'Shocking' New Poll: Only 37 Percent of U.S. Pastors Hold a Biblical Worldview

Christian Headlines ^ | 5/13/22 | Michael Foust

[Roman_War_Criminal]

A majority of Christian pastors in the United States do not hold a biblical worldview, according to surprising new research from pollster George Barna, who says the data shows a spiritual awakening is “needed just as desperately in our pulpits as in the pews.”

The survey, released Thursday by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, shows that only 37 percent of pastors in the U.S. hold a biblical worldview.

Among senior/lead pastors, 41 percent possess a biblical worldview – the highest percentage within the sub-groups of pastors. Less than one-third of associate/assistant pastors (28 percent), teaching pastors (13 percent) and children’s/youth pastors (12 percent) hold a biblical worldview, the data found.

An accompanying report labeled the findings “shocking.”

“This is another strong piece of evidence that the culture is influencing the American church more than Christian churches are influencing the culture,” said Barna, director of research at the university’s Cultural Research Center.

[SaveFerris]

Yep

And the False Prophet

He causes ALL

Except those who refuse - Revelation 20:4

[delchiante]

Good question

I was thinking more Days of Noah and Days of Lot ‘world view’ myself.
Prophecy in these days..

It seems the survey is taking the temperature of modern pastors and how bible centered they are in their own little worlds..

I’d love a copy of the questions..

:)

[BillyBoy]

>> Defining such a worldview as believing that absolute moral truth exists, that it is based upon the Bible, and having a biblical view on six core beliefs (the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, the literal existence of Satan, the omnipotence and omniscience of God, salvation by grace alone, and the personal responsibility to evangelize) <<

Hmmm.

It's a rigged poll, using theology specific to one particular brand of Christianity. Going by their definition of "biblical worldwide", EVERY single Catholic AND Orthodox Christian pastor in the entire USA would fall into the category of "not holding a biblical worldview", even if the are outspoken proponents of the other five criteria on the list.

I'm surprised they managed get as HIGH as 37% with the way they worded those questions. I would have guessed about 12% of Christian pastors would answer all 6 "correctly".

Might as well do a similar "poll" asking protestant pastors if they literally believe that wine and bread at communion turn into the body and blood and Jesus, and then announce that less than 1% of protestant pastors "believe in a biblical worldview"

[T. P. Pole]

Thanks for that link. Very interesting information there.

[high info voter]

"Hagee? Cornerstone Church is one of those congregations who love Jews more than Jesus."

You should try reading the bible. It says in the end times the "two sticks" will reunite.

God doesn't lie.

[Wallace T.]

This poll generates a shock headline, but nothing in the way of methodology. What sample size was used? Was this a pan-Protestant survey. or was it weighted in favor of one group, like mainline churches? What are the criteria? Bible believing, but amillennial clergy might fail if the questions were skewed to favor a premillennial viewpoint. Ditto for non-young earth creationist clergy.

Barna generates these shock polls but gives little information about their methodology.

[Albion Wilde]

Good points. Maybe the study is on their website somewhere.

[Albion Wilde]

I found it on the Barna website. Here is the study:

Pastors Share Top Reasons They’ve Considered Quitting Ministry in the Past Year

...and here is the paragraph listing the specifics:

March 2022 Pastor Survey data: Barna Group conducted this online survey among 510 Protestant Senior Pastors from March 10–16, 2022. Participants are all members of Barna Group’s Church Panel. Minimal weighting has been used to ensure the sample is representative based on denomination, region and church size.

So, it seems that they have a standing group of people who comment. Many pollsters do that, such as Neilson. But 510 is a fairly small sample. And "Protestant" is a vague term these days, as well. Most of the energy in non-RCC Christianity is with evangelicals; but even that is fuzzy, since two of the most opposite churches calling themselves "evangelical" are the ELCA and the LCMS.

The ELCA is mainly concerned with spreading the woke news, such as the much-celebrated installation of their "first trans bishop", who soon had to step down due to racism—LOL! The LCMS, on the other hand, remains sola gratia, sola fide, sola scriptura, but is sometimes criticized for strictly limiting much of its outreach to traditionally Christian causes. I, personally, am fine with them not trying to bring illegals over the border, send unmarked donations to the Middle East, refrain from proselytizing so as not to give "offense", or have kumbaya with local muslims like most of the old-line mainstream denoms, but that's just me.

[Kevmo]

I sometimes consider myself to be a panmillenialist — it’ll all pan out in the end.

[Kevmo]

I have found it useful to boil it down to one core belief: Is Jesus God Himself? And even that one gets corrupted by people who want to redefine terms in order to push their own heretical beliefs. Seen it right here on FR.

[BillyBoy]

>> This poll generates a shock headline, but nothing in the way of methodology. <<

>> What sample size was used? Was this a pan-Protestant survey. or was it weighted in favor of one group, like mainline churches? What are the criteria? <<

>> it seems that they have a standing group of people who comment. <<

Worse, as I noted in comment #63, the poll is rigged so the criteria they use for "biblical worldview" would AUTOMATICALLY EXCLUDE numerous major Christian denominations from "having a biblical worldview" simply by default.

One of the criteria listed is whether the pastor believes in "salvation by grace alone", which is an exclusively protestant belief. No Catholic pastor or Eastern Orthodox pastor in America would get that question "right" if they follow their own faith's theology, so they would be marked as "not having a biblical worldview" by this "survey", even if they are outspoken adherants of the other five criteria on the "survey". It would be like polling Americans on whether they eat hamburgers, but by "hamburgers" you only consider an "acceptable" response to be eating WHITE CASTLE hamburgers. By default, anyone who DOESN'T live in the upper Midwestern U.S. would automatically not be eating White Castle hamburgers, because there are no White Castle chains in their states. So then you'd dutifully record that they "Don't eat hamburgers" in general.

Furthermore, if we assume the pollsters therefore ONLY polled protestants pastors because of this, then the HEADLINE of the article is itself extremely misleading. I hate to break the news to the article writer, but protestants aren't even a majority of Americans (at last count, they made up about 42% of Americans), and there are millions of American Christians who attend churches with non-protestant pastors. What protestant pastors believe is not what "U.S. pastors" as a whole believe. Again, it would be no different than polling ONLY "gansta rap" artists about whether its acceptable to refer to women as "hos" in musical lyrics. If say, 83% of gansta rappers agree that it IS acceptable, you then release some shocking headline that says "83% of BLACK MUSICIANS THINK ITS OKAY TO CALL WOMEN 'HOs". Except, you didn't poll "black musicians" as a whole. You ONLY polled gangsta rappers, and simply pretended all black musicians who do a different genre of music (rock, pop, country, R&B, etc.) don't exist. Gangsta rappers by themselves would hardly be representative of what "black musicians" as a whole feel about something.

This 'poll' is useful for a "shocking headline", but upon scrutiny, not much else!

[Cronos]

Correct.

Furthermore, the questions and answers are framed only for one flavour of “Protestantism” ignoring the thousands of others, even the more conservative ones.

[BillyBoy]

Definitely not a reflection in any way of “U.S. Pastors” as a whole, which makes me wonder who the heck they “polled”?

[BillyBoy]

>> The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the seventh installment of its American Worldview Inventory Tuesday. The latest wave of research released builds on previous data that found only 37% of pastors hold a biblical worldview <<

And the last "poll" they did was totally rigged to get the results they wanted (as I noted, I'm surprised they got as HIGH as "37%" having a "biblical worldview" with the "Have you stopped beating your wife, sir?" type of biased questioning they used), so this "poll" is probably equally worthless. See my analysis of the last "poll" here:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/4063433/posts?page=63#63

>> Totally believable. Denominational pastors are behold to their denominations beliefs and practices, which in many cases can be, and many times are, non-biblical. Non-denominational are freer to hold to more biblical views. <<

I've actually found the OPPOSITE tends to be true, at least when it comes to lay people who attend "non-denominational" churches vs. lay people who attend churches with a fixed doctrine. For example, Carrie Underwood is "non-denominational" and can happily champion gay marriage in her church, because they have no set of beliefs that state otherwise. All you have to do to be a member of her church is good standing is say you "follow Jesus". Anything goes. You could probably even claim Jesus is not divine and be a good "Christian" at her "non-denominational" church.

>> They didn’t go into issues that typically divide Christians. <<

Really? Well they CERTAINLY did in the LAST "poll" that claimed "only 37%" of pastors have a "biblical worldview". It had plenty of fundamentalist protestant only criteria to give the "correct" answer in order to be "biblical". You had to accept sola scriptura and "Christ alone" protestant theology, so ANY Catholic or Orthodox pastor, no matter how devout and traditional, would AUTOMATICALLY fall into the "unbiblical" category by their "survey"

>> 2. A Catholic, a Lutheran, a Greek Orthodox, a Pentecostal might all compile a different list of "Biblical Christian" ideas. Each will perform 100% Biblical on their own list, and all the others will fall short of 100%. Yes, I'm sure Catholics are "less Biblical" by the standards of "non-denominational" pastors. But the latter are "less Biblical" by Catholic standard It also depends on the Biblical interpretation applied by those judges. Perhaps they are somehow biased. <<

Exactly my point. They cherry pick the questions and the data to get the results they want. These "polls" are worthless. In fact, as I noted above, the actual numbers probably the opposite of what they claim. A lot of self-proclaimed "nondenominational" Christians I've met or heard about don't follow the bible at all.