In spite of this portrait painted by pastors, it is a picture at odds with other measures of the faith and religious practices of the people who populate Protestant churches. If the true nature of a church is best reflected by the beliefs and religious activities of its adults, then the description of most churches would be substantially different than that conveyed by pastors. Specifically, America's Protestant churches would best be described as theologically moderate, non-evangelical, believer-sensitive and isolated from the needy and disadvantaged.

And the view from the pulpit must somehow be reconciled with the fact that, even by pastors' own report, in the past year the average number of adults attending Protestant churches has declined; church financial support has dropped; and self-reported attendance among adults is less frequent than in the past. These statistics are drawn from two recent nationwide surveys conducted by the Barna Research Group of Ventura, California.

The Pastor's View

Protestant pastors showed a surprising degree of similarity in their characterizations of their churches. For instance, more than four out of five pastors called their church "evangelistic" (84%) and "consistently engaged in serving the needy" (84%). Four out of every five pastors said their congregation is "theologically conservative" (79%) and "evangelical" (79%). Six out of ten (58%) claimed the label "seeker-sensitive."

Only one out of every three pastors said their church was "fundamentalist" (36%) or "liturgical" (35%). Even fewer embraced labels such as "Pentecostal" (20%), "charismatic" (19%) and "theologically liberal" (13%).

Slightly more than half of the pastors interviewed (54%) said that worship service attendance at their church had increased in the past year, while just 6% said attendance had declined. The other one-third (37%) said attendance had remained about the same. Among those who claimed an increase, the average gain was estimated to be 12%. In fact, a majority of pastors - 54% - said they believe that America is experiencing a spiritual revival at the moment.

These figures are perplexing in light of the fact that the average weekly adult attendance reported by pastors actually decreased by 9% in the past year, dropping from an average of 100 adults in 1997 to just 91 in 1998. This coincides with a 15% drop in the average annual church operating budget, from $123,000 in 1997 to $105,000 in 1998.

As for spiritual revival, the survey among adults discovered that most people do not know what "spiritual revival" means. Only one out of every eight adults (12%) provided a definition or description of revival that can be considered accurate. This casts doubts over the validity of the fact that half of all adults (50%) - including 58% of born again Christians - say that they, too, believe that America is currently undergoing a time of spiritual revival.

The survey did identify the continued rapid growth in small groups or cell groups in churches across the nation. Since 1987, when only one out of four Protestant churches had any cell groups available to congregants, the proportion of churches offering cell group opportunities has more than tripled. Even in the past year there has been substantial growth, rising from 72% of churches with small groups available to the current 85%. While this suggests that churches are closing in on a saturation point, it also intimates that they are better poised structurally to effectively respond to ministry needs and opportunities than they were in the past.

Reconciling the Contradictions

Trying to make sense out of the various contradictions between what pastors claim and what their churches experience, as well as differences between the views of the clergy and laity, George Barna, president of the research company that conducted the surveys, offered some insight. "Pastors seem to believe that attendance is increasing. This might be attributed to several causes. One is the widespread discussion about revival, and the typical pastor's desire to be part of that movement of God. A second cause is the fact that many churches do not track attendance carefully, requiring pastors to deal with rough estimates rather than accurate data. A third cause is the trend of less consistent attendance. Pastors may be aware that many different people are attending their church, but may not be cognizant of the reality that those people are attending only once a month instead of two or three times each month.

"Finally, we know that many pastors still think in terms of membership, rather than attendance. Membership is a more forgiving figure because many people who leave churches - by death, moving, switching to another church - do not inform their former congregation of their departure. The result is 'dirty rosters' and exaggerated estimates of church size." Barna estimated that as many as 20% of church-goers change their church of choice during a typical year and noted that another 15%-20% attend two or more churches on a rotating basis, rather than always attending the same church.

The researcher found the distinctions between pastoral descriptions of the church's theology and the theological stance of church-goers easier to explain. "Ask a pastor about the theological perspective of his or her church and you'll get their personal theological leaning. They assume that the views they preach are the views their people accept. However, we find that adults are quite skeptical of teachings and ideologies and often treat the views of their pastor as just one more view to consider. Since a minority of people takes the Bible at face value these days, church attenders do not necessarily accept the view preached as if it is true. For example, many pastors believe the Bible calls Christians to be evangelical in their theology. The people, however, are more likely to think that 'evangelical' refers to being passionate about faith or religion, perhaps even fanatical, but that the term has little to do with theological perspectives."

The survey also pointed out that while most pastors say their churches are consistently involved in helping the poor, recent Barna Research surveys of adults show that relatively few actually engage in such activity. However, since most churches do have a handful of congregants who participate in such efforts, sometimes without church support or sanction, pastors may accurately claim that their church is engaged in community service ministry.

Barna called for pastors and laity to spend more time discussing issues of church identity, theological perspective and ministry involvement. "The more we can all deal from a basis of common vision, shared expectations and accurate knowledge about what the church is and is not doing, the more likely it is that we will be effective in seeing people's lives touched and transformed. The longer we operate on the basis of myth and misinformation, the harder it will be to influence our culture."

Survey Methodology

This information is based on telephone interviews among a national sample of 610 Protestant senior pastors conducted in June 1998. The sample was a random sample of churches from among the estimated 324,000 Protestant churches in the United States. Denominational and regional quotas were used to ensure a representative sampling of churches by affiliation and by location. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of all types of churches in the sample. All of the interviews were conducted from the Barna Research Group telephone interviewing facility in Ventura, CA. The maximum sampling error associated with this survey is +5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. This research was part of PastorPollÔ , an omnibus survey among pastors of Protestant churches in the 48 continental states.

The survey of adults was a national telephone survey of 1015 interviews conducted in July 1998 among a national random sample of people 18 or older. All of the interviews were conducted from the Barna Research Group telephone interviewing facility in Ventura, CA. Adults in the 48 continental states were eligible to be interviewed and the distribution coincided with the geographic dispersion of the U.S. adult population. Multiple callbacks were used to increase the probability of including a reliable distribution of adults. The maximum sampling error is +3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The survey was independently developed and funded by the Barna Research Group as part of an on-going tracking process of attitudes, values and behavior.