Pew: Evangelicals Stay Strong as Christianity Crumbles in America

Amid changing US religious landscape, Christians ‘decline sharply’ as unaffiliated rise. But born-again believers aren’t to blame.

The main methods for measuring American faith are flawed.

So thinks the Pew Research Center, which today released the second wave of a massive study designed to “fill the gap” left by the United States census (no questions on religion), the self-reporting of denominations (“widely differing criteria”), and smaller surveys (too few questions or people).

Scrutinizing the past seven years, Pew finds that, amid the rise of the “nones” and other popular talking points, the fate of evangelicals is proving much brighter than Christianity at large.

Here are highlights from the US Religious Landscape Study, conducted among more than 35,000 adults in English and Spanish, of how American religion has changed from 2007 to 2014:

1) Evangelicals have remained remarkably stable

Over the past seven years, evangelicals have lost less than 1 percent of their share of the population, holding steady at about 1 in 4 American adults (25.4% in 2014, vs. 26.3% in 2007) and preserving their status as the nation’s largest religious group.

In contrast, mainline Protestants have lost almost 3.5 percent of their population share and are currently less than 15 percent of American adults, while Catholics lost about 3 percent of their population share and are currently about 21 percent of adults.

The declines have allowed the religiously unaffiliated, who gained nearly 7 percent in population share, to surge past Catholics and mainline Protestants to become America’s second-largest religious group (22.8% of adults). (Historically black Protestant denominations, tracked separately though nearly three-quarters of their members identify as evangelicals, were statistically unchanged.)

Evangelical churches also added more than 2 million people to their ranks, up from 59.8 million in 2007 to 62.2 million in 2014. Meanwhile, mainline churches lost 5 million people. “As a result, evangelicals now constitute a clear majority (55%) of all US Protestants,” noted Pew.

The population share of evangelicals rises even higher when identified differently.

For the above findings, Pew categorized Americans by denominational affiliation. (Evangelical denominations include the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, Churches of Christ, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Presbyterian Church in America, and nondenominational churches.) But Pew also asked: “Would you describe yourself as a born-again or evangelical Christian, or not?”

In response, about one-third of American adults (35%) self-identified as evangelicals in 2014, nearly the same as in 2007 (34%). Meanwhile, Americans who self-identified as Christians dropped from 78 percent in 2007 to 71 percent in 2014.

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4 Skills That Separate Great Worship Leaders From Good Song Leaders

Leading worship can be overwhelming sometimes, right?

Not only do you have to worship God with all your heart, you have to lead a band, play an instrument, sing, engage a room, please your leaders, and be theologically sound. There’s a lot to juggle.

Of course, worship isn’t about music, singing, stage presence, personality, but it doing it well does include all of these. My goal with this article is to break down 4 essential skills that every worship leader needs to focus on.

This was part of a workshop I recently organized to equip my worship leaders. I also shared it with my newsletter and received such positive feedback.

So here it is: 4 skills that separate great worship leaders from good song leaders.

Enjoy:

1. The Song
A worship leader needs to be familiar not just with the structure of a song, knowing the verse, chorus, & bridge, but needs to internalize the message.

When you internalize the message, you tend to deliver it with more immediacy and intensity. Some worship leaders are not believable in how they sing. There’s no ache, no desperation.

Know the lyric in your mind, believe it with your heart, and deliver it with your soul.

Hesitancy comes from being self conscious and nervous. We are worrying what people are thinking so we don’t risk vulnerability. Your vulnerability will help others discover their own.

I like to encourage worship leaders to not be self confident but God confident – secure in the fact that God is moving and He has appointed you to lead.

Don’t just sing songs. Live them.

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Survey Fail: Christianity Isn’t Dying

Ed Stetzer says fakers who don’t go to church are just giving up the pretense.

A new Pew Research Center survey found the Christian share of the American population declined almost 8 percentage points from 2007 to 2014. Drawing from this point, many continued their breathless claims that the Christian sky is falling.

Rather than predict the impending doom of the church in America, this latest study affirms what many researchers have said before. Christianity isn’t collapsing; it’s being clarified. Churches aren’t emptying; rather, those who were Christian in name only are now categorically identifying their lack of Christian conviction and engagement.

Gallup recently found that weekly religious attendance as a percentage of the U.S. population is about where it was in the 1940s — hardly a statistical collapse.

Simply put, the strains of a funeral dirge aren’t being played at the graveside of American Christianity because there is no body for burial.

Evangelicalism is growing

Yes, you read that correctly. Evangelical Christianity is growing in America. From 2007 to 2014 the number of evangelicals in America rose from 59.8 million to 62.2 million, according to Pew.

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Top 10 CCLI for week ending 5/16/15

1 Holy Spirit
Bryan Torwalt, Katie Torwalt

2 10000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)
Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman

3 This Is Amazing Grace
Jeremy Riddle, Josh Farro, Phil Wickham

4 Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)
Joel Houston, Matt Crocker, Salomon Ligthelm

5 Lord I Need You
Christy Nockels, Daniel Carson, Jesse Reeves, Kristian Stanfill, Matt Maher

6 How Great Is Our God
Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash

7 Cornerstone
Edward Mote, Eric Liljero, Jonas Myrin, Reuben Morgan, William Batchelder Bradbury

8 Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, John Newton

9 Our God
Chris Tomlin, Jesse Reeves, Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman

10 One Thing Remains
Brian Johnson, Christa Black Gifford, Jeremy Riddle

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A Call for Musically Gifted Pastors

Bob Kauflin suggests worship leaders should study Biblical counseling.

In 2008, I suggested in Worship Matters that the title of “worship leader” needed to be defined to be helpful. So I defined it this way:

A faithful worship leader magnifies the greatness of God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit by skillfully combining God’s Word with music, thereby motivating the gathered church to proclaim the gospel, to cherish God’s presence, and to live for God’s glory.

I still like that definition, but I’m less sure the term “worship leader” is serving us. It’s taken on a life of its own and continues to be associated with stardom, predominance, the spotlight, good looks, hipster-ness, and in some cases, the ability to mediate God’s presence. It can refer to someone who leads full time, part time, or on a volunteer basis.

Most people I talk to fall into the last category. They faithfully serve their church week after week for free or for a small stipend, and are being used by God to lift up the name and glory of Jesus in song. If you’re among that group, I thank God for you.

But an increasing number of musicians have full time worship ministry in their sights. They hope that one day they’ll be able to make a living playing their instrument, leading people in songs of praise. That’s a great goal. But I’m not sure it’s the best one.

If you believe God’s called and gifted you to serve the church with your music vocationally, I want to suggest that you consider whether God’s calling you to be a pastor as well. A musically gifted pastor. Of course, not every musician who leads congregational singing should or will be a pastor. But if you hope to join a church staff some day, I want to suggest six reasons why preparing to be a pastor who’s also a musician is better than simply aiming to be a worship leader.

1. Your job description is actually in the Bible.
A worship leader might describe someone who plays a guitar on Sundays, a musician with a traveling concert ministry, the person on stage with the loudest voice, anyone in the band, the senior pastor, or someone who sings Christian songs. In contrast, God tells us what a pastor is supposed to do. He’s responsible to shepherd God’s people, lead them, teach them, protect them, equip them, and be an example to them (1 Pet. 5:1-3; 2 Tim. 4:2-3; Eph. 4:11-12; Acts 20:28). That’s why when I’m asked what a worship leader should study beyond music, one area I suggest is biblical counseling. Leading worship in song is an opportunity to care for people’s souls, to teach them how the gospel addresses their sin, to protect them from the deceptions of the world, and to display the heart-transforming glory of Jesus Christ. In other words, to do the work of a pastor. While singing is an emotionally expressive activity, leading congregational singing is a pastoral function before it’s a musical one.

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Signs You Aren’t a Confident Worship Leader

Will Doggett lists practical steps to build confidence.

1. Recognize Whose You Are
We are a child of God. Before we get to “what we do” we have to recognize “who we are”. Before we get there, we have to realize “whose we are”. We are God’s.

Galatians 3:26 says “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

I love what Ephesians 2:10 says we are: “God’s Masterpiece” or “God’s handiwork”. I heard a preacher once very eloquently say, “God doesn’t make crap”. Remind yourself of that. This isn’t an attempt at self-help. If needed, read what Galatians and Ephesians says we once were. But we have to find our security and confidence first in Whose we are—God’s. Before you’re a worship leader, you’re “God’s masterpiece”.

2. Recognize Who You Are
God has created each of us with unique skills, talents, and personalities. Knowing who you are is an important part of thriving as a creative and being a confident worship leader. You may not be a great vocalist, but there’s something unique you can bring. Don’t compare yourself with someone else and what they have. They’re in a different place on their journey than you are. They’ve been at it longer than you have. You have a unique perspective and a unique perspective that you can bring to your church. Your people need to hear from you, not a Chris Tomlin knock-off. Your people need to hear your story. So recognize who you are.

3. Recognize You Aren’t What You Do
Your worth is not found in what you do. Who you are isn’t found in what you do. Your worth is found in Christ. Your worth is found in your relationship with Him. What you do is a result of the talents, skills, and unique perspective that God has given you. You may be known because of your skill or what you do, but that doesn’t define you. If it doesn’t define you, you can admit someone else is better than you. If it doesn’t define you, you don’t have to kill yourself to be the best. Yes, do your best, unto God—for God and not because you have to be the best.

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Worship Service Planning: Five Rules of Flow

John Nicol offers a short list of “rules” to help you plan worship services with great transitions.

1. Always Have A Plan
Every single time you need to connect two elements in worship, whether it’s songs, scripture, the announcements, an offering, or even the message, plan it out. Plan. It. Out.

It’s easy to think it’ll “just happen” or “I’ll just wing something.” Transitions do happen, but if they aren’t intentional, they probably don’t flow as well as we’d like.

And as for the practice of winging it (improvising—for my non-American friends), that doesn’t always deliver. Or it over-delivers and the segue goes on (and on) longer than it should.

Know how you’re getting from point A to point B. Look at how one element ends and how the next one will start. Then plan out what it takes to intentionally and meaningfully move between the two.

Oh, and write it down. Why? Because you’ll need it for the next rule:

2. Inform All Involved
You can have a great plan for a seamless segue into the offering, but if you don’t tell the ushers, they might still be sitting in their seats when you begin to pray for the offering.

And you can have a great non-talking transition planned between your opening song and the beginning of the announcement video. But if you haven’t gotten your video tech on board, there’s going to be an awkward moment. (You know, the kind where you try to Jedi-mind-trick him to start the video, while everyone’s staring at you wondering why you won’t say something.)

So when it comes to transitions and segues, make sure EVERYONE involved knows what’s happening, when it’s happening, how it’s happening and even WHY it’s happening.

If people catch the vision for the kind of moment you’re trying to create, they’ll be more apt to follow-through on the instructions you give them.

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How Does Your Service Rate? Take The 15-Point Church Service Review

How does your service rate? I’ve visited different churches this year and found myself analyzing the audio aspects the minute I walk in the door. I’m not talking just the mix. Today, I’m listing out the 15 points I check. Review your last service against this list.

Pre-Service

1. Does the tech booth look chaotic five minutes before the service? Is anyone in the booth five minutes before the service?

Last minute stuff comes up but it shouldn’t come up before EVERY service.

2. Right before the service, is anyone doing production work on the stage?

When people start filling the sanctuary, they should feel the church is ready for them.

3. Could the stage be cleaner?

A messy stage can be a distraction for some people.

4. Is the pastor fumbling with the wireless pack before the service?

The pastor should be comfortable handling their own microphone. If they aren’t, they need a short training or someone to help them with it.

5. Are the speakers in a good location?

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