Barna confirms what we all know

A recent Barna survey confirms what one can also see by personal observation. While many areas of life, such as morality and service, are greatly impacted by Christian faith in America today, others, such as finances and entertainment, show little difference between the churched and the unchurched:

"The three behaviors associated with finances and spending choices - boycotting products, buying lottery tickets, and gambling - produced no differences between the churched and unchurched. The only difference based on people's faith commitment was that non-born again adults were marginally more likely than born agains to have purchased a lottery ticket in the past week (24% vs. 17%, respectively)."

"There was no discernible difference in their likelihood of giving money to a poor person whom they met."

George Barna, who directed the research, comments "It seems that areas of life most clearly related to religious beliefs, such as moral behavior and serving the needs of disadvantaged people, are somewhat affected by involvement in church or through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The data also show, however, that areas of life that are less overtly associated with people's religious beliefs - dimensions such as economics, political influence or entertainment choices - may not be impacted by their faith. People need more help in determining how their faith speaks to life issues beyond the obvious connections."

We have experienced the same gap between biblical teaching and practical impact among many of those who contact us for counseling or resources. This is why I decided to preach a series dealing specifically and practically with the subject of money.