New Barna Report Reveals 'Unusual' Increases in Spiritual Activities
The Barna Group observed ''significant'' and ''unusual'' increases in many measures of spiritual activity in the last year.
The Barna Group observed ''significant'' and ''unusual'' increases in many measures of spiritual activity in the last year. Rather than a growth in one or two religious activities, a new survey found growth in a majority of the core religious behaviors studied by the Barna group.
The combination of so many measures of spiritual activity growing at the same time is unusual, said George Barna, whose company has underwritten and conducted such research for more than 20 years.
"It is typical for us to see one or maybe two measures surge forward in a given year, only to stabilize or perhaps retreat to prior levels in subsequent years," the founder of the research institute added.
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In 2006, however, there were increases in five of the seven core spiritual activities. Bible reading jumped to 47 percent of adults reading Scripture during a typical week after several years of stalled growth. Once at a 20-year low of just 31 percent in 1995, Bible readership made gradual increases and hit the highest level this year since the 1980s.
Church attendance has also seen a gradual increase from 37 percent in 1996 to 47 percent in 2006. It has yet to return to the 49 percent of adults who attended church in a typical week that was recorded in 1991.
At the same time, Sunday school attendance rose after a drop in the 1990s. Attendance reached 24 percent in this year's study, up from 17 percent in 1995 and 1996.
Small groups have become more largely emphasized in churches. The Barna study found that nearly one out of every four adults, a new high in 2006, is engaged in small groups that meet for Bible study, prayer or personal relationships other than Sunday school or Christian education classes. This marks a significant increase from a recorded one out of every six adults a decade ago.
While the 1990s hardly saw increases in church volunteerism, the recent study recorded a 27 percent level of volunteering at a church - a level that was achieved in 1991.
The other two core religious activities remained stable over the past decade. Prayer stayed at 84 percent, which has been the case since 1993 when Barna began tracking the frequency of prayer. Evangelism also saw no change. Among born again Christians, six out of ten claimed to have shared their beliefs about Jesus with someone whom they knew believed differently.
"The intriguing possibility is that with most of our key behavioral measures showing increases at the same time, there is the possibility that this may herald a holistic, lasting commitment to engagement with God and the Christian faith," said Barna in his study.
Before drawing any huge conclusions, the researcher stated, "If we see stability or even minimal growth in all of these measures over the next year or two, then we can confidently suggest that the U.S. is genuinely experiencing meaningful change in people's religious habits. Until we have such confirmation, which only comes with time, we certainly have a reason to hope that Americans are taking God more seriously, and a motivation for believers to pray more fervently that such a commitment will take root in our culture."
Although spiritual activity is up, 34 percent of the adult population in America is unchurched, according to an earlier survey by the research institute. Barna, however, cited a stabilizing percentage of the unchurched population in a new report entitled The State of the Church: 2006.
The survey was conducted over the phone on 1,003 adults from across the nation during January 2006.
