Or do they just recognize they need it?

In case you’re not on the e-mailing list of George Barna, here are some results from a recent study. He asked Christians to self-assess their spiritual maturity. I suspect that people tend to “think more highly of themselves than they ought to think,” but since each person was asked to rank themselves in seven categories, the relationship of those categories should be accurate.

Here are the seven categories, from the best-accomplished downward:

• Maintaining healthy relationships
• Serving other people
• Consistently living out your faith principles
• Worshiping God
• Spiritual leadership of the family (children under 18)
• Sharing your faith with others
• Knowing the content of the Bible

Then the participants were asked which category they would most like to improve. Most had not thought about it. (And since they didn’t have a plan, they weren’t planning to improve by their own initiative.)

Those who knew how they wanted to improve said they’d like to . . .

• Increase their commitment to the Christian faith (13%)
• Increase their Bible knowledge (12%)
• Improve their prayer life (7%)
• Be a better servant to others (4%)
• Develop better relationships (4%)
• Understand the Christian life better (4%)
• Share their faith better (4%)
• Develop a better character (3%)
• Forgive others (3%), and
• Be more spiritually mature overall (3%)George Barna says at the end of his report that it is “quite striking that the aspect of church life that receives the greatest amounts of time, attention and energy—that of teaching people the content of the Bible—is one of the two areas in which people feel least well developed.” He concludes that “most people do not feel as if they are learning enough about God, the Christian faith, or their role in the world—and most of them don’t seem to care.”
  Read the whole article at http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=200.’… and most of them don’t seem to care …’ ??That’s an interesting phrase. Christians talk seriously about strengths and weaknesses in the areas of their discipleship yet something in the conversation  then indicate that perhaps the problem is in the area of motivation? We know we know we’re not doing as well as we should, can even identify the areas where we’re falling down, but can seem to get ourselves to do the right thing. Kind of reminds you of Paul conversation in Romans 7 doesn’t it.

  So what’s a Christian leader to do?

  As I re-write this article I’m watching a hockey game. The Toronto Maple Leafs have just fired their head coach for his inability to motivate the players to do what they’ve been told ‘over and over again’ they must do to win. Should churches fire their coaches for their inability to motivate the flock? If we ‘fired’ some of our star players would it be enough ‘fire up’ the team? Or maybe we could just engineer a strategic trade?

  I’m a strong believer in bringing in some much needed help. I think its a pattern of scripture. Such studies help us to see the needs so that we can address them. And the good news is that there is help! One of the best sources you can use is Walk Thru the Bible. Up to 85% of attendees of live seminars make commitments that look remarkably like the preceding list of desires—especially the top two. For more than 25 years, these seminars have proven to excite audiences about God’s Word in such a way that 75% of attendees commit to read Scripture daily for at least thirty days

The goal of Walk Thru the Bible is to help Canadian churches, camps, Bible colleges, Christian schools, and parachurch organizations motivate their people to passionately love the Word and its Author, and effectively serve God in daily life. Our seminars and devotional materials are biblically solid and full of applications that make the Word real in life. We’d love to come alongside you to bring the Word’s life-changing truth to your people.

If you’d like to pursue it, this is what we’d suggest:

1. Declare a “year of the Bible” in your church and to get your church family into daily Bible reading with proven resources from Walk Thru the Bible.
2. Kick off a daily Bible reading program for your church with The Daily Walk devotional magazine (or one of our other six daily devotional magazines). It contains unique overviews, charts, insights and priceless nuggets of truth, which stay with the reader throughout the day. With its systematic reading plan, lives will be transformed as your members read through His Word.
3. Then, combine the devotional readings with a Walk Thru the Old Testament seminar at your church
4. Follow that with a Walk Thru the New Testament seminar when your congregation will be reading in the New Testament each day.

We’d love to talk to you about it.

Dave Heasler
Walk Thru the Bible Canada
dave@DaveHeasler.com