Live.Awake

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George Barna: Revolution

| Posted by Ben Cotten on Nov 7, 2007 • (Comments)

RevolutionI’ve just finished reading George Barna’s book Revolution. I thought I’d do a short review of the book here. George Barna has long been the most trusted source of church statistics and trends. This book is along those same lines as well. I found the book informative, but I disagree with some of his conclusions.

Barna starts by telling us what most of us already know. The American church has been dropping the ball. We’ve lost the plot in a lot of ways. We’ve forgotten what the Church is here for, what defines its mission, and it has long since convinced most unbelievers that Christianity is pointless. He points to a trend among Christians where people are giving up on organized church and just doing it on their own. Some become a part of a house church, others join a “para church” organization, while others simply drop it all together. His primary conclusion is that this is a good thing. Christian faith is becoming more “authentic” and that these people are revolutionaries. He does say that some of these “revolutionaries” do stay in an organized church. But it’s as if they are revolutionaries in spite of the church.

This is an opinion that isn’t unique to Barna. It’s everywhere. Most Christians who are serious about their faith and the kingdom of God are frustrated with the state of the American church. But I don’t think mass exodus is the answer. What we need is reform. Barna dismisses most of the current attempts at reform as just putting a new face on an old problem. I disagree. I think there is a lot of exciting things happening in the church at large. I think a lot of people are remembering the plot.

I’m tired of the negative anti-church message coming from Christians. I’m tired of refugees camped in Adullam’s cave (I Sam. 22:1-2 [+/-]) calling themselves Revolutionaries. Reform your churches or plant new ones. I don’t care. Just don’t quit on it just yet. I’m excited about what God is doing in American churches. I’m not naive, either. I’m a pastor, how could I be?

There are volumes more to say, but I’ll leave that for the comments.

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Viewing 9 Comments

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    I think this is a fair assessment of Barna's book. I think if we'd get "revolutionary" about Jesus Christ then we'd see miraculous changes in our churches. I believe this will come. Txs for reading the book.
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    Thanks for letting me borrow your copy. His information in the book about this trend was really good. Good information and thought provoking.

    I just think his conclusions are way off and perhaps representative of his own frustration about the church in America. I think there is a real danger that this trend could result in the Church being far more fragmented than what denominationalism ever could have done.

    This is a time to regroup, not splinter and fragment.
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    These are some of my thoughts, as I muddle through, on being knit together in the body of Christ. I wonder sometimes if our American culture is so geared toward independence, it's hard to grasp the concept of being "unified" in the body of Christ. We also want immediate gratification in everything - including the "perfect" church (which isn't going to be here). We're not willing to stick around and work things out with our brothers & sisters in Christ. Eph 4 really puts it out there about unity. What do you think would happen if our church had to go underground? We'd certainly get a quick/hard lesson in unity. Yep, there are frustrations when it comes to assembling together as a group of believers. But you know what, if we can try hard to keep Christ at the center, and get our eyes off of us, can you imagine the strength that would come from unity like that? Not to mention the fact that Jesus commands us to come together as a body. Since I'm not a real people person, I do struggle with this. It's probably a good thing that Jesus explicity tells us to do this, since this wouldn't be something I'd voluntarily do. :-)
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    personally, i'm for planting rather than reforming. reforming is a big headache and all too often, a dead end road resulting in a big mess.

    thanks for the review. i read this book when it came out. i've been lax to review it for fear that the perception would be that this book is the namesake for my site, which it isn't. though i do find myself in much of the book.
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    The "one in five adults who have participated in a house church" statitistic is really intriguing. This translates into meetings every few doors down on every street in America. I would be very interested in hearing from someone who has witnessed this kind of saturation.
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    I'm thrilled that you brought this up. I'm a fairly new Christian and a medium sized church, or actually a few people in it had a great infulence on my chosing Christ. After I really started looking to Christ for every aspect of life, what I was getting out of church started sinificantly fading away. I dove into the Bible for myself and my world exploded. Now every day is amazing and I can't wait to see what the Lord will ask of me next.
    However, I wasn't sure what the problem with the church was until I deeply studied Acts. It hit me that our churches are majority seekers and "cultural Christians". So how is a group of "believers" supposed to come together and be encouraged in their walk when you are mixed in with people who have not made any commitment to Christ? Why did they remove the conversational aspect? When did non-believers start coming? Why denominational splits? These thoughts and many others have been bothering me for months now and I've felt like I was the only one thinking it. I'm glad I'm not the only one.
    As far as the churches go...It seems like they need to change drastically.
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    Ben,

    In my lifetime possibly but in your lifetime almost assuredly, the church form Barna describes and which you support will only exist at the pleasure of the government. As such, if will undoubtedly have sold out the Truth as exemplified by the Three Self church of communist China. The darkness of this world will reach such an extensive state, that no public acceptance of Truth will be granted. Those who know the Truth and determine to live by it will naturally do so "underground" in the "house" church.
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    Great comments!

    Ded, I might agree with you on the direction our country is going. I think this only increases the need to take advantage of our current freedoms by remaining "above ground" as long as possible.
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    I absolutely agree with you. I do not consider my being in a home church as being underground. Rather, I see it, among other things, as helping us all prepare for being underground should the circumstances call for it. Those who know the Truth and refuse to back down from it, may end up having to die for our belief before we ever have the chance to go underground.

    If and when we find ourselves underground, perhaps I will be able to offer some assistance to others on how to manage the practical aspects. ;^)
 
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