Ministry Today

Recognizing the power of Christian voters, 2012 presidential hopefuls are already beginning to stake out their territory in the religious landscape.

In March, likely Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, who converted to Catholicism two years ago, spoke at Cornerstone Church, a San Antonio megachurch pastored by John Hagee. The thrice-married former house speaker told his audience that he was concerned his grandchildren could eventually find themselves "in a secular atheist country" that is potentially dominated by "radical Islamists."

More recently, billionaire Donald Trump appeared on CBN News to express his religious convictions and confirm his newly-embraced pro-life credentials. "I believe in God. I am Christian. I think the Bible is certainly, it is the book, it is the thing," he said. "First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens, that's where I went to church. I'm a Protestant. I'm a Presbyterian."

A recent LifeWay Research study revealed that 14 percent of churches allow their members to give online.

The larger the church the more likely congregants have the option of e-giving—from 55 percent of churches with average worship attendance of 500 to as low as four percent for churches with fewer than 50 attendees.

Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research, noted that this trend is linked to the broader trend of cashless purchasing.

"Fewer and fewer Americans cash their paychecks or carry a checkbook," he said. "Some churches are finding that the payment preferences of enough of their congregation have changed to warrant putting an offering plate online in addition to passing them in their worship services."

While many Christian leaders campaign to keep Christ in Christmas by going after retailers who use the words "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," a group of pastors are waging a different kind of culture war.

Now in its fourth year as a rising movement, Advent Conspiracy challenges church members across the nation to fight against the commercialization of Christmas by replacing consumption with compassion.

Mainline Protestant churches might be "on the precipice of a period of decline," says research guru George Barna after his research firm's latest report on the state of mainline denominations.

Although The Barna Group study recognized a recent 10-year stability in the six major denominations-American Baptist Churches in the USA; the Episcopal Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Presbyterian Church (USA); the United Church of Christ; and the United Methodist Church-overall membership is a small fragment of what it was 60 years ago, when the denominations dominated the country's Protestant landscape.

What's in a phrase? When the phrase is house church, a lot-or at least enough to prompt one-third of all adults to say they're a part of one. According to research from George Barna, 33 percent of people responding to a dozen national surveys indicated they have experienced God or shared their faith in the last month with a group meeting in a home environment. But before you assume the simple church movement is spreading like wildfire in the United States as it has in other countries, think again.

April 29, 2009 -- Last year a massive nationwide survey discovered that 44 percent of Americans switch denominations in their lifetime. Now an in-depth study is taking it a step further by uncovering how many change religions--and exactly why they do.

A report released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that roughly half of Americans change their religious affiliation at some point in their lives. Most people who change do so before they are 24 years old, and many of those actually switch multiple times. Not surprisingly, most believers settle into their faith at an older age, with very few people leaving their religion after turning 50. (The majority of those surveyed found their current church home at age 36.)