Group Faith

Ed Stetzer post:  Barna on Group Expressions of Faith

A new study done by the Barna Group "examined various expressions of "group" faith, such as: church attendance, small groups, adult Sunday school programs, church volunteering, and house churches." Below are excerpts from the nine insights they provided. (Be sure to read their whole article here.)

1. Women drive most faith participation. A majority of weekly churchgoers are women (53%). Small groups that meet for prayer or Bible study (60%) and Sunday school programs for adults (59%) are also more likely to be attended by women...
2. Religious activities are typically missing single adults, especially those who have never been married. Just less than half of Americans are unmarried; however, the Barna study found that two-thirds of those who attend church, go to small groups, and participate in Sunday school are married; and 69% of church volunteers are married...

3. Older adults also dominate faith involvement. Conventional wisdom suggests that older adults are more likely to participate spiritually, and the Barna research confirmed such thinking...

4. Regionally, Americans' faith involvement falls along stereotypical lines. Residents of the South make up half of the nation's small group attenders as well as a majority of its Sunday school attenders...

5. Catholics are not particularly active beyond worship attendance, while evangelicals participate in many different forms of "group faith." While Catholics make up one-quarter of all the nation's worshippers each week, they are only one-tenth of small group attenders, Sunday School participants, and church volunteers...

6. Attenders of larger churches involve themselves in the broadest spectrum of faith activities. Americans who typically attend a church of at least 500 adults were among the most likely to also attend small groups...

7. African-Americans represent a significant share of those involved in participatory faith. True to their community-oriented religious heritage and experience, blacks help to power the group religious expressions of the nation. While blacks are 13% of the nation's adult population, the segment accounts for one-quarter of America's small group participants (27%)...

8. Personal Bible reading is most common among small group attenders. In comparing a personal spiritual activity with participatory involvement, the study showed that two-thirds of church attenders (67%) said they had read the Bible outside of church in the last week - whether their church was a conventional or house church. Small group attenders were more likely to read the Bible personally (84%)...

9. Many religiously active Americans lean toward conservative political views, though there is more diversity than expected - especially among house church attenders. Churchgoers, small group attenders, and church volunteers are likely to be either politically conservative or moderate. House church attenders are unique in that one-quarter of such participants describe themselves as political liberals and nearly half are registered Democrats - uncharacteristically high levels compared with other faith activities, perhaps connected with the above-average proportion of black adults who report house church attendance. Further demonstrating their non-conventional and independent inclinations, one-quarter of house church attenders said they are not registered to vote, twice the national average.

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