Marc Estes

What is the culture look like that we are trying to reach?  As a leader, this is a question you must constantly be asking yourself. If you are going to be effective in reaching people you must understand how they believe and behave. With the massive belief/behavior shift taking place in our society today it is impearative that we take the time necessary to understand those within our reach.   

How a person believes plays a critical part as to how we connect with those coming into the church. What they believe, how they behave and their perceptions of us greatly affect how we should relate to them as well as how they will relate to us. In this post, we will deal specifically with their beliefs.

Their Beliefs – The United states is home to over 200 different types of religions and belief systems, but is dominated by seven major faith groups. The breakdown of these groups was taken from the book,  The Seven Faith Tribes, by George Barna

• Casual Christians - There are about 225 million adults in America and approximately 150 million fit into this category.  Their belief system is differs greatly from Biblical Christian beliefs:   
  • 74% claim to have personal relationship with Jesus.
  • 38% are certain they will have eternal life.
  • Only 18% spiritual maturity equates to making commitment to community of faith.
  • 18% engage in big three weekly: church attendance, read bible, and pray.
  • Less than 5% tithe their income, average about 1.5% of income to all contributions.

• Captive Christians – There are roughly 36 million that fit into this category, about 16% of population.  This segment of Christian would be a combination of evangelicals and Protestants.  Their combination of Bible-based conviction and spiritual practices has transformed them into different people. Conversion is real, they live what they believe.

• American Jews – The largest population of Jews now reside in United States, 6.5 million, which is close to half of Jews worldwide. 2% of U.S. population. Contemporary Judaism has its roots in the Middle East, but its heart is in postmodern West.  The changes redefining the beliefs of Judaism are extensive, too much to mention, but do play a role in the make-up in the belief structure of USA.  It has become more of a culture than an actual religion.

•  Mormons – There are 13 million Mormons worldwide and approximately 5 million living in the U.S., 40% living in Utah alone. Almost as many leave the church as are added to the church resulting only in small net gain annually.  Although there are varying degrees of awareness of Church doctrine over 77% state that family values are their top priority.

• Pantheists – The 31 Flavors of America’s belief system, which include Hindus, Buddhists, New Agers, and most religions rooted in Eastern religion.  This group represents about 1.5% of U.S. Population, about 3.5 million.  57% of this entire group is of Asian descent.

• Muslims – A collection of vastly different Muslim segments and theological views.  Varying studies show this group to be between 1.5 to 4 million, best estimate to be around 2.3 million.  Over 50% of this group lives in Northeastern United States.  Most feel highly rejected and grossly misunderstood and wrongly labeled with extreme radical Muslims.

• Spiritual Skeptics – About 11% of Americans are either Atheist (9%) or Agnostic (2%). This group has doubled in size in last quarter century now totaling about 25 million Americans. One of the fastest growing groups with expectation for aggressive growth in the coming years.