Teens put parents first
Heres what American teens said they would do if they won $100,000.
Source: HomeLife, March 2003
 Record number of new churches in Canada
The Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists started a record number of new churches in 2002 and continues to advance toward its goal of 1,000 churches across Canada by 2020.
Paul Johnson, CCSB national church planting consultant, said 33 new Southern Baptist churches have been established from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, eclipsing the previous single-year high of 23. A recent study from Church Planting Canada, an arm of the British Columbia-based evangelical church planting and research organization of Outreach Canada, also indicated the CCSB ranked highest among the intermediate-sized denominations for beginning new congregations in Canada from 1998 to 2000.
According to the study, the number of CCSB churches grew at an annual rate of 10.4 percent from 1998 to 2000. From 1992 to 1997 the CCSB grew from 100 to 124 congregations, an average yearly increase of 4.4 percent.
An important part of this is that half of our new churches started this year are ethnic churches, said Johnson, who is based at CCSB headquarters in Cochrane, Alberta. Some have said that the CCSB is the most ethnically diverse convention among Southern Baptists in the world.
Source: Baptist Press, November 13, 2002
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Ten years of racial progress
Over the last 10 years the Southern Baptist Convention has seen great progress along racial lines, according to the SBC Executive Committee which tracks such things. Here are just a few examples:
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The SBC has accelerated church starting in African American communities.
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The number of African American international missionaries has proliferated.
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Attendance has increased dramatically at Black Church Leadership Week at the Baptist conference centers.
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Nearly 25 percent of SBC churches have Blacks among their membership today.
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The exponential proliferation of Black churches in the SBC is a contemporary phenomenon in church history.
Source: Baptist Press, February 21, 2003
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U.S. youth more conservative than adults
Americas youth seem to be more conservative than their elders when it comes to political issues involving religion.
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Defining success
Nearly one-third of all U.S. adults (32 percent) said their life would be successful if they were able to have a strong family unit, a solid and lasting marriage or if they had done a good job of raising their children.
One out of every seven adults (14 percent) stated that success was due to personal emotional fulfillment. Similar and smaller numbers of people said that success was a result of spiritual experiences or development (7 percent) or experiencing good health (8 percent). One-quarter of the adult population (25 percent) has no idea what would make their life successful.
Source: The Barna Update, November 6, 2002
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Quick Quote
Terrible as Roe [versus Wade] was, we are now facing an even worse horror. In Roe, we took lifewhich was bad enoughbut at least we were not pretending to be God. But now, with cloning, humans will play God, the Author of life: We will create life for our own purposes. In fact, if reports are true, we already have.
Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship
Source: Crosswalk.com, January 3, 2003
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By the numbers
NAMBs research has shown that if people making spiritual decisions are not contacted by a local church within 72 hours of making a decision, the likelihood that theyll ever be assimilated into a local church is very low, says Darel Robertson, decision counseling associate for NAMB. Therefore the most efficient way to make follow-up referrals is through churches where these people live.
100 Number of calls received each day at the Evangelism Response Center (ERC) from people making spiritual decisions
450 Number of Covenant Churches available to take follow-up referrals from the ERC
5000 Minimum number of Covenant Churches needed by 2005 to help with follow-up to the media campaign related to the What Now, America? emphasis.
The process for becoming a covenant church is simple, he says, involving a registration form and brief self-training materials. Once a church is registered, it will be eligible to receive names of individuals in the area who have made decisions or requested information from a local church. Interested churches may call the Evangelism Response Center office at the North American Mission Board at 770-410-6383, or email erc@namb.net.
Source: Direct Evangelism Team, North American Mission Board and Baptist Press, February 24, 2003
439 Number of the 1,216 associations which experienced the planting of at least one new church last year. This is the largest number of Southern Baptist associations in history directly engaged in church planting in a single year.
Source: Church Planter Update, North American Mission Board, February 24, 2003
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Conversion and witnessing among Southern Baptists
5.2 million
People attend worship services in Southern Baptist churches and missions on a typical Sunday morning in the U.S. About one out of eight worship service attendees is a nonbeliever.
50%
Of those who have a personal relationship with Christ, half said that they had a conversion experience at or before age 12. Beyond age 12 the percentage of conversions steadily decreases.
52%
Of Southern Baptists appear to be comfortable talking about their faith if it comes up in conversation.
80%
Eight out of ten Southern Baptists are willing to share their faith
25%
Only one in four Southern Baptists is intentional about sharing his or her faith.
20%
One in five Southern Baptists has difficulty or is unwilling to talk about faith even if it comes up in a natural conversation.
Source: Research Services, North American Mission Board, SBC
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 Creationism vs. evolution
A new Gallup poll shows that 48 percent of Americans believe in creationism and only 28 percent in evolution (most of the rest arent sure or lean toward creationism).
According to a recent Gallup Tuesday Briefing, Americans are more than twice as likely to believe in the devil (68 percent) as in evolution.
Source: The New York Times, March 4, 2003
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More teens abstain from sex
According to a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, theres been a steady decline in teen sexual activity between the years 1991 to 2001. The percentage of U.S. high school students who said they have had sexual intercourse dropped from 54.1 percent in 1991 to 45.6 percent in 2001.
The reasons teens are embracing virginity are as hard to pinpoint as the next hot fashion trend. Faith, open discussions with parents and/or relatives and abstinence-based programs in school may all play a role.
Many schools and social services are trying to spread the word that sexual abstinence is cool. U.S. federal rules require that all schools teach HIV prevention both in middle school and high school. Many schools offer abstinence-based sex-education classes in addition to those mandatory lessons.
While there is agreement that abstinence is the only surefire way to prevent the three epidemics facing todays youth, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, the individual programs that districts select to teach about abstinence have caused concern for allegedly incorporating political agendas.
Sources: Monterey County Herald, February 9, 2003, Abstinence Education Update, February 11, 2003, and Christianity Today, March 2003
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