The Red Letter Disciple 012: Scott McConnell on the Statistics that Pastors Get Wrong, The Number One Indicator of a Disciple (It’s not Prayer or Reading Your Bible), and His Results in the 100-People-On-Earth Game
Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell gives some encouraging data about discipleship and the church. He dives into the future of the church and shares what encourages him about the next generation. To learn more about the podcast or access the show notes, visit www.redletterpodcast.com.
Join the FREE webinar on August 11th at 1 PM CST called “Fund Your Vision—Don’t Let Money Limit Your Ministry.” Phil Ling, President of The Giving Church, will be joining me and we’ll dive into how The Giving Church has helped more than a thousand churches raise more than a billion dollars. They also commissioned a study with more than 4000 churches and uncovered some incredible data that we will bring out in this webinar. Phil will talk about what he has learned through both his experience and through this unique study. You won’t want to miss it. We will be giving away loads of free stuff as well! You can sign up at www.thegivingchurch.com/red and you can grab a FREE PDF “5 Ways to Grow Your Church’s Giving,” while you are there.
Resources mentioned in the episode:
Most Teenagers Drop Out of Church When They Become Young Adults
Despite Stresses, Few Pastors Give Up on Ministry
Red Letter Challenge Assessment
5 Actions That Will Immediately Encourage Discipleship in Your Church
About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated
The Parent Adventure by Selma and Rodney Wilson and Scott McConnell
Americans Hold Complex, Conflicting Religious Beliefs, According to Latest State of Theology Study
Key insights from the episode:
Christians like to inflate the percentage of people leaving the church. One statistic that is not true is young adults leave the church and never come back. - Scott McConnell
Our latest research was in 2021, and only 1.5% of pastors are stepping away from the pastorate in a year. - Scott McConnell
We tend to overinflate leaving rates (young adults and pastors). - Scott McConnell
We tend to want to toss out membership numbers these days because they aren’t great, but they are still relevant and an important indicator - Scott McConnell
We are trying to understand the discipleship needs so we can help people take a step closer to Christ and to encourage them to spur one another on to love and good deeds. - Scott McConnell
If you are anything but a small congregation church you cannot cover all the discipleship needs for each person, so tools and assessments are going to be a great systematic tool. - Scott McConnell
One of the challenges we face in surveys is to ask about more than just actions, we try to get at their desires, heart issues, and beliefs. - Scott McConnell
We asked what statistically predicts a closer walk with God and found that praying for opportunities to share your faith with others moved into the top spot. - Scott McConnell
29% of Americans indicate no religious preference/atheist/agnostic and that percentage has gone up 1% every year for the past decade. - Scott McConnell
We spend significant time studying other world religions statistically, if we are about maximizing, then we need to be spending at least as much time reaching the atheist or agnostic. - Zach Zehnder
People, whether they are followers of another religion or no religion, still have core human needs and if we can be sharing the gospel in a way that points to Jesus and how he satisfies in a way that no other source can, that’s our opportunity. Scott McConnell
The numbers you see from statistics never tell the whole story. If the numbers look impossible, the Holy Spirit is still working. - Scott McConnell
People that are in a small group on a weekly basis are more likely to read their Bible, serve within and outside the church, tithe, and volunteer. - Scott McConnell
A young person is 3.5 more times to stay in church if at least three adults poured into them at a young age and they can name them. - Scott McConnell
Young people’s failures tend to be those that we pass on to them or reactions to the previous generation. - Scott McConnell
As parents, one of the biggest encouragement you can give is to keep engaging with your teens and trying even if you are only getting one word back. - Scott McConnell
Scott McConnell’s Challenge of the week: Have a short conversation with God about opportunities that you can have this week to share your faith.
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