/Canada)  (Jan 2006)
   
• Top 5 Churches in Worship Attendance by District and Percentage Gain (US/Canada) (Jan 2006)

WASHINGTON - Alcoholics Anonymous, the worldwide group that helps addicts stop drinking, may also help drive down the number of murders in a community, Canadian researchers reported Sunday.

An increase of one AA member per 100,000 people was followed by a drop of 0.3 to 0.5 percent in Ontario’s homicide rate.

For 2006, TNS Media Intelligence is forecasting 12.9% growth in Spanish-language media, cmpared to 4.9% for all U.S. media.

• Top 10 Hispanic Local TV Markets
  1. Los Angeles
  2. New York
  3. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale
  4. Houston
  5. Chicago
  6. Dallas-Ft. Worth
  7. San Antonia
  8. San Francisco
  9. Phoenix
  10. Harlingen, TX
      

• Top 10 Advertisers in Spanish-Language Spot TV
  by measured U.S. spot TV ad spending

Statistics compiled last fall by the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, show a significant increase in enrollment at religious colleges. From 1990 to 2004, independent religious schools (the government classifies about 900 of them) saw a 27.5 percent increase in enrollment. That was comparable to the increase at private colleges (28 percent).

But if more kids than ever are interested in religious education, they aren’t showing it in their vocational choices. The Lewis Center for Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary, released a recent study showing a significant, 20-year decline across mainline denominations, both Protestant and Catholic, in numbers of clergy under age 35.

• Enrollment Statistics

How Are Southern Baptists Perceived
This summer, the Center for Missional Research partnered with Zogby International to conduct a poll of 1,210 adults. Respondents were asked if their impression of Southern Baptists is very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable, or very unfavorable. Some respondents said they were not familiar with Southern Baptists and others were not sure of their impressions.

Overall, Southern Baptists were viewed favorably (combining very and somewhat favorable) by 57 percent of adults interviewed. Unfavorable impressions were reported by 17 percent, and 24 percent were not familiar with Southern Baptists. The following chart shows how Southern Baptists compare with other denominations or faith groups. Southern Baptists, Catholics, and Methodists don't differ greatly--they have a generally good public perception. Muslims and Mormons are similar in that they do not have a good perception.

There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people.  Half of American homes have three or more TVs, and only 19 percent have just one.

• In the average home, a television set is turned on for more than a third of the day -- eight hours, 14 minutes, Nielsen said.
• The average person watches four hours, 35 minutes of television each day, Nielsen said.

TV viewing is on the rise, continuing to increase despite competition, according to Nielson Media Research, which found a three-minute rise in total average time a household watched TV from 2005 to 2006.

• At eight hours and 14 minutes a day, households are tuned in more than ever before.
• On an individual level, the average amount of TV watched also increased three minutes a day, marking another high.
• Teenagers, those assumed to be spending the most time with the web and iPods, have not abandoned TV just yet.
• As a whole the age set (12-17) has increased its TV viewing, up five minutes, or 3%, for the full day compared to the 2004 to 2005 TV year. 

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• 63% of Georgians declared their support for research on stem cells using donated embryos from fertility clinics that would otherwise be discarded.
  • 53% supported "therapeutic cloning"
• Two Thirds said that any medical research allowed by federal law should be permitted in Georgia.
• 56 said opposition expressed by religious groups, such as the National Catholic Conference or Focus on the Family, had "no effect."

Alaska ranks first in the nation in the rate of women killed by men, according to a report released Wednesday by the Violence Policy Center, a national nonprofit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America. The study, based on 2004 figures compiled from records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, reports 62 percent of women victims were either wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers. The study shows Alaska had nine women homicides in 2004, giving it a rate of 2.83 homicides per 100,000 people.

New FBI statistics released this week: 

1. New York: one crime per 37.38 residents.
2. San Jose, Calif.: one crime per 34.46 residents.
3. Los Angeles: one crime per 25.97 residents.
4. San Diego: one crime per 24.09 residents.
5. Chicago: one crime per 21.9 residents.
6. Philadelphia: one crime per 17.96 residents.
7. Houston: one crime per 14.17 residents. 
8. San Antonio: one crime per 14.12 residents.
9. Phoenix: one crime per 14.10 residents.
10. Dallas: one crime per 11.79 residents

NASHVILLE, Tenn., 9/18/06 -- Surveying 413 pastors, the July/August 2006 LifeWay Research survey asked Southern Baptist pastors to indicate their position concerning the following question: "Do you consider yourself a five-point Calvinist?"

• LifeWay Research found that 10 percent of Southern Baptist pastors consider themselves five-point Calvinists.
• After analyzing the demographics of the 10 percent who affirm Calvinism, LifeWay Research also found no clear age correlation.

• Teens who have infrequent family dinners (two or fewer per week) are twice as likely to smoke daily and get drunk monthly compared to Teens who have frequent family dinners (at least five per week), according to a new report from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.
• The report, The Importance of Family Dinners III, also reveals that, compared to teens who have five or more family dinners per week, those who have two or fewer are:
  • More than twice as likely to have tried cigarettes
  • One and a half times likelier to have tried alcohol
  • Twice as likely to have tried marijuana
  • More than twice as likely to say future drug use is very or somewhat likely

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- A new study released today by AOL Latino looks at how internet usage varies by level of acculturation for the more than 16 million U.S. Hispanics online.

According to the study, mostly or partially acculturated respondents tend to prefer online content in English, but nearly 40% also find Spanish-language content appealing. Of the unacculturated segment, 37% prefer both languages. Among all online Hispanics surveyed, just 15% prefer Spanish only.

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Only 6 percent of clergy and 11 percent of laity believe their own church is very involved in local politics or political issues

• 36% of ministers stated their church is somewhat involved in local political issues
• 7 % of clergy say their church is very involved in national politics
• The only type of political involvement deemed appropriate (a rating of 4 or 5) by a majority of ministers and laypeople is encouraging the congregation to vote 

The studies asked each group about their personal political views, as well as how appropriate it is for churches to be politically involved in a number of ways. Only 6 percent of clergy and 11 percent of laity believe their own church is very involved in local politics or political issues.

Among ministers, 36% say their church is somewhat involved in local political issues. On national politics or political issues, 7 %  of clergy say their church is very involved.

(Ventura, CA) – A new study by The Barna Group (Ventura, California) shows that despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, most twentysomethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years – and often beyond that. In total, six out of ten twentysomethings were involved in a church during their teen years, but have failed to translate that into active spirituality during their early adulthood.

• Half of teens attend a church-related service or activity in a typical week.
• Three out of five teens attend at least one youth group meeting at a church during a typical three month period.
• There is also a substantial amount of unorthodox spiritual activity: three-quarters of America’s teenaged youths have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity during their teen years (not including reading horoscopes).
• Only one-fifth of twentysomethings (20%) have maintained a level of spiritual activity consistent with their high school experiences. Another one-fifth of teens (19%) were never significantly reached by a Christian community of faith during their teens and have remained disconnected from the Christian faith.
  
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• Nearly half of Americans (47.2%) identify themselves as "Bible-believing"
• Only 15 percent of the population use the term "Evangelical" to describe their religious identity and barely two in 100 Americans say it is the best description.
• Just a third of persons in Evangelical Protestant congregations and denominations (32.6%) refer to themselves as "Evangelical" 
• Persons with household incomes of more than $100,000 a year are twice as likely to describe themselves as "Theologically Liberal" than are persons with household incomes of $35,000 or less a year
• Approximately one-fifth of the U.S. population have read a book in the Left-Behind series (19.0%) and/or the Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren (19.0%).
• Of those who spend more than $50 a month on religious products, more than half (54.0%) are Evangelical Christians.

• 31.4% of Americans believe in an Authoritarian God
  • 24.4% believe in a Distant God
  • 23% believe in a benevolent God
  • 16% believe in a critical God
• African-Americans believe overwhelmingly (52.8%) in an Authoritarian God.
• Individuals with college degrees and who earn more than $100,000 disproportionately believe in a Distant God or are atheists.

Since 9/11, the recipients of church giving have changed – surveys have registered a 12 percent increase in giving to international aid agencies since 2001, with much of that increase coming from religious groups.

Roman Catholic Bishop John M. D’Arcy of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend can’t directly attribute it to Sept. 11, but giving for special appeals for disaster relief is up – way up – post-9/11. Parishes contributed more than $650,000 for victims of the Southeast Asia tsunami and $750,000 for those affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, he says. By contrast, $60,000 is considered “a good appeal,” he says.

• Of the 750 Black churches surveyed by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, only 2.4 percent received funds from the Faith-Based Initiative grants.
• Of the 50,000 estimated Black churches in the country the average membership is about 100 members.
• More than one in four black churches had annual revenue of less that $100,000 and half of Black churches had revenue of less that $250,000.

New findings of other MacArthur network scientists challenge common assumptions about teenage criminals.

• For example, a study that has tracked 1,355 serious offenders for three years finds that less than 10% of those involved in a lot of criminal activities at the outset continued to be heavily involved over the years. "A lot of policy is driven by the view that if a kid does a felony assault, he must be a bad actor from here on forward," says study leader Edward Mulvey of the University of Pittsburgh Medical School.
• Still, 57% had at least one more arrest within two years. "Plus, we know arrests represent only the tip of the iceberg. Who really knows how much else they did that they weren't caught for?" asks Adrian Raine, a psychologist at the University of Southern California who studies criminal behavior.

• An analysis of student-loan debt for the class of 2005 shows that average debt for all four-year college graduates ranged from a high of $22,793 in New Hampshire to a low of $11,709 in Utah.
  • The highest average debt were Iowa, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Maine, South Dakota, Washington and Indiana.
• The USA still leads in the share of people ages 35 to 64 with a college degree
  • it ranks seventh among 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees.
• The proportion of family income needed to pay net college costs (after accounting for all student financial aid except loans) at public four-year colleges has grown from 28% to 42% in Ohio
  • 18% to 30% in Iowa
  • 25% to 36% in Oregon
  • 20% to 31% in Washington state

The poll measured Americans perceptions about the acceptance of polygamy using a split-sample technique where one half of the respondents were asked about "most Mormon's" acceptance of polygamy and the other half were asked about "most Americans'" acceptance.

• Roughly one in four Americans say "most Mormons" support the practice of polygamy; only 2% say "most Americans" support it.
• A solid majority of Americans feel Mormons (68%) oppose it and nearly all say this of Americans generally (98%).
• Only 15% of Americans residing in the West say most Mormons endorse polygamy. This percentage is much higher among those in the East (31%), Midwest (27%), and South (30%).

Five years after 9/11, the bitter division between Republicans and Democrats on key issues is as intense as ever...

• a 58% majority says the Iraq War has not been worth the loss of American lives, while 36% say it has.
• Among Republicans, 58% say the war has been worth the cost in lives, while among Democrats, just 20% hold this view—a number that improves to 28% among independents.

WASHINGTON (Aug. 30) - It might be hard for some drivers to believe, but average commuting times are getting shorter for U.S. workers. The average daily commute to work has shrunk from 25.5 minutes in 2000 to 25.1 minutes last year, according to data released this week by the Census Bureau.  That's 0.4 minutes each way, for a total of 48 seconds a day.

"Even with these numbers, we swear up and down that we are spending more time in our cars," said John B. Townsend II, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic in Washington.  "We are spending at least an hour a day in our cars in the Washington area," Townsend said. "We spend more time stuck in traffic and commuting (each year) than we spend on vacation."

• For example, the nation's longest commute, at 39.6 minutes, is in the Vineland, N.J., metropolitan area, about 40 miles south of Philadelphia.  Vineland, a community of 56,000 people in southern New Jersey, was part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area in 2000. It became its own metropolitan area, along with the cities of Millville and Bridgeton, because fewer workers are commuting into Philadelphia.

"Overall, congestion isn't a problem for everyone," said Mantill Williams, a spokesman for AAA's national office. "But there are specific pockets of pain. There are specific areas where it has gotten worse."

• When asked whether each of eight different aspects of work life have gotten better, worse or remained the same for the typical American worker over the past 20 or 30 years, a majority or plurality of respondents in the Pew survey answered worse to all eight questions.
• Nearly nine-in-ten employed adults in this survey say they are either completely (28%) or mostly (61%) satisfied with their own jobs
• Since 1989, the number of workers ages 50 and older who report feeling completely satisfied with their job has fallen to 30% now, from 43% in a 1989 Gallup Poll.

PRINCETON, NJ -- According to recent Gallup research, religion remains a powerful predictor of registered voters' likely voting intentions for the upcoming midterm elections.

• The one-third of registered voters who are white and attend church frequently are more likely to vote Republican in the midterm election, by a 24-point margin (58% to 34%).
• The half of the registered voter population who are white but who don't attend church frequently have significantly different vote intentions; they're more likely to vote Democratic by a 17-point margin (54% to 37%).

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, half of all Americans said their faith helped them cope with the shock and uncertainty.

• The change most widely reported was a significant spike in church attendance, with some churches experiencing more than double their normal crowd on the Sunday after the shocking event.
• However, by the time January 2002 rolled around, churchgoing was back to pre-attack levels, and has remained consistent in the five years since.
• As of October 2001, Americans’ engagement in Bible reading and prayer was no different than pre-attack levels and has been essentially consistent from that point on.

Working parents of school age children often worry about what their children are doing after school in the hours before parents get home from work. And the time is significant:

• “For most full time employed parents, the gap between the end of the school day and the time they arrive home from work is [about] 20-25 hours per week” (Barnett & Gareis, 2006, p. 101), or 4 to 5 hours a day.
• Researchers have found that 44% of 12 year olds were in self-care after school.
• Over one-third (36%) of target children participated in a formal after school program for an average of 11 hours a week.
• One-fifth (21.5%) spent some time unsupervised after school each week, averaging around 10 hours alone or watching younger siblings.

• More than four-fifths, 82.4 percent, of the responding news directors say their partner's logo appears on their television newscast at least weekly.
  • By comparison, only 28 percent of newspaper editors in the previous study said that their partner's logo appeared in the news columns of their newspaper at least weekly.
  • Almost a quarter of editors, 23.4 percent versus 7.9 percent of news directors, said their partner's logo never appears in their news columns or broadcasts. 
• A majority of television stations and newspapers, 62.3 percent and 70.1 percent respectively do not spend time during their news meetings discussing how to promote their partner's content.
  • 20.2 percent of the television stations and 13 percent of the newspapers devote time to such activities at least once a week

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The August 2006 edition of Consider the Facts reveals differences between one class of Millennial students (those who entered college in 2004) and one class of Generation X students (those who began college in 1994). 

• Millennial students of 2004 are more price-conscious and more willing to shop around for the “right” school than the Gen-Xer students of 1994.
• Students in 2004 were more than twice as likely as those in 1994 to say that educational cost was a factor that affected their decision to attend their institution.

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The survey found that the proportion of Americans who say the Republican Party is friendly to religion fell 8 percentage points in the last year, to 47 percent, from 55 percent.

• Sixty-nine percent agreed that liberals have “gone too far in trying to keep religion out of schools and government” — an increase of 3 percentage points, which is not statistically significant.
• At the same time, 49 percent agreed that conservative Christians have “gone too far in trying to impose their religious values on the country,” also a 3 percentage point increase.
• Asked about “the Christian conservative movement,” 44 percent had a favorable view and 36 percent unfavorable — about the same as a year ago.
   
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• 69% of Americans say that liberals have gone too far in keeping religion out of schools and government.
• The Democratic Party continues to face a serious "God problem," with just 26% saying the party is friendly to religion.
• The proportion of Americans who say the Republican Party is friendly to religion has fallen from 55% to 47% in the past year
• The national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that most Americans (59%) continue to say that religion’s influence on the country is declining
• The public is more divided on the question of whether religion’s influence on government is increasing (42%) or decreasing (45%).

NEW YORK—The U.S. News & World Report college rankings for 2007 lists nearly every CCCU (Council for Christian Colleges & Universities) member institution, many of them ranking in the top tier of their category. In addition to ranking well overall, several CCCU colleges were singled out in special categories for excelling in certain areas, including:

• First-Year Experience: Azusa Pacific University (CA)
• Least Student Debt: Gordon College (MA), Southwest Baptist University (MO), Spring Arbor University (MI) and Warner Southern College (FL)

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More Than 40% of Californians Speak a Tongue Other Than English at Home  A full 42% of Californians speak a language other than English at home, with two-thirds of that group (28%) speaking Spanish and the rest speaking some other tongue. Not coincidentally, 27% of Californians are foreign-born, the highest in the nation.

• One in eight residents (12.4%) are immigrants (legal or illegal), up from 11% in 2000
• Latin America accounts for more than half (53%) of the immigrant population

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Immigrants -- legal and illegal -- make up a growing portion of the population in 46 states and the District of Columbia.

• South Carolina's immigrant population grew by 47 percent since 2000, more than any other state.
• The Hispanic population grew by 48 percent in Arkansas, the most for any state.
• Hispanics increased their hold as the country's largest minority group, at 14.5 percent of the population, compared with 12.8 percent for blacks.
  • Such whites are a minority in four states -- Hawaii, New Mexico, California and Texas -- and the District of Columbia. The share of white people fell below 60 percent in three other states: Maryland, Georgia and Nevada.
  • Nationally, non-Hispanic whites make up about 67 percent of the population, down from 70 percent at the start of the decade.
    California, New York, Texas and Florida have the nation's largest immigrant populations. The new data show that immigrants will travel beyond those states if there are jobs available.
• West Virginia, meanwhile, was one of only two states in which the percentage of white people grew. The other was Hawaii, where whites are an increasing minority.
  
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An open-ended question was included in the Faith Communities Today (FACT) 2005 survey: What are the major challenges facing your congregation?  Nearly a third mentioned issues related to growth: 15% congregational growth, 8% evangelism; 7% engaging young families

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Research conducted for Facts & Trends magazine uncovered just how involved Protestant churches are with key issues such as politics, personal finances, and evangelism, according to the clergy who minister in those churches, and the lay people who attend them.  Out of all these 11 issues, the only two in which a majority of ministers say their church is very involved are study of the Bible and personal morality (defined as helping individuals live according to God's plan).

• Seventy-six percent of all clergy believe their church is very involved in study of the Bible, 21 percent are somewhat involved, and 3 percent are not very involved.
• Less than 1 percent say their church actively avoids involvement in study of the Bible.
• For personal morality, 62 percent of all clergy say their church is very involved, 30 percent somewhat involved, and 7 percent not very involved, while 1 percent actively avoid this issue.

Los Angeles, CA -- People who never marry are far more likely to die prematurely than those who get hitched or divorced, say US researchers. Bachelors aged between 19 and 44 were more than twice as likely to die as their married male peers.

Never marrieds were 58% more likely to have died than peers who were married and living with their spouse in 1989. Those who had been widowed were almost 40% more likely to die, and those who had been divorced or separated were 27% more likely to die.

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• The nation’s population is expected to reach 300 million in 2006 compared to 1967 (when the population reached 200 million) and 1915 (when it reached 100 million). 
• Price of a new home
  • 2006: $290,600
  • 1967: $24,600 ($149,147 in 2006 dollars)
  • 1915: $3,200 ($64,158 in 2006 dollars)
• Cost for a gallon of regular gas
  • 2006: $3.04 (as of Aug. 7)
  • 1967: 33 cents ($2.00 in 2006 dollars)
  • 1915: 25 cents ($5.01 in 2006 dollars

Using brain imaging, a new study has pinpointed specific areas of the brain that light up when people gamble or gauge risk vs. reward. Researchers say the finding could help in the development of more effective treatments for problem gamblers, as well as other forms of addiction and mental disorders.

Between 1985 and 2004, the share of Canadians aged 15 and older reporting no religious affiliation increased by seven percentage points from 12% to 19%.

• Together, the proportion of adult Canadians who either have no religious affiliation or do have a religion but don't attend religious services increased from 31% to 43% over this period.
• The percentage of Canadian-born 15-59 - year olds with no religious affiliation or not attending religious services has increased from 33% in 1985 to 48% in 2004.
• While only about one-third (32%) of adult Canadians attend religious services at least monthly, over one-half (53%) engage in religious activities on their own at least monthly.
  
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Studies of divorce have generally found that married couples who agree about their religious affiliation and involvement and who believe religion is important are significantly less likely to divorce.  However, in a study reported September 8, 2004, the Barna Group found no difference in rates of divorce between “born again” Christians and non-Christians (The Barna Group, 2004).

• According to this study, 35% of “born again” Christians and 35% of non-Christians have experienced a divorce. One of the important differences between the Barna Group’s study and other national studies appears to be that the Barna study looked especially at “Born again Christians” without regard to church affiliation or involvement. 
                  
• Faith and Marital Stability: Toward an understanding of the role of the church in marital stability, Kenneth E. Crow, Research Center, Church of the Nazarene, July 29, 2005 
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• A survey by the Pew Research Center found that a majority of European Muslims did not sense hostility from non-Muslims.
  • But a significant number -- 39 percent in France, 42 percent in Britain and 51 percent in Germany -- reported otherwise.
• The Muslim population of Europe in 2005 was:
  • France 8% with more than 5 million (largest country)
  • Netherlands 6%
  • Germany 4%
  • Italy 2%
  • Spain 2%

• In July 2006 Church Report online announced the top 50 churches
  • 1.  Willow Creek Community Church-South Barrington, IL
  • 2.  Saddleback Church-Lake Forest, CA
  • 3.  North Point Community Church, Alpharetta, GA (North Point is the youngest of the group and began in 1995 with about 1,200 people)
  • 4. Fellowship Church-Grapevine, TX
  • 5. Lakewood Church-Houston, TX

Among Protestant Churches in the U.S., nearly one out of four megachurches is holding services at multiple locations.  (Hartford Institute)

• One out of three churches says it has "moved or probably would move," toward developing a multi-site campus model. (Thom Rainer)
• Seven out of the country's 10 fastest-growing churches offer worship in multiple locations, as do nine of the 10 largest churches. (Leadership Network)
  
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Food Company Websites Feature Advergames, Viral Marketing, TV Ads, and Incentives for Product Purchases. The report, It’s Child’s Play: Advergaming and the Online Marketing of Food to Children, found that

• more than eight out of ten (85%) of the top food brands that target children through TV advertising also use branded websites to market to children online.
• A variety of advertising and marketing tactics are employed on these sites, including sweepstakes and promotions (65%), memberships (25%), on-demand access to TV ads (53%), and incentives for product purchase (38%).
• About three-quarters (73%) of the websites in the study included advergames, ranging from one to more than 60 games per site. To encourage additional time spent at the website, many of the games promote repeat playing (71%), offer multiple levels of play (45%), or suggest other games the visitor might enjoy (22%).  Almost two-thirds (64%) of sites in the study use viral marketing, in which children are encouraged to send emails to their friends about a product, or invite them to visit the company’s website

• It's Child's Play, Executive Summary 
• It's Child's Play, Presentation 

When is average not average?  The quick answer: When you are talking about the average congregation. 
In the context of organizational analysis, it is necessary, but almost too easy, to talk about the "average" congregation.  For instance, political leaders urging greater congregational involvement in welfare reform must think in large, aggregate measures.  They might cite the average size or the average budget of congregations when talking about available capacity for service. Educated consumers of such figures, and users of organizational analysis in general, must learn to read between the lines if they want to understand the situation of an "average" congregation.

• Lifeway Research has published many facts about Christians and thier interaction with things of today including music, magazines, clothing, radio, websites, etc.  Some of the facts include:
  • Radio – 37% of all radio listened to by Protestant laity is Christian.
  • 28% of all fiction books read by Protestant laity is Christian.
  • 21% of all magazines ready by Protestant laity is Christian.
  • 20% of all television watched by Protestant laity is Christian. 
  • 20% of all web sites visited by Protestant laity is Christian.
  • 17% of all movies watched by Protestant laity is Christian

In the last five years, [churches with at least 500 in attendance] have gained an additional 20,000 more in worship, to just over 100,000 in an average week.  During the same time period, their Sunday Schools have grown by 9,000 and their small groups by nearly 12,000.  Children and teen Sunday School in large churches grew by 4,500 during the last five years, which is the same amount that the adult Sunday School grew.

• Of the 1,370 Churches of the Nazarene that averaged between 100 and 499 in 2005, worship gains also totaled about 20,000 over the last five years.

• There are 2,504 Churches of the Nazarene that have consistently averaged less than 100 in worship.  Among these churches, worship has increased about 1,000 over the past five years. Overall, Sunday School has declined by about 1,500 while small group ministries have grown by 4,000.

NEW YORK -- A recent survey found that a majority of young teens said there are correlations between the messages of the Bible and the way they apply those messages to their lives. More than 1,600 teens aged 12-18 years were surveyed by the American Bible Society to find what kind of role the Bible plays in the lives of these youths.

• 70 percent of 12-15-year-olds said that Bible messages and the application of them to their lives correlate with one another.
• Among the teens, African American youths were significantly more likely to agree with this statement than teens of other ethnic groups.
  
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Catholic ministry is failing to keep up with increasing number of southern Catholics.  Between 1990 and 2000, the U.S. population grew by 17 percent in the South. Catholic population growth was almost double that at 30 percent. In spite of that dramatic increase in the number of Catholics, there was a net increase of only 34 Catholic congregations in the entire South, with three-quarters of those new congregations in Florida, Ken Sanchagrin reports. 

• Read more and/or order the map from the Glenmary Research Center.

(Ventura, CA) – Pastors may be employed in one of society’s most demanding professions and many churchgoers may place unrealistic expectations on their leaders. But today’s pastors are surprisingly similar to people from other walks of life – with doubts and insecurities of their own. Pastors brim with self-confidence in many areas of their ministry, but admit it is a challenge to maintain genuine connections with other people.  majority of pastors (61%) admit that they “have few close friends.” 

• one-sixth of today’s pastors feel under-appreciated
• one in every five contends that they are currently “dealing with a very difficult family situation.” 
• Boomer leaders (those ages 41-59) were most likely to say they have few close friends, but they were the least likely to feel under-appreciated.
• Older pastors (ages 60+) were the most likely to feel inadequately recognized for their efforts.
• True to their friendship-oriented generational identity, Buster pastors (ages 22-40) were also the least likely to feel relationally isolated.

Department of Education statistics show that men, whatever their race or socioeconomic group, are less likely than women to get bachelor's degrees — and among those who do, fewer complete their degrees in four or five years. Men also get worse grades than women.  And in two national studies, college men reported that they studied less and socialized more than their female classmates.

• Men now make up only 42 percent of the nation's college students.
• Young men from low-income families, which are disproportionately black and Hispanic, are the most underrepresented on campus, though in middle-income families too, more daughters than sons attend college."

"Over all, the differences between blacks and whites, rich and poor, dwarf the differences between men and women within any particular group," says Jacqueline King, a researcher for the American Council on Education's Center for Policy Analysis and the author of the forthcoming report.

• "Gender-Specific Trends in the Value of Education and the Emerging Gender Gap in College Completion," Thomas A. DiPrete, Columbia University; Claudia Buchmann, The Ohio State University 

The CR Daily and thechurchreport.com are pleased to announce their annual list of The Most Influential Churches in America.  The 2006 survey was emailed to leaders of more than 2,000 of the largest non-Catholic congregations in the nation by Church Growth Today in April and May. A small selected group of smaller churches were also invited to recommend churches.  Participants were asked to recommend up to 10 churches (vs. 5 last year) they onsidered to be among the nation’s most infl uential. A total of 83 churches were recommended. A total of 57 percent of all church leader recommendations named these five churches.

A summary of all 50 churches reveals:

1. Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, Ill.),
2. Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, Calif.),
3. North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, Ga.)
4. Fellowship Church (Grapevine, Texas)
5. Lakewood Church (Houston, Texas)      

• The Most Influential Churches in America, complete list. 
  About The Church Report: The Church Report is a national business news magazine that is distributed to over 50,000 senior pastors and Christian leaders from across the United States. In addition to the monthly magazine, The Church Report also offers a companion Web site (www.thechurchreport.com) that features a daily news service, employment opportunities, live chats, Web blog and much more.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public opinion surveys encompassing a broad array of subjects ranging from people's assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day.

• In one of the survey's most striking findings, majorities in Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan say that they do not believe groups of Arabs carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
• Nearly four-in-ten Germans (37%), and 29% of Americans, say there is a natural conflict between being a devout Christian and living in a modern society.
  

• The Great Divide: How Westerners adn Muslims View Each Other. 13-Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey
• America's Image Slips, But Allies Share U.S. Concerns Over Iran, Hamas, 15-Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey
• Among Wealthy Nations, U.S. Stands Alone in its Embrace of Religion

Christian Media Use (Laity/Clergy):

Christian Music: 78% Laity, 94% Clergy
Christian Television: 64% Laity, 77% Clery
Christian Websites: 64% Laity, 83% Clergy
Christian Radio: 64% Laity, 84% Clerg
Christian non-fiction books: 60% Laity, 92% Clergy

For each type of media, the average proportion dedicated to Christian options is less than half –- usually much less than half.

• Survey: Christian media used often, but there is room to grow, Baptist Press, June 28, 2006, compiled by Staff, from Facts and Trends, published by Lifeway Christian Resources, SBC
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• "Media Use" Chart (Laity/Clergy) (jpg)
• Survey: Christian Media Occupies Small Segment Of Media Usage, Lifeway.com, Facts & Trends, 6/27/2006, Written by LifeWay News Service

Eighty-seven percent of Americans are basic believers in the existence of God, saying either that they are convinced that God exists or that God probably exists and they have only a little doubt that this is the case.

• A slightly larger group of 92% of Americans can be classified in a group that tilts toward the existence of God, stating that at the least they think God probably exists, even though some have a lot of doubt about it.
• Only 3% of Americans can be considered to be hard-core atheists, convinced that God does not exist.
  Another 4% are agnostics of a sort, leaning toward a belief that God does not exist, but not sure that this is the case beyond a doubt. 
• Only about three-quarters of Americans with post-graduate educations or with incomes above $150,000 a year are certain that God exists or believe that God probably exists and have only a little doubt. 
   
• Read more (The Gallup News service offers a free 1-month trial to those interested in reading their articles on-line)
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Bigger, Older cities are losing ground

• Elk Grove, Calif., wasn't even incorporated six years ago, and now it's the fastest-growing city in America. 
• The Sacramento suburb grew by 11.6 percent last year, to 112,000 people
• Americans have been moving west and south for decades, and last year was no different.
• All but three of the 50 fastest-growing cities from 2004 to 2005 were in those regions of the country, with many in California and Florida, according to Census Bureau estimates Wednesday.
• The estimates were for cities with populations of 100,000 or more. 
• Elk Grove was followed in the top five by North Las Vegas, Nev.; Port St. Lucie, Fla.; Gilbert, Ariz., and Cape Coral, Fla. 
• All five are suburban, and all have fewer than 200,000 residents. 

• Read more.
• Fastest Shrinking Cities
• Fastest Growing Cities
• Fastest Growing Cities are Suburban
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For the first time since the 1930s, the U.S. membership of the United Methodist Church has dropped to just under 8 million.

• Membership decreased 1.05 percent in 2005.
• U.S. membership had decreased by 0.81 percent, to about 8.07 million in 2004.
• Membership had declined annually since the formation of the denomination in 1968.
• Church attendance in 2005 was 3.34 million, the lowest level in reported history.
• Attendance had decreased by 1.63 percent from 2004 to 2005.
        
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• 9% of adults attend a house church during a typical week
• One out of five adults attends a house church at least once a month.
• It's estimated that more than 70 million adults have at least experimented with house church participation.
• In a typical week roughly 20 million adults attend a house church gathering. Over the course of a typical month, that number doubles to about 43 million adults.
• The Barna survey revealed that of those who attend a house church, 27% attend on a weekly basis, 30% attend one to three times per month, and 43% attend less than once a month.
               
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Florida's Flagler Leads the List, but Metro Areas Nationwide Attract Gains

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- Looking for where consumers are going and growing? You may not need to leave your state. The nation's 100 fastest-growing counties are spread across 28 states, with hot pockets of growth far from the Sun Belt.

To be sure, advantage goes to sunny climes. Counties in the five states with the biggest overall population gains since 2000 -- California, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Arizona -- accounted for well over half of the 100 hot counties.

Top 10 - Fastest Growing Counties

1 Flagler  FL Palm Coast, FL
2 Loudoun  VA Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
3 Henry  GA Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
4 Paulding  GA Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
5 Newton  GA Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
6 Rockwall  TX Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
7 Douglas  CO Denver-Aurora, CO
8 Forsyth  GA Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
9 Kendall  IL Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI
10 Osceola  FL Orlando-Kissimmee, FL

Download Chart for fastest growing counties (.xls)

• Attitudes about the Accuracy of the Bible 1990-2004
• Religion, An Important Part of Life
• Religious Guidance in Day-to-Day Living
• Church Attendance, 1952-1968
• Church Attendance, 1970-2004
• Liberal-Conservative Self-Identification
• Change in Situation of Blacks 1964-1994
• Aid to Blacks/Minorities 1970-2004
• Government See to Fair Treatment in Jobs 1964-2004

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Kip Fulbeck, a Santa Barbara artist, filmmaker, athlete and art professor who is of Chinese, Irish, Welsh and English descent, was born at a time when several states still banned mixed-race marriages and the children of such unions were routinely stigmatized.

• But 41 years later, as interracial marriages have exponentially increased, Fulbeck is now celebrated as one of the nation's leading artists focused on work about mixed-race Asians, known as "hapas."
• He recently published a book on hapa identity, "Part Asian 100% Hapa," and this weekend opened a related photographic exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo
  .
• "Before, people would look at you like you were a science experiment," said Fulbeck, a lanky Fontana native who sports a surfer's tan and a waist-up Japanese tattoo."Now, we're everywhere."
  • Hapas number 1.6 million in the United States, according to the 2000 census, which for the first time allowed people to claim more than one race.
  • Nearly one-third of the nation's hapas live in California, 11% of the state's total Asian American population and the largest concentration of hapas outside Hawaii.
  • Hapas and other mixed-race groups have their own websites, social clubs, campus groups, films and literature. Their ranks include golfer Tiger Woods, actor Keanu Reeves, supermodel Devon Aoki and musician Sean Lennon. Lennon, son of the Japanese Yoko Ono and the British John Lennon, wrote the forward to Fulbeck's book.

Within a year or so, more people will live in cities than in the countryside for the first time in human history: the 21st century will be an urban one. But increasingly, the urban core itself is downsizing. Already, half the city dwellers in the world live in metropolises with less than half-a-million residents.

Between 2000 and 2015, the world's smallest cities (with under 500,000 people) will grow by 23 percent, while the next smallest (1 million to 5 million people) will grow by 27 percent.

• The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (11,106 churches) has experienced a decline of 11.6 percent over the previous ten years
• The United Methodist Church (35,721 churches) was down 6.7 percent
• The Episcopal Church (7,314 churches) lost 5.3 percent of its membership
• The United Churches of Christ (5,863 churches) declined 14.8 percent
• The American Baptist Churches USA were down 5.7 percent.
  

• "God-Lite Doesn’t Cut It, Americans like a stouter brand" by Dave Shiflett
• A New Exodus? Americans are Exiting Liberal Churches  by Al Mohler
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The total Hispanic/Latino population in North Carolina was 506,206 in 2004, with approximately 350,000 residents from Mexico. There are now about 600,000 Hispanics in North Carolina (55% here legally; 45% are undocumented).

• Hispanic workers filled one-third of all jobs created in North Carolina during the past decade.
• It's estimated that the number of Hispanic residents in North Carolina has jumped roughly a third since 2000, to more than seven percent of the state's total population.
• Hispanic residents contribute about $9.2 billion a year to the state's economy, and businesses chasing the money they spend employed 89,900 workers in 2004.

• Univ of North Carolina Press Release, Jan 3, 2006
• Executive Summary 
• Full Report: Kenan Institute Hispanic Study, January 2006 

nytimes.com--In what is an elite tweak on home schooling — and a throwback to the gilded days of education by governess or tutor — growing numbers of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes.

Unlike the more familiar home-schoolers of recent years, these families are not trying to get more religion into their children's lives, or escape what some consider the tyranny of the government's hand in schools. In fact, many say they have no argument with ordinary education — it just does not fit their lifestyles.

Lisa Mazzoni's family splits its time between Marina del Rey, Calif., and Delray Beach, Fla. Lisa has her algebra and history lessons delivered poolside sometimes or on her condominium's rooftop, where she and her teacher enjoy the sun and have a view of the Pacific Ocean south of Santa Monica.

"For someone who travels a lot or has a parent who travels and wants to keep the family together, it's an excellent choice," said Lisa's mother, Trish Mazzoni, who with her husband owns a speedboat company.

Top 10 Churches in Adult Baptisms for 2005

1. Fellowship Church, Grapevine, TX  1,546
2. Second Baptist Church, Houston, TX  561
3. Springdale FBC, Springdale, AR  534
4. Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, TX  524
5. Flamingo Road Baptist Church, Fort Lauderdale, FL  355
6. Mize, FBC, Mize, MS  297
7. Bellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, TN  282
8. Saint Paul's Baptist Church, Richmond, VA  263
9. Lake Pointe Church, Rockwall, TX  259
10. FBC of Woodstock, Woodstock, GA  247

 Top 100 Churches in Adult Baptisms - 2005

Membership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) declined by more than two percent in 2005, marking the highest percentage loss in the graying denomination since 1975.

• Figures indicated a loss of 48,474 members -2.05 percent -since 2004.
• The losses occurred in "virtually every statistical category," according to PNS
  • 28,680 lost by transferring to other churches
  • 36,191 leaving by death
  • This exodus offset the 125,000 new people who joined the denomination last year.
    
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13% - Americans who believe Jesus' death was faked and that he married and had a family, the central thesis of The Da Vinci Code. 

64% - Americans who say they would vote for a presidential candidate who is an evangelical.

78% - U.S. college students who say religion plays an important part in their lives.

78% - Americans who believe Jesus died on the Cross and was resurrected to eternal life, the central thesis of Christianity.

25% - Students who say they are more spiritual since entering college.

• ProtectKids.com:
  • Two in five Internet users visited an adult site in August of 2005, according to tracking by comScore Media Metrix.
    
  • 87% of university students polled have virtual sex mainly using Instant Messenger, webcam, and telephone (“CampusKiss and Tell” University and College Sex Survey. Released on February 14, 2006. CampusKiss.com. February 17, 2006
    
  • According to comScore Media Metrix, there were 63.4 million unique visitors to adult websites in December of 2005, reaching 37.2% of the Internet audience.
    

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's latest update on support for the death penalty finds most Americans continue to support the execution of convicted murderers. When given an explicit choice between the death penalty and life imprisonment with no possibility of parole, however, Americans divide evenly as to which is the better penalty for murder.

Long term trend toward expanded acceptance stalled in recent years. 
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans express a spectrum of views on gay rights, ranging from near universal support for gay rights in the workplace to majority opposition of legalizing gay marriage. Americans aren't so much ambiguous in their attitudes on gay rights as they are culturally fractured.

PRINCETON, NJ -- When USA Today asked what the subjects of his film "March of the Penguins" have most in common with humans, director Luc Jacquet answered, "They form couples and are faithful. It's the only way they can raise the chick under extreme conditions." 

Jacquet's rendering of love-struck penguin couples struggling to bring their offspring into the world is touchingly humanlike. But marriage is often viewed as a declining institution in U.S. society.

Chicago area not-for-profit hospitals get three times as much money in tax breaks compared with what they dole out in free health care to poor and uninsured people, an analysis to be unveiled today shows.

Top 10 Churches in Children's Baptisms - 2005

1. SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, HOUSTON HOUSTON TX 409
2. FELLOWSHIP CHURCH, GRAPEVINE GRAPEVINE TX 403
3. BELLEVUE BAPTIST CHURCH CORDOVA TN 277
4. FAIRVIEW FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH FAIRVIEW TN 227
5. SHARON BAPTIST CHURCH PHILADELPHIA PA 200
6. LAKE POINTE CHURCH ROCKWALL TX 177
7. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF WOODSTOCK WOODSTOCK GA 177
8. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF JACKSONVILLE, JACKSONVILLE FL 154
9. SPRINGDALE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH SPRINGDALE AR 150
10. SAINT MATTHEWS BAPTIST CHURCH WILLIAMSTOWN NJ 150

• Top 100 Churches in Children's Baptisms - 2005  

WASHINGTON -- We'll make this quick. We know you're busy.  A poll has found an impatient nation. To get to the point without further ado, it's a nation that gets antsy after nine minutes on hold on the phone and 17 minutes in a line. So say people in the survey.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Over the last decade, gay-rights activists have pushed programs to support gay and lesbian students in public schools. Their success is striking:

• More than 3,000 Gay-Straight Alliance clubs meet across the country.
• Nearly half a million students take a vow of silence one day each spring in an annual event to support gay rights. California may soon require textbooks to feature the contributions of gays and lesbians throughout history.
  

Research has confirmed listening to music can have a significant positive impact on perception of chronic pain.

Teen birthrates have fallen 13 years in a row, but the most recent decline was so small that many observers now are worried that the downward trend will stall or reverse itself.

Only one HIV-positive child in 20 in developing countries receives the treatment they need, a report by children's campaigners has found.

Asian Americans populate America's elite colleges more than ever—and campus ministries even more than that.

AFFILIATION:
14%  Southern Baptist
12%  Independent (charismatic)
12%  Independent (non-charismatic)
10%  Other Baptist
  8%  United Methodist
  6%  Episcopalian
38%  Other: Independent Christian, Foursquare, Assemblies of God, COGIC, and Calvary Chapel

SIZE (Attendance):
36%  10,000+
72%  5,000+
90%  2,000+

THEOLOGY:
22%  Charismatic/Pentecostal
78%  Non Charismatic/Pentecostal
22%  Mainline Denomination

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Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches. And...

• Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.
• Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons.
• Eighty percent of pastors' spouses feel their spouse is overworked.
• The majority of pastor's wives surveyed said that the most destructive event that has occurred in their marriage and family was the day they entered the ministry.
  
  • "Death by Ministry", Mark Driscoll's Blog, Resurgence.com
  • The Journey in St. Louis, Pastor Darrin Patrick
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Louisville, KY--While America’s evangelical Christians are rightly concerned about the secular worldview’s rejection of biblical Christianity, we ought to give some urgent attention to a problem much closer to home — biblical illiteracy in the church. This scandalous problem is our own, and it is up to us to fix it.
   Researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli put the problem squarely: “Americans revere the Bible — but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.” How bad is it? Researchers tell us that it is worse than most could imagine.
   Fewer than half of all adults can name the four Gospels. Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples. According to data from the Barna Research Group, 60 percent of Americans can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments.

“No wonder people break the Ten Commandments all the time. They don’t know what they are,” said George Barna, president of the firm. The bottom line? “Increasingly, America is biblically illiterate.”

From 1990 to 2000, Asian American homeownership rates increased in 19 top metropolitan areas in the nation, most notably Minneapolis-St. Paul, Boston and Fresno, Calif.

On this day in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress, starting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation. As always, this most American of holidays will be marked by parades, fireworks and backyard barbecues across the country.

Washington, D.C.--The number of Asian-owned businesses grew 24 percent between 1997 and 2002, approximately twice the national average for all businesses. The 1.1 million businesses generated more than $326 billion in revenues, up 8 percent from 1997. This is according to a new report, Survey of Business Owners: Asian-Owned Firms: 2002, released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the last decade, abstinence-only programs have received unprecedented federal support and have come to the forefront of discussions about sex education. This policy update reviews and analyzes the scientific research of abstinence-only sex education programs in school settings in the United States.

All articles are available because of permissions granted by the publishing journal.

Americans' attitudes toward the Catholic religion were quite positive in March 2000, but became significantly more negative in April 2002. Now, views have recovered but still are not as positive as at the beginning of the decade. 

Fifty-seven percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Catholic religion; 30% have an unfavorable opinion.  There is a major distinction in views of the Catholic religion between those who identify with a Christian religion and those who do not

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WASHINGTON — The House passed a $513 billion defense-authorization bill Thursday that includes language intended to allow chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public military ceremonies, undercutting new Air Force and Navy guidelines on religion.

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP)--According to the Gospels, the Virgin Mary was overwhelmed in hearing from the Lord’s messenger that she was going to give birth to a son. She knew she possibly would have to raise her child as a single mother. Where did she turn for help?

A new survey shows what pastors nationwide would do if their church received an unexpected financial windfall.
According to a survey conducted by Ellison Research, 31% of the more than 500 Protestant pastors surveyed said they'd build, expand, or update their church's buildings and facilities. That preference is even more pronounced among Southern Baptist pastors, 43% of whom say they'd spend the unexpected financial boon on facilities.

In a companion survey of almost 1,200 Protestant lay people, the top 3 priorities for spending a windfall would be  paying off debt (18%),  increasing social programs (18%), and building, expanding, or updating church facilities (17%).

"More than half of all members of churches in America will meet their Savior face to face without ever having shared Christ with anyone," Thom Rainer  says. "On the leadership issue, 53% of pastors have not shared Christ, by their own admission, in the last 6 months."  Rainer admits he may be oversimplifying things, but offers this observation: "It seems to me, when someone [asks]: 'What's wrong with the evangelistic health of our churches?' — I can give a simple response: We're not doing it.

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• Research results were released in the May/June edition of Facts and Trends magazine that show the spending priorities of clergy and the people in the pews don’t always match.
• 31% of ministers state that their top priority is to build, expand, or update their church’s buildings and facilities.
  • Next is increasing community evangelism activities (16 percent)
  • Paying off debt (12 percent)
  • Adding staff (10 percent)
• Among laity, three priorities are tied for the top position:
  • paying off debt (18 percent)
• • increasing social programs, such as helping with homelessness or education (18 percent)
  • building, expanding, or updating church facilities (17 percent)

US Census Bureau: About 1-in-every-3 U.S. residents was part of a group other than single-race non-Hispanic white — according to national estimates by race, Hispanic origin and age released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2005, the nation’s minority population totaled 98 million, or 33 percent, of the country’s total of 296.4 million.

"Adolescents who sign a "virginity pledge" and then go on to have premarital sex are likely to disavow having signed such a pledge, according to an analysis of survey data by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researcher Janet Rosenbaum published in the advance online edition of the American Journal of Public Health's June 2006 issue.

• Almost one-third of non-virgins in the first survey who later took a virginity pledge recanted their experience with sexual intercourse in the second survey. Conversely, adolescents who have had premarital sex and then decide to make a virginity pledge are likely to misreport their earlier sexual history. This misreporting of sexual experience will make it difficult to accurately assess virginity pledges' effects on early sexual intercourse, according to the author.
                 
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Our recent study showed that the more a person knew of [The Da Vinci Code], the more likely they were to consider the claims of The Da Vinci Code to be true, or to consider neither The Da Vinci Code nor the Bible as “closer to the truth.”  Since more people are about to be increasingly familiar with the content, this should be a cause for concern.

According to our poll...23 percent indicated they had read the book, 43 percent indicated they had not read the book but were familiar with its content, and 34 percent indicated they were not familiar with the content.

Also, the more familiar they are with the content, the more likely they are to believe that Christianity is suppressing the "truth." 

• Read full report (pdf)

Global targets to tackle HIV have been missed, and the level of funding is little over half what is needed. While HIV continues to kill 8,000 people a day, Christian Aid calls on governments and other donors to contribute their fair share.

• Adult ministry leaders in evangelical, Protestant churches place the highest priority on Bible study and relationships for their adult Sunday School classes and small groups, according to a recent survey by LifeWay Research:
  • Bible Study - 1.8 SS Class mean rank, 2.3 Small groups mean rank
  • Relationships/Community/Fellowship - 3.1 SS Class mean rank, 2.9 Small Groups mean rank
  • Intentional Disciple making - 3.2 SS Class mean rank, 3.2 Small Groups mean rank
  • Outreach/Evangelism & Ministry/Service - 4.0 SS Class mean rank, 4.0 Small Groups mean rank
  • Worship - 4.4 SS Class mean rank, 4.3 Small Groups mean rank

• Less than 20% of Americans regularly attend church—half of what the pollsters report.  The actual number of people worshipping each week is closer to 52 million people instead of the pollster-reported 132 million (40%).
• In 1990, 20.4% of the population attended an Orthodox Christian church on any given weekend. In 2000, that percentage dropped to 18.7% and to 17.7% by 2004.
• Only one state is outpacing its population growth.
  • Hawaii, where 13.8% of the state's population (1.3 million) regularly attends church, was the only state where church attendance grew faster than its population growth from 2000 to 2004.
• If trends continue, the percentage of the U.S. population attending church will be almost half of what it was in 1990.
                                  
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Teenage girls are ten times more likely to attempt suicide if they have had an abortion in the last six months than are teens who have not had an abortion.

“Parents are faced with a shell of a person and have no idea where they lost their child.” —Terri, who had a secret abortion as a teen

Top 10 Churches in Youth Baptisms - 2005

1. SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, HOUSTON HOUSTON TX 653
2. PRESTONWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH PLANO TX 506
3. FELLOWSHIP CHURCH, GRAPEVINE GRAPEVINE TX 293
4. LAKE POINTE CHURCH ROCKWALL TX 175
5. SPRINGDALE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH SPRINGDALE AR 135
6. CROSSPOINTE BAPTIST CHURCH MILLINGTON TN 125
7. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF JACKSONVILLE, JACKSONVILLE FL 118
8. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH WEST MONROE LA 107
9. HILLVUE HEIGHTS BAPTIST CHURCH BOWLING GREEN KY 105
10. BELLEVUE BAPTIST CHURCH CORDOVA TN 100

• Top 100 Churches in Youth Baptisms-2005

NAMB's Center for Missional Research recently partnered with Zogby International to learn what questions Americans are asking about spiritual issues. Results are now available from the 1,200 telephone interviews conducted by Zogby in late March, 2006. Read More(pdf).

The standard evangelistic approach for several decades has begun with the question, “If you were to die today do you know for sure you would go to heaven?” I must confess, I typically do not use this approach because I have assumed that there are few people outside of hospital beds or foxholes actually asking the question. My assumption was that our survey would prove that to be the case. I was wrong.  View PowerPoint® & Graphs.

The Winter 2006 ANSR Poll asked a random sample of Nazarene pastors and members about technology use in their local church.  Of the 320 pastors that responded to the survey, 50% said that their church does not even have a website.

Of the 50% of churches that do have a website, 42% of them say “It is a fairly static online brochure.” This is understandable when you consider the fact that in many cases the responsibility of maintaining the website falls to the pastor (19%).

Dr. Thom Rainer found that 82 percent of all SBC churches baptized 12 or less persons during 2003.  

• “The evangelistic fields in the United States are much less receptive than they were in past years."
• “Southern Baptist leaders are not personally evangelistic.”
• Only a small number of churches in the SBC have any significant evangelistic efforts.”

The Southern Baptist Convention is evangelistically "on the path of slow but discernable deterioration."

New Hampshire and Vermont have lowest reported church attendance in nation.  A special Gallup Poll analysis of more than 68,000 interviews conducted over the past two years shows that reported church attendance is highest in the Southern states, in Utah, and in certain Midwestern states, while church attendance is lowest in the New England states, Nevada, and other Western states.

• The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network says based on the results of a new poll, about 5 percent of American high school students "identify as gay or lesbian"
  • 16 percent said they have a homosexual relative
  • 72 percent said they know someone who is homosexual.
• 75. 4% of students heard derogatory remarks such as "faggot" or "dyke" frequently or often at school, and nearly nine out of ten (89.2%) reported hearing "that's so gay" or "you're so gay" - meaning stupid or worthless- frequently or often.
• Over a third (37.8%) of students experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and more than a quarter (26.1%) on the basis of their gender expression.

The number of people living with HIV in North America, Western and Central Europe rose to 1.9 million in 2005, with approximately 65 000 people having acquired HIV in the past year. Wide availability of antiretroviral therapy has helped keep AIDS deaths comparatively low, at about 30 000.

While nearly half of the adult population attends religious services during a typical week, people’s conceptual bond to the local church remains tenuous.

• Fewer than one out of every five adults firmly believes that a congregational church is a critical element in their spiritual growth and just as few strongly contend that participation in some type of community of faith is required for them to achieve their full potential.
• Only 17% of adults said that “a person’s faith is meant to be developed mainly by involvement in a local church.”             
• Just as few adults (18%) firmly embraced the idea that spiritual maturity requires involvement in a community of faith.  
• While most Americans contend that they want their lives to matter, a minority (44%) strongly affirms their commitment to “personally make the world and other people’s lives better.”
  
  
• The Barna Group: New Survey Reveals that Americans Have Commitment Issues, April 19, 2006
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• Weekly church attendance on average is at 33 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll.
• In a survey of more than 11,000 people, results revealed that Evangelicals have the highest participation for those who attend services weekly or almost weekly, ranging in the 60 percentile.

"Seventy-eight percent of Americans say they are "convinced" that God exists"

• 12% think God probably exists, but have "a little doubt";
• 4% think God probably exists, but have "a lot of doubt."
• 4% think God "does not exist, but are not sure,"
• 1% are "convinced" that God does not exist.

Albert L. Winseman, D. Min. "Americans Have Little Doubt God Exists: Belief strong, but not monolithic."The Gallup News Service. December 13, 2005 Copyright © 2006 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All rights reserved.

University students from southern Alberta were administered a questionnaire to assess their gambling behaviour. Seventy-two percent reported gambling in the past 6 months, with the most common types being lotteries and instant win tickets (44%) and games of skill against other people (34%) Most students who gambled spent very little time and money doing so (median time spent = 1.5 hrs; median amount of money spent = $0). Seven and one-half percent of students were classified as problem or pathological gamblers, a rate significantly higher than in the general Alberta adult population.

• The characteristics that best differentiated problem gamblers from non-problem gamblers were
  • more positive attitudes toward gambling,
  • ethnicity (41% of Asian gamblers were problem gamblers),
  • university major (kinesiology, education, management),
  • superior ability to calculate gambling odds, and
  • older age.

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Catholics and members of mainline Protestant denominations other than Episcopalians attend church at about average rates.... 

• 67% of Mormons report they regularly attend worship services.
• 68% of members of the Church of Christ report they regularly attend worship services.
• 60% of Southern Baptists say they attend services weekly or almost weekly .
• 45% of Catholics say they attend services weekly or almost weekly .

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Americans are a religious people. More than nine in ten believe in God or a higher power, six in ten say they pray often, and more than half say religion is very important in their daily lives. But there are also religious questions on which Americans divide – including the literal truth of the Bible, the issue of evolution versus creation, and even on whether or not people with strong religious beliefs are discriminated against in this country. The religious divide has a political side, too. Half of those Americans who attend services nearly every week approve of the way President Bush is handling his job, while most of those who attend religious services less often do not.

Internet gambling is increasing drastically with the proliferation of wireless devices like cell phones and PDA’s. Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte says it’s time to update the law. “They use wireless cell phones, they use the Internet itself and other electronic devices. This law makes it clear that it applies to every means of communication and it applies to every from of gambling.”

Read more.

WASHINGTON (BP)--Herbert Lusk II used to walk the streets of Memphis as a self-proclaimed “angry black man.” Now he stands behind a Baptist pulpit and among fellow advisers to the nation’s president.

• Public four-year university prices for in-state students rose 6.3%, to $5,836, vs. 7.1% last year, after two years of double-digit increases.
• Private four-year university prices were up 5.9%, the same rate of increase as last year, to $22,218.
• Public two-year college prices rose 4.1%, to $2,272, down from the 5.4% increase last year.

• Eight in 10 adults (116 million) are reading the newspaper over the course of a week, and one in three Internet users (55 million) visit a newspaper Web site over the course of a month, according to the spring 2006 Newspaper Audience Database (NADbase) report. 
• Unique visitors to newspaper Web sites jumped 21 percent from January 2005 to December 2005, and page views increased by 43 percent over that same period.
• Newspaper Web sites increased the total newspaper audience, particularly among younger readers, attracting 14 percent more 25- to 34-year-olds and 9 percent more 18- to 24-year-olds.
• 78 percent of adults read a newspaper over the course of five weekdays and one Sunday, totaling more than 116 million adults out of the 149 million who live in those markets.
• Seven out of 10 (69 percent) of 18- to 24-year olds in the top 50 markets are reading a newspaper during the course of a week. 
• The profile of newspaper readers is upscale, with nearly two thirds (65.7 percent) of consumers with household incomes of $150,000 or more reading the newspaper on an average weekday, and more than seven in 10 (71.7 percent) reading the newspaper on an average Sunday.

• High school seniors on average answered 52.4% of a 30-question financial survey correctly.
• White students answered an average 55% of the questions correctly vs. 44.7% for blacks and 46.8% for Hispanics. 
• Students from families with incomes of $80,000 or greater answered 55.6% of the questions correctly on average vs. 48.5% for those with incomes less than $20,000.
• Nearly 17% of the seniors had taken a money management or personal finance class, down from 20% in 2004.

Exercise and eating well are not the only ways to increase life expectancy.  A new study found that people who attend religious services weekly live longer. Detailed in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, the study revealed an added 1.8-3.1 years to life expectancy for churchgoers. Based on a review of existing research, the findings also showed regular physical exercise adds 3.0-5.1 years and proven therapeutic regimens adds 2.1-3.7 years.

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New data from the annual tracking survey of religious behavior and beliefs conducted by The Barna Group reveals that there has been a significant increase in religious activity related to five of the seven core religious behaviors  studied by the company...

Churchgoing frequency is associated with strength of anti-abortion views

Washington Post--As they prepared for the holy ritual, the churchgoers had all the essential items: latex gloves, nail clippers, chlorine and antibacterial soap. The only things missing were the feet, and soon enough they poured into the church by the dozen.

Many were callused and cracked from cold nights spent on the streets. Some were sore and infected. What they needed was some old-school -- we're talking centuries here -- Christian doctrine in action. So volunteers at Centenary United Methodist Church in Richmond got down on their knees and scrubbed.

New York: Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.  And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.  Because it is the most scientifically rigorous investigation of whether prayer can heal illness, the study, begun almost a decade ago and involving more than 1,800 patients, has for years been the subject of speculation.

STERLING, VA – A coalition of national pregnancy center organizations responded Friday to new legislation introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY) to “direct the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules prohibiting fraudulent advertising of abortion services.” The coalition, including Care Net, Heartbeat International, and National Institute of Family Life Advocates (NIFLA), called the legislation an “old, recycled” attempt to attack pregnancy centers which help women find alternatives to abortion.

Facts & Figures

Review of Barna’s Revolutionaries from the Center for Missional Research.  The “revolution” has recently become big news—many committed believers are rethinking (or leaving) the established church. Barna’s Revolution describes many trends, but the main focus is the move to non-traditional expressions of church (marketplace faith communities,house church, arts, etc.)."  Rabbi Gellman (who has some positive things to say about evangelicals in general), wrote about Barna’s “Revolutionaries” in Newsweek as one of the top religious trends for 2006.

In 2000, most of the nation’s organized religious activity took place at or through local churches. Today, Barna’s research points out, the action is shifting to newer forms of corporate religious commitment. In a typical week, 9% of all adults participate in a house church. An even greater proportion—22%—engages in spiritual encounters that take place in the marketplace (e.g., with groups of people while they are at their place of work or play, or in other typical daily contexts).

Read More. 

But 76 million adults never attend church according to the Barna Group

• Evangelical Christian colleges applications have jumped 8 to 10 percent at the 238 colleges that belong to the North American Association of Christian Admissions Professionals. 
  • 25% of these schools are barely meeting their budgets.   
• Since 1990, enrollment has increased 70 percent, from 135,000 to 230,000, at the 102 evangelical schools that belong to the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities.
• Over the same period, enrollments at all public and private colleges increased by 13 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
• Religious denominations help contain tuition increases through subsidies often ranging from $1 million to $3 million a year 

Elevated  Risk  of  Death,  Including  High  Risk  of  Suicide
Compared to women who give birth, women who abort have an elevated risk of death from all causes, which persists for at least eight years. Higher risk of death from suicide and accidents were most prominent. Projected on the national population, this effect may contribute to 2,000 - 5,000 more deaths among women each year.1
Southern Medical Journal, 2002

New York--The Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, editor of the 89-year-old annual since 1998, said the number of national church bodies "is reflective of a remarkably robust immigration history and the cultural and constitutional freedom of religion so characteristic of the United States." Lindner is the NCC's Deputy General Secretary for Research and Planning.

• In the U.S., all except Native American churches have significant numbers of immigrants.
  • Some churches were born outside the U.S. and established missions for their congregants who traveled to America. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (ranked 16) and the Orthodox Church in America (ranked 24) were largely established by their European patriarchates for Greek and Russian immigrants to the U.S.
  • Other churches listed in the 2006 Yearbook include several Asian, European and Middle Eastern Orthodox churches or Protestant churches, such as the Korean Presbyterian Church, that serve a largely immigrant membership in the U.S.

The statistics in the 2006 Yearbook, collected by the churches in 2004 and reported in 2005, "reflect the continued overall vitality of church participation, and account for the religious affiliation of over 163 million Americans," Lindner said.

A majority-57%-of teens age 13-17 now have a cellphone, but that's far below the 80% of adults 18-plus who own a phone. Still, for a glimpse of the future, look no further than Generation Wireless.

• Getting a cellphone is a rite of passage for teens. Just 12% of kids age 8-12 have a wireless phone, but that jumps to nearly half-49%-for ages 13-15, according to a Harris Interactive youth survey last year.
• By age 18-21, cellphone penetration (81%) is in line with the average for all adults (80%).
• Teens age 13-17 are three times as likely as the average cellphone owner to use their phones to access shopping guides and content from men's and women's magazines, according to M:Metrics. They use phone features to get restaurant and movie info at more than twice the national average.

In recent years, much has been written and said about the global mission field within North America. The recent flood of immigrants, international students, and guest workers has risen to high levels.

• For instance, Canada, with its supportive immigration policies, is now 18 percent foreign-born. In fact, it is estimated that Canada’s largest city, Toronto, contains over two million foreignborn residents—half of its population.
• The United States has also experienced substantial migration waves the past few decades. The percentage of foreign-born has risen from 4.7 percent in 1970 to 12.5 percent in 2005. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that half of the United States will be of a different race or ethnicity than non-Hispanic white by 2050.

What can be assessed from these statistics? How have we performed as a denomination in including North American people groups into our ministries and missions strategy? 

Read full report (pdf).

State Facts About Abortion provides a downloadable fact sheet for each state plus the District of Columbia.

Where Are the Children Coming From?
According to our research, the children being baptized are coming from both inside and outside the church. There is a fairly even distribution among the numbers from those in the church family (33%), regular attendees (38%), and those new to the church (29%). Whether the church is small, medium, large, or very large, there remains an even distribution. Regardless of the size of the congregation, community context, or type of program used to attract and minister to kids and their parents, effective children's evangelism almost equally reaches kids from church members, regular attenders, and those whose parents do not come to church services. For many, that is a "dicey" proposition-how do we reach the children of unchurched parents in a way that is sensitive, appropriate, and biblical. Many churches have found ways and many more still need to do so.

• Read full report: Not Just Playtime: Insights from Evangelistic Churches Reaching Children (pdf)

From an estimated $2.1 billion in 2001 to $8.3 billion in 2005

Young adults most likely to say spending time with family, friends is ideal evening

Gallup's annual Lifestyle poll asked Americans, without prompting, to name their favorite way to spend an evening. Nearly one in three Americans say their ideal evening is spent at home with family, making that activity the most popular, followed by watching television.

U.S. Census Bureau: The face of aging in the United States is changing dramatically — and rapidly, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Today’s older Americans are very different from their predecessors, living longer, having lower rates of disability, achieving higher levels of education and less often living in poverty. And the baby boomers, the first of whom celebrated their 60th birthdays in 2006, promise to redefine further what it means to grow older in America.

Evangelical Protestants are the happiest people in America. Or at least that's what they say.  Evangelicals are 26 percent more likely to describe themselves as "very happy" than Americans as a whole, according to a Pew Research Center survey released last month.

• Almost half—43 percent—of evangelical Protestants described themselves that way, compared to only 34 percent of Americans.
• As a whole, evangelicals are 30 percent happier than mainline Protestants. In fact, of Protestants who do not attend church at least weekly, mainline Protestants are more likely than evangelicals to say they are very happy.

• Just a third (34%) of adults in this country say they're very happy, according to the latest Pew Research Center survey. Another half say they are pretty happy and 15% consider themselves not too happy. 

• A new nationwide poll by Zogby International shows that 69 percent of Americans support public school teachers presenting both the evidence for Darwinian evolution, as well as the evidence against it.
• By more than two to one, voters say that biology teachers should teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, but also the scientific evidence against it.
• The public is also strongly supportive of students learning about the evidence for intelligent design in biology class.
  • More than three-fourths of respondents (77%) agree that when Darwin’s theory of evolution is taught in school, students should also be able to learn about scientific evidence that points to an intelligent design of life.
  • a majority (51%) agrees strongly with this statement.

Washington, D.C.-- The New York Times published a front-page article, “Scant Drop in Abortion Rates if Parents are Told,” that reported the newspaper’s conclusion that recently-enacted parental involvement laws have not reduced the incidence of abortion among teens.¹ On its surface, the newspaper’s statistical analysis appears convincing, but a closer look at its data and methodology call its conclusions into question.

• A majority of people alive today do not know the Savior.
  • This includes 1.19 billion Muslims, 811 million Hindus, 360 million Buddhists, 228 million ethnoreligionists, 23 million Sikhs, 14 million Jews, 768 million agnostics, and 150 million atheists. 
• More than 1 billion people live in absolute poverty.
  • This includes 700 million people living in slums, 500 million people on the verge of starvation, 93 million beggars, and 200 million children exploited for labor.
• In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income.
• Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half of the world's total Christian income.
• Among church members of 11 primary Protestant denominations (or their historical antecedents) in the United States and Canada, per-member giving as a percentage of income was lower in 2000 than in either 1921 or 1933. In 1921, per-member giving as a percentage of income was 2.9 percent.
• Only 3 to 5 percent of Americans who donate money to a church tithe (give a tenth of) their incomes though many more claim to do so.
• Among evangelicals, almost 90 cents of every donated dollar goes to their churches.
• Eighty-eight percent of evangelicals and 73 percent of all Protestants donated to churches.
• If members of historically Christian churches in the United States had raised their giving to the Old Testament's minimum standard of giving (10 percent of income) in 2000, an additional $139,000,000,000 a year would become available.

Ventura, CA--...[Revolutionaries] Defined as born again people who have made their faith in God the highest priority in their life, who believe that their faith has greatly transformed their life, and who often express and experience their faith through alternative forms the Church, Barna this week released additional data about the beliefs, practices and lifestyle of revolutionaries in comparison to those who fit a more tame spiritual profile.

• The average amount of money donated by revolutionaries in 2005 was $2990. That surpasses the mean giving total among non-revolutionary born again adults ($1641) by 82%, despite household income levels that are similar.
• Almost two out of every three revolutionaries (64%) study the Bible every day. That’s close to three times the percentage of non-revolutionary born again adults who do so (23%).
• A majority of revolutionaries (54%) has a quiet time with God each day. Less than one-third of non-revolutionary born again adults (31%) follows that pattern.

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Care-Net Research: The national post-abortion awareness movement has opened up doors of opportunity for post-abortion ministry. Find out how pregnancy centers can be poised to respond.

US Census Reports: New information from the U.S. Census Bureau reinforces the value of a college education: workers 18 and over with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of $51,206 a year, while those with a high school diploma earn $27,915. Workers with an advanced degree make an average of $74,602, and those without a high school diploma average $18,734.

Research results show most Protestant ministers believe Christians are supposed to tithe – or give 10 percent of their income – to their local church.  Unfortunately for these ministers and churches, most people in the pews of the local church do not agree with them.

• In the study, 56 percent of all clergy say Christians are under a biblical mandate to tithe 10 percent of their income to the local church. 
• Among the people who attend Protestant churches, only 36 percent feel there is a biblical command to tithe 10 percent to their local church.

Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, noted the irony in some of the findings.  “What’s really sad is that six out of ten churchgoers told us they believe the Bible commands them to tithe 10 percent or more of their incomes, yet other studies have consistently shown that under one out of ten actually do that,” Sellers said.  “In other words, at least half of all Protestants are clear on what they believe they’re supposed to be giving, but consistently don’t give it.”

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Elizabeth Marquardt on what happens in the souls of children of divorce.

For her master's thesis in divinity school, Elizabeth Marquardt wrote a paper called "The Moral and Spiritual Experiences of Children of Divorce." At the time, she found almost no data on the topic. "No one had looked," she says, "at how divorce in childhood shapes how children approach the biggest questions of all: Who am I? Where do I belong? What is right and wrong? What is true? Is there a God?"

Read More.

Trends Among Black Churches and Black Pastoral Leadership

From the author: "If black history can be seen as the flowing river of the metaphor, then black churches are the ships or vessels that navigate the often turgid river. They are the containers of small and large groups of black people who have pooled their often meager resources to build these ships and use them for worship, fellowship, education, public forum, concert hall, art gallery, solace, protection and liberation. But I have also extended the metaphor to viewing black pastors, men and women, as the ships’ captains and “river guides,” those who help their people navigate the sometimes treacherous waters of American society..."

Most university students and faculty members consider spirituality to be an important part of their lives, according to a study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA scheduled to be released today.

• The study found that 80 percent of students are interested in spirituality,
• 76 percent are searching for meaning and purpose in life, and
• 81 percent attend religious services. 

The study found a link between students' political views and their religious involvement, stating that "among students who show high levels of religious engagement, conservatives outnumber liberals by better than three to one."

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(Ventura, CA) – More than nine out of every ten Senior Pastors of Protestant churches – 92% - now consider themselves to be effective leaders. This is a dramatic increase since 2001, when less than three-fourths of all Senior Pastors deemed themselves to be effective leaders.

But another striking finding from the new research conducted by The Barna Group is how few Senior Pastors believe that they are effective at strategic   leadership. While a large majority contends that they are gifted at motivating people, only one out of every seven Senior Pastors (14%) say that they are effective at thinking and acting strategically.

A new Zogby Interactive survey shows that one in three people between the ages of 18 and 25 own iPods and listen to them in their morning travels.

• Almost as many (34%) of those age 25 to 34 said they also owned them and listened on their way to work.
• Among those with children in college, 70% said their kids have iPods.
• The poll shows that 45% of Americans have a commute of 20 minutes or less, and it is those people who tend to listen to their iPods the most - 34% said they listen on their weekday morning drive.

It may be too soon for pro-life optimism, but a number of measures to stop or limit abortion are developing across the nation

A combination of biological, social, cultural and economic factors contribute to women's increased vulnerability.

• 73% of all adults use the internet
• 88% of the population surveyed ages 18-29 use the internet
• 73% of White, Non-Hispanic use the interent compared to 76% English-speaking Hispanic
• 75% of the Urban community type and the Suburban community type use the internet compared to only 63% or rural community.

• Most young singles in America do not describe themselves as actively looking for romantic partners. 
• About half (49%) had been on no more than one date in the previous three months.
• The survey shows that while the majority of American adults (56% or 113 million people) are not in the dating market (they are married or living as married), the number of potential romance-seekers is still huge.
• 43% of adults (87 million people) say they are single. 
• Only 16% of single Americans say they are hunting for a partner.
  • This group represents 7% of the entire adult population.

More than 20 years into the AIDS epidemic, HIV continues to exact a tremendous toll in the United States. To date, more than 500,000 people have died of AIDS in the U.S. and the latest estimates indicate that, as of the end of 2003, there are approximately 1,039,000 to 1,185,000 people living with HIV infection.

The 2005 statistical year saw a near-record number of 33,598 people join the Church of the Nazarene in the USA and Canada. Churches that averaged less than 50 in worship received a total of 4,756 new Nazarenes. And churches that were organized before 1940 took in 35% of all the new Nazarenes received.

As church size increases, so does the likelihood that new Nazarenes will outpace Nazarene losses.

• All of the churches that averaged 500 or more in worship received new Nazarenes. The net change in the largest churches—those with an average worship attendance of 1,000 or more—increased an average of 34.3 people.

Most of the churches (63%) in the USA and Canada today were organized before 1960.

• These two groups of churches (1900-1939 and 1940-1959) account for 59% of all new Nazarenes, but they also account for 69% of all Nazarene losses.
• Fortunately, their total number of new Nazarenes is larger than their total number of Nazarene losses so that they do have a positive net change per church of 0.9 and 0.5 respectively.

In 1890 only about 34 percent of Americans belonged; by 1989 that share was 60 percent, down slightly from its peak of 64 percent in 1970.

This decline may reflect the rise of small storefront congregations, which are missed by membership surveys.

The nation’s most media-drenched consumers are well aware of these portrayals of the supernatural: more than four out five teenagers say they have witnessed supernatural themes in media during the last three months.

Center for Data Analysis Report--During the 2004 election, there was a substantial amount of discussion about whether or not “pro-life” legislation¹ effectively reduces the incidence of abortion. Some religious leaders and political com­mentators urged pro-life voters to consider issues besides abortion when voting. Most of them argued that there is little that elected officials can do to stop abortion through legislation, or that the pro-life movement has not reaped any real benefits from supporting candidates who oppose abortion,² and that voters therefore should place greater emphasis on other issues.

American Protestant clergy were more likely to report being extraverted (57.9%) than introverted (42.1%). American Protestant clergy were more likely than a nationally representative sample of American males to indicate a preference for extraversion.  (American males in a antional sample indicate a greater preference for introversion (54.1%) over extraversion (45.9%).

• Download Recruiting Clergy for Canadian Baptist Churches: A Typological Understanding  by Bruce Fawcett of The University of Wales, Bangor.  January 2006.

Are Young Elders Disappearing? "There has been a dramatic drop in the number and percentage of United Methodist elders under the age of 35 in the last twenty years."

• The number of elders under 35 declined from 3,219 in 1985 to 850 in 2005.
• Young elders as a percentage of all elders dropped from 15.05% in 1985 to only 4.69% in 2005.
• For example, the annual conference with the highest percentage of young elders today has 10%, still five percent below where the whole denomination was just twenty years ago.
• This report documents the declining number of United Methodist elders under age thirty-five over the past twenty years.
  

Although teen pregnancy and birth rates have declined in the Latino community, they have not declined nearly as rapidly as they have among other racial/ethnic groups.

• Researchers found between 69-94 percent of Christian youths forsake their faith after leaving high school.
  • The Barna Group reported 64 percent loss after college graduation.
  • The Assemblies of God conducted a 10-year study and found 75 percent loss of their students within one year of high school graduation.
  • The Southern Baptists found that number to be even higher at 88 percent loss.
  • Josh McDowell Ministries reports 94 percent fallout within two years of high school graduation.

 Quick, easy access to facts about people, business, and geography from the U.S. Census Bureau

Based on interviews Protestant pastors, the Barna study discovered that pastors believe a large majority of their congregants deem their faith in God to be the highest priority in their life.

Research results released for the first time in the January/February edition of Facts & Trends magazine show one out of every four Protestant churches in the United States has virtually no involvement with the World Wide Web.

• Presbyterian churches are the major denominational group most likely to be using the Internet (92%).
• The current study shows 27% of all churches have no connectivity at all -- no staff e-mail, no Web site, and no Internet connection.
• Only half of all churches provide staff with e-mail, and just under half maintain a Web site.

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You have undoubtedly heard that such-and-such Baptist college is not religious enough or conservative enough or strict enough in its student-conduct code. Baptist colleges, including Alabama Baptist-related colleges, have been targets of such criticism for generations.

An overview of the life-affirming and pro-woman legislation during the 2005 state legislative sessions.

Does Congregational Size Influence the Percentage of New People?

• Download PPT
• New People in U.S. Congregations: Who are They and Why Do they Come?  by Deborah A Bruce, Research Services, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) presentation at the Religious Research Association (RRA), Kansas City, 2004.
• Like Cheese to a Mouse: Luring New Worshipers:  U.S. Congregational Life Survey Overview

• "Psychiatric admissions of low-income women following abortion and childbirth", Canadian Medical Association Journal, May 13, 2003; 168 (10).
  • Results: Overall, women who had had an abortion had a 2.6 times higher rate of psychiatric hospitalization compared with women who had delivered for every time period examined.

Potential Benefits of Marriage for Cohabiting Couples with Children

• In 2005, overall violent crime victimization among adolescents reached an all-time low, declining to less than half the rate of 1996.
• Adolescents ages 12 to 19 are the victims of violent crime (including simple and aggravated assault, rape and other sexual assault, and robbery) at much higher rates than are adults.
• From 1996 to 2005, the rate of violent victimization for adolescents ages 12 to 19 (which includes rape, robbery, aggravated and simple assaults, and homicide) fell by more than half. 

• In 2005, 82 percent of young children were fully immunized (referred to as combined series vaccination 4:3:1:3 by health professionals), an increase of 13 percentage points since 1994. 
• The proportion of non-Hispanic black children receiving the combined series plus hepatitis B and varicella (4:3:1:3:3:1) vaccinations has matched the national rate for the first time. 
• The proportion of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving the combined series (4:3:1:3) vaccines increased from 69 percent to 82 percent between 1994 and 2005.
• Vaccination rates for the hepatitis B vaccine increased rapidly between 1994 and 2005, from 37 percent to 93 percent.

• In 2005, 17 percent of children lived in families with incomes below the poverty line - a percentage that had not changed since 2003. 
• The groups most likely to be living in poor families included black and Hispanic children, children living in single-mother families, and children under age 6. 
• Children under 18 are much more likely than adults to be poor.
• Being raised in poverty ($19,806 in 2005 for a family of four with two children) places children at higher risk for a wide range of problems.

• The percentage of children whose single mothers were employed full-time declined from 50 percent in 2002 to 47 percent in 2003 and 2004.
  • This decline came after the percentage had increased substantially from 39 percent in 1996 (the year in which welfare reform was first implemented) to 50 percent in 2002.
• The percentage of children with at least one resident parent employed full-time, full-year increased steadily, from 72 percent in 1990 to 80 percent in 2000, before gradually decreasing after 2000.
• Increases during the 1990 to 2000 period were particularly large for children in families headed by single parents, non-Hispanic black children, and children in poor families.
• Since the year 2000, the percentage of children with at least one parent employed full time has decreased to 78 percent in 2004. 

• Canadian workers are spending more time travelling to and from work: 63 minutes in 2005 (or almost 12 full days for someone who works full time), compared with 54 minutes in 1992.
• 12% of all workers who had travelled between home and work the previous day rated commuting as a "1", indicating that they disliked it a great deal
  • 18% gave it a "2", indicating that they disliked the activity but not a great deal.
• The percentage of workers who were negative about commuting to and from work (30%) was lower than the proportion of workers who said they liked it (38%).
  • One out of six workers (16%) even said that they liked commuting a great deal.
• 40% of workers reported that commuting between home and work was a transition that they found "useful"
• In 2005, only 23% of people who travelled between home and work on mass transit said they liked commuting, compared with 39% of drivers.

• The percentage of all children under age 18 with private health insurance coverage decreased from 71 percent in 2000 to 65 percent in 2005. 
  • the percentage of children with Medicaid increased from 20 percent to 27 percent.
• Eighty-nine percent of children were covered by private or government health insurance in 2005.
• Children's health insurance coverage comes from two major sources-private insurance companies and the government (much of which comes from Medicaid).
  • Medicaid coverage for children increased from 20 percent of all children under age 18 in 2000 to 27 percent in 2005.
  • The percentage of children with private health insurance decreased from 71 percent in 2000 to 65 percent in 2005.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Seventy-eight percent of Americans say they are "convinced" that God exists; another 12% think God probably exists, but have "a little doubt"; and 4% think God probably exists, but have "a lot of doubt." Only 4% think God "does not exist, but are not sure," and 1% are "convinced" that God does not exist.

LAKE FOREST, Calif. (BP)--Chad Thompson began by telling his story.  “I remember sitting on my bed when I was in the fourth grade. I hadn’t even hit puberty yet, but I knew I was different,” said Thompson, author of “Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would” and a featured workshop speaker at the “Disturbing Voices” HIV/AIDS conference at Saddleback Church.

Hundreds of evangelicals attending Disturbing Voices conference repent, refocus on outreach to outcasts.

PHILADELPHIA (BP)--In the United States, the AIDS death rate is down, and the quality and length of life for AIDS/HIV patients is up. Many Americans have been lulled into complacency about the disease, various reports indicate.  It’s a different story in Africa.

Child care centers are much safer than all other forms of child care, according to a new national study.

• The fatality rate for children who receive child care in private homes is sixteen times higher than the fatality rate for children in child care centers.
• Infants are by far the most vulnerable children in care.  Their fatality rate from both accidents and violence is nearly seven times higher than that of children from one to four.
• The infant fatality rate in the care of nannies or family day care providers is more than seven times higher than that in centers.
• Not a single shaken baby fatality was found in a child care center, while 203 were reported in arrangements in private homes.  

• Download PowerPoint® Slides 
• Full Report: "Fatalities and the Organization of Childcare,"  

• Small towns, rural areas and open country are home to only 17% of Episcopal congregations
• Of congregations in or near a city of at least 50,000 population  28% are located in the downtown or central city area
• The vast majority (98%) of Episcopal congregations hold regular worship services every week of the year.
• 39% of Episcopal churches report that attendance is more than 60% of seating capacity at the service with the largest attendance. 

Worldwide
· 60 million affected since the epidemic began two decades ago
· More than 3 million deaths in 2002
· 13.4 million children orphaned by AIDS by end of 2001

• 15% of people employed either full-time or part-time report they have been discriminated against in their workplace in the last twelve months
• Among the 4 racial/ethnic categories of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian, whites reported the lowest incidence of discrimination at 12%
  • Asians 31%
  • Blacks 26%
  • Hispanics 18%
• 26% of those that report discrimination say it was based on gender

• A full 65 percent of leading-edge boomers (age 50-70) say work will continue to be a part of their life throughout what used to be the retirement years
• Fully half of all adults age 50 to 70 (and 58% of those 50 to 59) aspire to work in seven areas that combine the seriousness, income, and other benefits associated with work with the desire to contribute to the greater good.
• Among Americans who may work in retirement (53% of all adults age 50 to 70):
  • 78% are interested in working to help the poor, the elderly, and other people in need.
  • 56% are interested in dealing with health issues, whether working in a hospital or with an organization fighting a particular disease.

• The Christian Resource Census showed that in the 1990s 1 million people left church in nine years but in the seven years from 1998-2005 only a half million left
• Over a third of churches, 34%, are growing (compared with 21% in 1998)
  • 16% are now stable (up from 14%)
  • 25%, of the churches which were declining in the 1990s have not only stemmed their losses, but have turned their church around and are now growing.
  • The effect is that overall 6.3% of the population are now in church on an average Sunday (7.5% in 1998), with others attending midweek.

• 84 percent of teenagers state that they believe in a god
• 79 percent of college freshmen claim that there is some supernatural element to the universe
  • Each year over 150,000 new freshmen change their mind about their belief in God
• 71 percent of teenagers agree that there will be a judgment day when God punishes evildoers
• Only 19 percent of teenagers have "some" or "many" doubts about God
• Two-thirds (65%) of college juniors report that they question their religious/spiritual beliefs at least occasionally

• The top reason students go to youth group is because of their youth pastor.
  • 68 percent said it is "very true" or "completely true" they go to youth group because they like their youth pastor
• The second most popular reason was "I learn about God there," which was followed by 58 percent who said "It's fun."
• Other reasons listed as "very true" or "completely true" by at least 50 percent of the students included "I feel comfortable there," "I've always gone to church/youth group," "It's a place where I can learn to serve," and "It feels like a real community."

Abstract: Congregational research often considers factors related to their numerical growth and vitality...However, less is known about the least vital congregations-those falling in the 20th percentile or lower on congregational vitality measures. 

• In 2003, 12.5 percent of Americans were living in poverty, up from 12.1 percent in 2002 and 11.7 percent in 2001.
• In 2003 more than 60 percent of black and Hispanic children under 18 years of age and more than one-half of the black and Hispanic population age 65 years and over were poor or near
• In 2003, 12.9 million children lived in poverty. 
• In 2003 the 30-40 percent of Hispanic and black children were poor compared with 10–13 percent of Asian and non-Hispanic white children.

• In 2004 nearly one-third of adults and about two-fifths of children were identified as black, Hispanic, Asian, or American Indian or Alaska Native.
• Fourteen percent of Americans in 2004 identified themselves as Hispanic
  • 12 percent as black
  • 4 percent as Asian Non-Hispanic
• In 2004, 14 percent of the U.S. population identified themselves as Hispanic and 4 percent as Asian 
• In 2003 more than 60 percent of black and Hispanic children under 18 years of age and more than one-half of the black and Hispanic population age 65 years and over were poor or near poverty
• In 2003 the fertility rate for Hispanic women (96.9 births per 1,000 Hispanic women 15–44 years) was 66 percent higher than for non-Hispanic white women (58.5 per 1,000)

• The United States spends more on health per capita than any other country, and health spending continues to increase rapidly.
  • In 2003 national health care expenditures in the United States totaled $1.7 trillion, a 7.7 percent increase from 2002
• In 2003, government sources were the primary payers of hospital and nursing home care, paying for about three-fifths of these types of services
  • private health insurance paid for almost one-half of physician services and prescription drugs
  • The percent of the population under 65 years of age with no health insurance coverage fluctuated about 16–18 percent between 1994 and 2003

• The number of high school students in grades 9–12 who rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol decreased from 40 percent to 30 percent between1991 and 2003
• The birth rate for teenagers declined for the 12^th consecutive year in 2003, to 41.6 births per 1,000 women age 15–19 years, the lowest rate in more than six decades.
• Between 1997 and 2003 the percent of high school students who reported smoking cigarettes in the past month declined from 36 percent to 22 percent.
• Between 1993 and 2003 the percent of high school students who reported attempting suicide (8–9 percent) and whose suicide attempts required medical attention (just under 3 percent) remained fairly constant.

• The percent of the population under 65 years of age with no health insurance coverage fluctuated about 16–18 percent between 1994 and 2003
• The 55–64 age group is projected to increase by 11 million persons over the 2004–2014 period, to 40 million persons by 2014
• Between 1995–96 and 2002–03 the rate of cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed during physician and hospital outpatient department visits among men 55–64 years of age almost tripled and among women increased more than three-fold
• In 2002–03 more than one-half of adults 55–64 years of age were employed with 17 percent retired and 12 percent unemployed due to disability

• In 2003 life expectancy at birth for the total population reached a record high of 77.6 years (preliminary data), up from 75.4 years in 1990
• Between 1950 and 2003 the age-adjusted death rate for the total population declined 43 percent to 831 deaths per 100,000 population (preliminary data).
• In 2003 American men could expect to live 3 years longer, and women more than 1 year longer, than they did in 1990.

Of the nation's 111.1 million households in 2005, 49.7 percent, or 55.2 million, were made up of married couples -- with and without children. This stat is down more than 52 percent from five years earlier.

Since 2000, those identifying themselves as unmarried opposite-sex couples rose by about 14 percent: Male couples by 24 percent, female couples by 12 percent.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Since the late 1960s, Gallup has periodically asked Americans whether the use of marijuana should be made legal in the United States. Although a majority of Americans have consistently opposed the idea of legalizing marijuana, public support has slowly increased over the years. In 1969, just 12% of Americans supported making marijuana legal, but by 1977, roughly one in four endorsed it. Support edged up to 31% in 2000, and now, about a third of Americans say marijuana should be legal.

In 1969, just 12% of Americans supported making marijuana legal, but by 1977, roughly one in four endorsed it. Support edged up to 31% [by] 2000 about a third of Americans [said] marijuana should be legal. 

• Teen sexual abstinence was associated with:
  • A 40 percent lower rate of school expulsion
  • A 50 percent lower rate of dropping out of high school
  • A 70 percent increase in the probability a youth was currently attending or had graduated from college
  • A 66 percent increase in college graduation.

• Male teens are more likely than females to die in a motor vehicle crash
  • about 2 out of 3 crash death victims ages 13 to 19 in 2003 were males.
• According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Study of 2003, high school males are more likely than their female counterparts to report driving after drinking (15 percent versus 9 percent, respectively) and are less likely to wear a seat belt (22 percent versus 15 percent never or rarely wear a seat belt, respectively).
• There has been a substantial decline in fatal motor vehicle crashes for teens in the last several decades, with males experiencing a larger decline than females.
  • Rates among teens ages 15 to 19 have decreased 42 percent for males and 17 percent for females between 1980 and 2002. 
• For teens ages 15 to 19, the motor vehicle crash rate per 100,000 was 42 in 1980, declined to 33 per 100,000 in 1990, and continued to decline at a slower rate to 25 per 1,000 in 1999.
• Seat belt use among youth ages 16 to 24 has steadily increased in the last decade, from 53 percent in 1994 to 77 percent in 2004.

• In 2005, the percentage of all children under age 18 who were living with two married parents was at 67 percent.
• In 2005, 6 percent of all children lived in the home of their grandparents.
• In 2005, 35 percent of black children were living with two parents
• In 2005, 10 percent of all black children did not live with either parent

This year, 43% of Americans are "unchurched," compared with 66% of Canadians and 80% Britons. 

• As among U.S. adults, the likelihood for Britons and Canadians to be unchurched declines with age.     
• In the United States, nearly two-thirds of adults say they are a member of a church, synagogue, or mosque, a figure that has held relatively steady for the past few decades.
• In contrast, only 44% of Canadians say they are members, and for Britons, the percentage is even lower, at 28%.
          
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• The survey, sponsored by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, found that 22.3% of congregations reported participating in an interfaith worship service in the past year. 
  • 37.5% congregations reported joining in interfaith community service activities.
• The FACT2005 survey also shows that interfaith worship is significantly higher for interfaith worship in mainline Protestant congregations (30%) than for other Protestantism (17%)

A new analysis looking at links between marriage, fertility and other socioeconomic characteristics was released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, providing the first-ever state-by-state analysis of median age at first marriage. The analysis of the multi-year marriage and fertility data from the American Community Survey (ACS) also shows how socioeconomic characteristics such as mother’s income, age, work status and language spoken at home are correlated with birth rates.

Men, younger Americans more likely to be among ranks
The percentage of "unchurched" Americans has remained relatively unchanged over the last quarter-century. A Sept. 12-15 Gallup Poll** put the percentage at 43%, down slightly from its high point of 47% in 2001, and more in line with what we've seen in other years.

• In a sexual profile of 2,583 older homosexuals found that "the modal range for number of sexual partners ever [of homosexuals] was 101-500."
• A nationally representative survey of 884 men and 1,288 women found that 77 percent of married men and 88 percent of married women had remained faithful to their marriage vows
• The Bureau of Justice Statistics (U.S. Department of Justice) reports that married women in traditional families experience the lowest rate of violence compared with women in other types of relationships.
• A national survey of lesbians published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology found that 75 % of the nearly two-thousand respondents had pursued psychological counseling of some kind, many for treatment of long-term depression or sadness:
• A study in Developmental Psychology found that 12 percent of the children of lesbians became active lesbians themselves, a rate which is at least four times the base rate of lesbianism in the adult female population

These people—the Southeast Asians, the South Asians, and the Pacific Asians—are from different multiethnic and multinational Asian groups. They bring to North America their varying languages, religions, cultures, and subcultures. One may come from Christianized Manila, Philippines; another from one of the still-animistic tribal villages of Laos. One Asian may come from the overcrowded Buddhist city of Bombay, India; one from the multireligious modern city of Tokyo, Japan; one from the culturally traditional island of Tonga; and still another from a Muslim town of Pakistan. They keep coming because of the open doors of migration, and the military, marriage, and money-making opportunities under the umbrella of freedom and justice. They become part of the American mosaic and experience the confusing and dividing tensions of religious, social, political, and cultural changes in their new country.

Public says evolution, creationism probably true; divided on intelligent design

Concerns about whether pastors keep any job long enough are especially common among Southern Baptists (87% of whom feel pastors in their denomination don't tend to stay at one church for enough years); Southern Baptist ministers are also more likely than average to have held multiple positions over their years in the ministry.

• The average American minister has held a paid job in ministry for 19 years, and has spent an average of 15.6 of those years as a senior pastor of one or more churches.
• Ministers at larger churches tended to have a longer tenure -- an average of 8.7 years in their current position, compared to 7.2 years among small churches.
• Among pastors who are part of a denomination, 19% are assigned to positions by their denomination, while 81% are free to choose their own job.
• The average length of time with their current church is 8.2 years among those who are free to select their own job, but only 4.9 years among those who are assigned to a church.
• Only 31% feel the average pastor in their denomination stays as senior pastor of a church about the right amount of time.
• Thirty-three percent believe the average tenure is a little too short, and 26% feel it is much too short.
• Almost three out of four pastors who are assigned jobs by their denomination (73%) feel ministers do not get to spend enough years at any one church, compared to 57% among those who get to select their own position.

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