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.  (His excellent article is here; the second page references Revolution.)  What Barna is reporting has not yet been noticed by many in the evangelical church, but Revolution will heighten awareness. He explains in his October 24, 2005, Barna Update:

"Millions of people are seeking God without going through a local church. This controversial movement of people seeking to "be the Church instead of just going to church"…   Barna explains here:

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).

In one chart, he describes the transition to a Christianity that is less connected to the church:

Primary Means of Spiritual Experience and Expression

Who Are These Revolutionaries and How Many Are There?
Because the numbers he reports are so staggering, I asked Barna some follow-up details and asked him to be more specific, particularly on some of the numbers. He explained:

There are several reasons I did not emphasize the "exact" number of Revolutionaries. One is that I did not want people focusing on the numbers but on the way in which God seems to be working… Second is that people will start to quibble about the numbers based on the definition used; and, frankly, there are a number of different ways in which you can define Revolutionaries.

He goes on to explain his standard, which is highly evangelical and, I think, a good description of committed Christians open to new expressions of community life. He asked me not to share those details, but it is good solid stuff.

Barna went on in his e-mail (after explaining the approach):

That particular approach gives roughly 9% of the adult public, which is the equivalent of 20 million people. If we were to take a less selective definition, using several of those same criteria-say, born again, orthodox view of God, full-time servant of God, self-defined Christian, read the Bible and prayed in the past week, believe the Bible is totally accurate, contend Jesus was sinless, and attended an unconventional form of "church" (e.g., house church, marketplace ministry), worship God more than once a week-we'd be in the 25% arena, which projects to more than 50 million such believers. The numbers get even larger when you combine diehard Revolutionaries who attend an unconventional church with those [who] attend a conventional church.

So, based on his description, the 20 million people are not all "post-evangelicals"… and not those who have LEFT the established church but those who are participating in alternative faith groups. In other words, if I am involved in Marketplace ministry AND attend First Baptist/Presbyterian/Assembly of County Seat, I would be listed as a Revolutionary if I met all the other criteria. A smaller (and I think growing) subset are engaged solely in alternative faith communities (house church, marketplace church, etc.). For example, Barna's people have estimated that a million Americans are involved in the house church.

This house church trend has begun to gain the attention of even the secular media (often tied to Barna's Revolution). Time magazine recently featured an article on the subject, NBC news did a television segment, and CNN is working on a new story even as this is written. These would all be considered part of Barna's Revolution.  (Since ecclesiology, the theology of church, has become such a big issue among our churches, we, at the North American Mission Board, have created helps that explain what a church "is" through some ecclesiological guidelines.)  If Barna is right, these issues will continue to grow in prominence, forcing us to evaluate what a biblical church is-and we can and must do so in the light of scripture, not just in the history of our tradition.

Read full report.  "The Rise of Alternative Faiths" by Dr. Ed Stetzer, Director and Senior Missiologist, Center for Missional Research, North American Mission Board