George Barna of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University (ACU) says as Americans become less trusting of the government and the media, their confidence in the Church is also waning.
"People have less and less trust in the leadership of their churches," Barna reports. "They feel like they're not getting real value from their churches."
Churchgoers want to live out what they hear on Sunday morning at work on Monday.
"They feel they're not being given practical advice, practical guidance, real, tangible value for their life," he says.
He believes part of the problem is churches' focus is off; they are not measuring success the right way. So, many evangelicals are not connecting with them.
"Churches tend to evaluate their success in ministry, their impact based on how many people show up, how many programs they offer, how many staff people they've hired, how much money they're raising, how much square footage they built out," Barna relays. "That's bound to fail as a set of measures. Why? Because Jesus didn't die for any of those."
The good news is evangelical pastors have the solution right at their fingertips.
"It would come from preaching God's Word on a consistent basis and breaking it down for people so that they know how to apply God's truth principles in their personal life," the pollster asserts.
As director of research at ACU's Cultural Research Center, Barna focuses on worldview assessment and development and cultural transformation. He is also the senior research fellow at the Family Research Council's Center for Biblical Worldview and a fellow at the Townsend Institute at Concordia University.
