Cultural & Religious Cheat Sheet

by: Ed Stetzer

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For the past week, I’ve blogged quite a bit on statistics and their use. I’ve discussed the misuse of stats, how to discern which stats are good and which are not, and even presented some new research on pastors’ views of the election and the use of stats.

You’ve responded with good questions and robust discussion (especially on my Facebook page). Through it all, I found a common theme in your tweets and comments: Where do I find accurate stats? While I can’t vouch for every research study conducted at every research firm under the sun, there are many trustworthy sources out there. You know their names, and I consider many of their leaders personal friends.

Since many of you use stats (as the research I presented yesterday showed) and want trustworthy ones to use, I thought I would share these stats I compiled for the Exponential Conference held this past April. These are as up-to-date as I could make them. But like any stat, they could be updated and changed. So before you use them, be discerning and verify them from the source listed in parentheses.

WORLD STATISTICS

• World population is over 7 billion people and growing at over 80 million per year (Population Media Center)
• Facebook has 1 billion monthly active users (Facebook)
• If the world were 100 people (100people.org)

• 33 Christians, 22 Muslims, 14 Hindus, 7 Buddhists
• 77 people would have a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 23 would not
• 1 would be dying of starvation, 15 would be undernourished, 21 would be overweight
• 48 would live on less than $2 USD per day
• 87 would have access to safe drinking water, 13 would use unimproved water

UNITED STATES STATISTICS

• 827,609 abortions in 2007 (most recent data) (CDC)

• Finance (endoftheamericandream.com)

• Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income
• Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million
• Total U.S. credit card debt is more than 8 times larger o than it was just 30 years ago
• Americans now owe more than $904 billion on student loans, which is a new all-time record high
• 1.5 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2010. That represented the fourth yearly increase in bankruptcy filings in a row

• Medication (endoftheamericandream.com)

• 11% of women take antidepressants (highest in the world)
• Children are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than Europe.

• Sexually Transmitted Disease (SimplexLove.com)

• One in five people in the United States has an STD.
• Two-thirds of all STDs occur in people 25 years of age or younger.
• One in four new STD infections occurs in teenagers.

• We’re Number 1! or USA! USA! (endoftheamericandream.com)

• Highest incarceration rate and the largest total prison population
• Highest divorce rate in the world
• Highest teen pregnancy rate
• Most obese
• More school shootings
• Highest child abuse death rate
• Produces more pornography
• Gets more plastic surgery

PEOPLE ARE LOOKING (LifeWay Research)

• 88% of Americans agree “There is more to life than the physical world and society”
• 76% of Americans agree “There is an ultimate purpose and plan for every person’s life”
• 67% of Americans agree “A major priority in my life is finding my deeper purpose”
• 78% of Americans agree “It is important that I pursue a higher purpose and meaning for my life”

PEOPLE ARE BELIEVING (Pew Research Forum)

• 88% of American believe in God or a universal spirit
• 75% of Americans pray at least one a week

PEOPLE ARE WAITING

• 41% of the formerly churched said they would return to the local church if a friend or acquaintance invited them (LifeWay Research)
• 63% of Americans are willing to receive information about a local church from a family member (LifeWay Research)
• 56% are willing to receive it from friend or neighbor (LifeWay Research)

Read more from Ed here.

Tags: Ed Stetzer, Kingdom Concept, Local Predicament

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How Your Location Impacts Your Biblical Interpretation

by: Trevin Wax

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You may be surprised to discover just how much your culture determines what you see in the Scriptures.

During my years in Romania, I found myself challenged by the insights Romanian pastors drew from the text. Preachers seemed to spend time on things that I tended to pass over. Even now, when Corina and I discuss a passage of Scripture, we often latch on to different words and phrases. We’re both inclined to think the other has missed the point and is majoring on the minors.

Cultural background and social location play an important role in the way we read a text.

Did You Notice the Famine?

A great example of this phenomenon is found in Mark Allan Powell’s helpful little book What Do They Hear?: Bridging the Gap Between Pulpit and Pew. Powell recounts an experiment with 12 American seminary students assigned to read the parable of the prodigal son and then recount it from memory. Interestingly enough, not one of them mentioned the famine in Luke 15:14: 

After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing.

Powell himself had considered Jesus’ reference to the famine as an insignificant detail, but he was surprised to see all of his students forget it.

Next, Powell organized a study with 100 American students of different genders, races, ages, economic statuses, and religions. Out of 100 students, only 6 mentioned the famine in their retelling of Jesus’ parable.

Perplexed, he went to St. Petersburg, Russia, and did the same experiment with 50 Russians. He was shocked when 42 of them remembered the famine. Only 6 out of 100 Americans, but 42 out of 50 Russians.

Why the disparity? Powell believes there may be a psychological explanation that goes back to 1941, when the German army laid siege to St. Petersburg and caused a 900-day famine in which 670,000 Russians died of starvation and exposure. Even after so many years, the horror of the famine lingers in the consciousness of Russian citizens.

What’s the Prodigal’s Problem?

Even more interesting is the fact that many Russian readers made no reference to the prodigal son squandering his property! People from these two cultures tend to hear the emphases of the parable differently.

The American hears the parable like this:

Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing.

The Russian hears the parable like this:

Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing.

In other words, Americans see the famine as an insignificant detail that intensifies the prodigal’s big problem – wastefulness. Russians, on the other hand, see the prodigal’s wasteful spending as an insignificant detail that intensifies the real tragedy – the famine.

Social location and cultural background also impact the way we see what the boy did wrong. Americans consider the prodigal’s great sin to be his extravagant, wasteful lifestyle. But in Powell’s study, the Russians didn’t see wastefulness as the biggest problem:

“His mistake was leaving his father’s house in the first place. His sin was placing a price tag on the value of his family, thinking that money was all he needed from them. Once he had his share of the family fortune, the family itself no longer mattered. In a phrase, his sin was wanting to be self-sufficient.” (18)

In a capitalist society, we see the prodigal’s sin in terms of wastefulness. In a socialist society, the Russians see the prodigal’s sin as self-sufficiency.

Know Your Sources and Know Your People

How does this story apply to our preaching and teaching?

First, we ought to consult a variety of sources and scholars as we study the Scriptures. I know pastors who vary their commentaries based on theological diversity. Very well. But perhaps we should also consult commentaries from people in societies different from our own, to see what our cultural blinders may have screened out.

Second, we should consider how our sermons fall on the ears of others. We must be aware of the social context of our listeners and consider not only what we mean to say but how it might be heard. In order to get our intended meaning across, we must know the people we are preaching to and be able to understand how they hear us.

Powell mentions how Bible readers often remain “oblivious to what they themselves are bringing to the process, unaware that the sorting and organizing of data is influenced by particular factors of their own social location. People who hear our sermons do the same thing – they sort the auditory data, prioritizing, organizing, remembering, forgetting: they create a meaning that seems appropriate to them with little awareness of the extent to which their social location has influenced that process” (19).

Better Bible interpretation and better preaching happens when we keep social location and cultural background in mind: the social location of the Scriptures, of ourselves as interpreters, and of those who hear us preach.

Read more from Trevin here.

Tags: Local Predicament, Scripture, Trevin Wax

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Dealing with Neighborhood Transitions in Your Church, Part 1

by: Ed Stetzer

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Donald McGavran was a third generation missionary child in India and later a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. His unique background provided first-hand observations of both the Indian caste system and mid-twentieth century America, including the rise of suburbia and the perceived superiority of certain classes. Consequently, McGavran became particularly concerned with understanding and overcoming social barriers he saw as preventing people from coming to Christ.

In 1970, McGavran wrote a Church Growth text entitled Understanding Church Growth, in which he presents a somewhat controversial thesis known as the Homogeneous Unit Principle. He purports that people more readily choose to become Christians when they do not have to cross racial, linguistic, or class barriers.

Instead, he explained that people tend to be drawn to a homogeneous unit, a broadly defined term explaining people who share common characteristics. Shared characteristics can include geographical location, political views, ethnic backgrounds, or social class, thus instigating the controversy. Though McGavran was far from a racist, many have viewed his thesis as racist. This is unfortunate because I have to agree with the central premise of McGavran’s thesis– it is an observable fact that people are more often reached in homogenous relationships. Whether that is a GOOD thing is not the same thing as denying it is a TRUE thing.

It’s no great secret that a Korean is more likely to hear the gospel and respond by grace through faith in a Korean church rather than a Haitian church. This is not rocket science. However, the issue arises in light of the massive amounts of change and transition occurring among America’s people and landscape. How do we address these issues when an Anglo neighborhood becomes predominantly African-American or when an African-American neighborhood transitions to a Korean one? How should we think about neighborhood transition in regards to culture and homogeneity (most churches that are transitioning are homogenous)?

On March 31, 2011, The Congressional Research Service published a report, “The Changing Demographic Profile of the United States,” that concludes that the U.S. is getting bigger, older, and more diverse. For example, based on census data and recent research, the report projects that by 2050, the Asian population alone will increase by nearly 220 percent. It also projects that Hispanic Americans will make up just over 30 percent of the population by 2050.

Clearly, this has some implications on both the rapidly changing landscape of our towns and cities and the local church’s role in the midst of transition. When discussing the issue hypothetically or as an outside observer, one can easily say “Here’s what we should do.” For those who have gone through or are currently going through such a transition, however, knowing the best way to respond proves a great challenge due to the multiple factors at work.

As I see it, there are three primary options:

• congregational relocation to a context more in line with their congregation,
• intentional multicultural integration in one congregation, or
• multi-congregational partnership in one building.

I’ll be exploring those options in the next few weeks.

For part 2 of this series, click here.

Read more from Ed here.

Tags: Community Demographics, Ed Stetzer, Kingdom Concept, Local Predicament, Neighborhood Transitions

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