In a recent interview with The Christian Post, George Barna, founder of the Barna Group which is one of leading voices on cultural trends, had a stark warning for a declining Christian Church. “People have become more selfish, churches have become less influential, pastors have become less Bible-centric,” said Barna of the current climate. “Families have invested less of their time and energy in spiritual growth, particularly of their children. The media now influences the Church more than the Church influences the media, or the culture for that matter. The Christian Body tends to get off track arguing about a lot of things that really don’t matter,” he said.

One thing Barna has seen that worries him is how churches focus more on attendance numbers and buildings rather than discipleship and knowledge of the Bible. “You get what you measure. So if you measure the wrong things, you’ll get the wrong outcomes … [pastors] measure how many people show up, how much money they raise, how many programs they offer, how many staff persons they hire, how much square footage they built out. Jesus didn’t die for any of that. So we’re measuring the wrong stuff and, consequently, we get the wrong outcomes,” he said. The American Bible Society’s “State of the Bible USA 2024” found that the number of Americans who engage with the Bible three or four times a year outside of church has dropped to just 38%.

Barna stated that the solution is to focus more on children and families. “We need to go back and recognize it starts with families; parents have the primary responsibility to raise their children to become spiritual champions … local churches need to support parents in that endeavor. Our primary focus needs to be on children … and growing their biblical worldview. If we do that, we’ll be able to grow the 3 percent of adults who are disciples in America today to a larger proportion,” he said. He also emphasized the importance of worldview. “What I’m seeing now is that we’re getting to this place where the typical American … will not have anyone in their circle of influence who has a biblical worldview. You’re not going to be influenced with God’s truth,” he said. Barna’s Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that only 4% of Americans hold a Biblical worldview, dropping from 6%. According to Barna, a biblical worldview is described as “believing that absolute moral truths exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views. Those views were that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and He stills rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings.” Barna found that a Biblical worldview drastically changed an individual’s behavior, such as more sexual purity, less gambling, and less drunkenness. “These are not perfect people,” said Barna, “but once they catch on to the critical principles found in the Bible and train their minds to incorporate those views into their thinking, their behavior varies noticeably from the norm.”