HomeArchivesSpeakingAudio / Video The ExchangeLifeWay ResearchLifeWay Research Team
Home
Home
Facebook RSS Twitter Vimeo YouTube
Click here to have Ed's RSS feed on your site
Most Popular Posts
  • Updates on Kaitlyn's Health #PrayForKaitlyn
  • President Obama, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Future of Evangelical Response
  • Recommended Books and Blogs of the Week
  • Breaking New Research: Americans Split on Whether Homosexual Behavior Is Sin
  • Brand New Research: Mother's Day Is Top Non-Religious Holiday for Church Attendance
  • Gospel-Centered Discipleship: An Interview with Jonathan Dodson, Part Two
  • Australia Reflections, part 6: Pray for Australia
  • Morning Roundup - May 14, 2012
  • Mother's Day, USAToday, and Church Attendance
  • Weekly Wrap & Church Signs of the Week: Traffic
Topics
  • Articles
  • Australia
  • Bible
  • Blog
  • Books
  • CPLF
  • Church
  • Church Planting
  • Church Revitalization
  • Church sign of the week
  • City Studies
  • Contextualization
  • Culture
  • Evangelism
  • Exchange
  • Gospel Project
  • Humor
  • International Missions
  • Interviews
  • Kick-Starting the Plateaued and Declining Church
  • Leaders
  • Lifeway
  • Meanings of Missional
  • Megachurch
  • Ministry
  • Missiology
  • Missional
  • Missional Manifesto
  • Morning Roundup
  • Multisite
  • Personal
  • Politics
  • Pornography
  • Preaching
  • Presentations
  • Research
  • SBC
  • Seminars
  • Social Media
  • Teaching
  • The Missional Reader
  • Theology
  • Thursday Is for Thinkers
  • Top Issues Church Planters Face
  • Transformational Church Spotlight
  • Transformational Small Churches
  • Video
  • Viral Churches
  • Web
  • Weekly Wrap
  • Worship
 

Generational Perspectives on Scripture

Tuesday October 20, 2009   ~   3 Comments

"Kids these days."

The Barna Group has released a new study that explores the how different generations of American adults view and use the Bible. And guess what - it turns out perspectives are different!

Barna groups those surveyed into four generations, broken down as follows: the Mosaic generation refers to adults who are currently ages 18 to 25; Busters are those ages 26 to 44; Boomers are 45 to 63; and Elders are 64-plus.

Not everything is wildly different between these generations. In fact "a majority of each of the four generations believes that the Bible is a sacred or holy book." Shocking. Ok, not really. But another commonality is that "millions within each of the generations report reading the pages of Scripture in the last week." That is more interesting to me.

Similar proportions of the generations embrace the most conservative and most liberal views. For instance, the "highest" view of the Bible - that it is "the actual word of God and should be taken literally, word for word" - is embraced by one-quarter of Mosaics (27%), Busters (27%), and Boomers (23%), and one-third of Elders (34%). The extreme view on the other end - that the Bible is not inspired by God - is embraced by proportions that are also statistically close to one another, including Mosaics (25%), Busters (19%), Boomers (22%), and Elders (22%).


Of course there are significant differences between the generations and their perspectives on Scripture. The Barna Group summarizes that the younger generations show the following changes in thought as it relates to the Bible:

Less Sacred - While most Americans of all ages identify the Bible as sacred, the drop-off among the youngest adults is striking: 9 out of 10 Boomers and Elders described the Bible as sacred, which compares to 8 out of 10 Busters (81%) and just 2 out of 3 Mosaics (67%).


Less Accurate - Young adults are significantly less likely than older adults to strongly agree that the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches. Just 30% of Mosaics and 39% of Busters firmly embraced this view, compared with 46% of Boomers and 58% of Elders.

More Universalism - Among Mosaics, a majority (56%) believes the Bible teaches the same spiritual truths as other sacred texts, which compares with 4 out of 10 Busters and Boomers, and one-third of Elders.

Skepticism of Origins - Another generational difference is that young adults are more likely to express skepticism about the original manuscripts of the Bible than is true of older adults.

Less Engagement - While many young adults are active users of the Bible, the pattern shows a clear generational drop-off - the younger the person, the less likely then are to read the Bible. In particular, Busters and Mosaics are less likely than average to have spent time alone in the last week praying and reading the Bible for at least 15 minutes. Interestingly, none of the four generations were particularly likely to say they aspired to read the Bible more as a means of improving their spiritual lives.

Bible Appetite - Despite the generational decline in many Bible metrics, one departure from the typical pattern is the fact that younger adults, especially Mosaics (19%), express a slightly above-average interest in gaining additional Bible knowledge. This compares with 12% of Boomers and 9% of Elders.



Go and read the report at Barna.com, and then head back here to talk about it. What does this shift in perception mean for the church? On the one hand we want to affirm that "the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God," but what will our part be in showing the younger generations, particularly the unchurched, the nature, value and use of Scripture? What is your church doing to help younger generations develop a healthy, biblical view of Scripture?

Posted on October 20, 2009 at 7:23 PM   ~   3 Comments

Tagged with: bible, culture, generations, unchurched

Subscribe via RSS or Follow us on Twitter
Follow us via RSS Follow us On Twitter

Share This Post
Facebook
del.icio.us
StumbleUpon
Digg
TwitThis
Mixx
Technorati
NewsVine
Reddit
Google
LinkedIn
co.mments
YahooMyWeb

3 Comments

By Amy on October 20, 2009 10:54 PM

While I do not doubt there is a shift in thinking, I think that one thing was not considered was that the young generation is young. If you asked me any of these questions when I was 18-25, my answers are wholly different than they are now at 30. My background hasn't changed, nor did I have extra teaching or an epiphany. I simply got older, my priorities changed because of being in a different point of my life, and I'd had more time to sort out what I believed.

By Bob Cleveland on October 21, 2009 7:59 AM

If the survey groups were simply American people overall, then there's nothing surprising (as opposed to, say, Southern Baptist Deacons). I don't suppose it says anything we wouldn't have guessed.

As to reaching the younger unchurched, the survey oughtn't to lead us to anything we shouldn't have been doing anyway: reaching unchurched. And our evangelistic message isn't the qualities of the Bible, its the sinfulness of man and the love of Jesus.

Or not. Just my thoughts.

By Andy Wittwer on October 21, 2009 9:19 AM

Hah, after reading this post in my email, I came here to say the same thing Amy said. Statistically, the Mosaics are higher risk drivers. Is that generational? I think not. I'm more concerned about the statement that: "Interestingly, none of the four generations were particularly likely to say they aspired to read the Bible more as a means of improving their spiritual lives." That said, I wonder about the population given this survey. I HOPE that people self-identified as Christians who attend church 2 or more times a month wouldn't have this same view, and I wouldn't be surprised if self-identified Christians who attend church once a month or less and non-Christians wouldn't consider God's Word as a spiritual development tool. Statistics are a handy tool, but you've got to use them carefully.

Comment Policy

Comments are welcome on discussion posts.  Comments are not moderated but do require a keyword to avoid spam.  If this is your first time commenting, please review the comment policy.

Leave a comment


NEWER POSTS
OLDER POSTS
 
Noteworthy Items
Recent Comments
  • Andy Wittwer commented on Generational Perspectives on Scripture.
  • Bob Cleveland commented on Generational Perspectives on Scripture.
  • Amy commented on Generational Perspectives on Scripture.
Comment Policy
Twitter Feed
    My Books
    Subversive Kingdom Mission of God Study Bible   Compelled
    Compelled by Love Comeback Churches   Breaking the missional Code
    Planting Missional Churches 11 Innocations in the Local Church   Spiritual Warfare and Missions
    Mission Shift Lost and Found   Viral Churches
    Small Group Resources
    Sent: Living the Missional Nature of the Church - Leader Kit Subversive Kingdom: Lessons in Rebellion from the Parables of Jesus - Leader Kit   Compelled by Love: A Journey to Missional Living - Leader Kit
    Schools Where I Teach
    Compelled by Love

    Ministry Partnerships
    Christianity Today Outreach magazine
    Catalyst Monthly Facts and Trends
    Christian Post
    imb connecting Baptist Center
    LifeWay: Research - Biblical Solutions for Life
    LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life