Ignoring the Power of the Culture: Very Costly, Especially to the Church

Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Guest: Dr. George Barna

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 3/27/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Sam Rohrer:

Hello and welcome to this Friday edition of Stand in the Gap Today. And it’s also our monthly emphasis on culture, values and biblical world of view. Our special guest, as always, on this focus is Dr. George Barna. He is a professor at the moment at Arizona Christian University where he’s also the director of research at the Cultural Research Center there at Arizona Christian. This week, the Cultural Research Center directed by Dr. Barna has just released the second report of 2026 under the general category, which we’ve talked about before entitled American Worldview Inventory. And the reference of this report, which you can freely access at their website, I’m going to give you that site, culturalresearchcenter.com. You can find this report and all the reports that has been done. It’s report number two. It’s entitled American Worldview Inventory Report number two. In the report title under that description, it says this, “New research shows that even committed Christians struggle with application as overwhelming majority of US adults lack biblical roots.” And it’s this title in the substance that led me to title the focus of this program today, that of being ignoring the power of the culture very costly, especially to the church.

So there’s just a few thoughts to kind of seed the ground as we prepare and move into today’s program. And because of the volume of the information in this report and the importance that all God-fearing people grasp the findings of this research, I want to bring in right now Dr. George Barna who conducted the research upon which this report is based. And with that, George, thanks for being back again. It’s always a highlighter of the month when you’re here.

George Barna:

Well, Sam, it’s great to be back with you. Although I have to say, when you introduced me as a professor at Arizona Christian University, at the moment, it started me wondering what does he know about my tenure there that I don’t. I can’t wait to find out.

Sam Rohrer:

You are a funny one because as soon as that came out, I thought, oh, I know that that’s going to imply like I know something George doesn’t. Ladies and gentlemen, it is not. That’s just the way it came out. So no, I don’t know anything, but you are currently there as a professor. Just out of curiosity, you’ve never said, how many days are you in the classroom or how many students are you dealing with this year?

George Barna:

For the sake of the students, as infrequently as possible, most of my time is working with students individually through independent studies and different projects and internships, things of that nature. And I do a lot of guest lectures. I speak in chapel. I do all that. So yeah, I mean, they’ve seen more than enough of me.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, I don’t hardly think so. You’re a very humble guy, but I’m just kind of curious, I think it probably helps our listeners to know about some of that. Anyway, so let’s get right into it because last month when you were with Dr. Isaac Crockett and I, and Isaac’s not here today, he’s gone at an event with his family, but we dealt with the first report for 2026. And in that report, you shared that only 4% of American adults possess a biblical worldview. That was a shocking number. And what that means is that this very small percentage, 4%, is what you’re saying, then that 4% generally think and live biblically. Now, while it was good news when you shared that, that this percentage remained unchanged from 2023, it was nonetheless a two thirds or a 66% drop from what it was in 2020 where the percentage was 6%.

So I’m looking at today and I put together the report and I’m saying, “This is amazing.” So if you could, could you summarize briefly the implications of this 4%, which by on the converse side says that 96% of all Americans do not possess and therefore think decisions and live reflective of a biblical worldview. Put it that way, that’s an astounding number. And then walk into the focus of report number two and how it connects with report one. Can you do that please?

George Barna:

Yeah, sure, Sam. I mean, the biggest issue here is that, remember this, you do what you believe. And so the reason why having a biblical worldview is so important isn’t because it means that you know more about the Bible, you can win Bible quizzes and so forth. It’s important because if you do what you believe, you can’t live like Jesus unless you think like Jesus and a biblical worldview means that you can think like Jesus. So this is really not even so much about just knowing more of the Bible, having a full biblical worldview, it’s about becoming a disciple of Jesus. That’s why all this matters. And when you look in the Bible, you study the Bible, you find that there were six times when Jesus said for us you-

Sam Rohrer:

And we have lost George there. Sometimes that happens on live programs. We’ll see if we can reconnect with him momentarily, but if you’re just tuning in, I’m talking with Dr. George Barna today and we are reporting and sharing what is referred to as report number two. Generally about once a month, the Cultural Research Center there at Arizona Christian University that Dr. George Barna is the director of, produces reports based on George’s survey work, which he’s done now for 12 or 40 years. And we generally, we’ve tried to for the last many, many years, actually break this information on this. So George, I guess we’ve got you back here now. If you could pick up where you left off, if you remember where that was.

George Barna:

Yeah. I’m not sure when apparently the phone line dropped.

Sam Rohrer:

Well, you were just beginning to talk about report number two and how it links with what you found in report one.

George Barna:

Okay. So the whole key here is that you want a biblical worldview because we do what we believe and so a biblical worldview would suggest that we believe the same things that Jesus did and because of that, then we have the opportunity to become a disciple of his. So that’s why this is so critical. And yet, when we look, for instance, among all adults in America, only four out of every 100, 4% have that biblical worldview. If we look at people who regularly attend Christian church services, it’s only 6%. We look at people who attend Bible believing, evangelical churches, only 11%, one out of 10 people. So we’ve got a long way to go here. And if we look at it generationally, only 1% of the people in Gen Z, only 2% of the people in the millennial generation have a biblical worldview. That’s critical because you can’t get what you don’t have.

So as the primary parenting generations in America, the chances of them raising up disciples, young people who are going to develop that biblical worldview is minimal. It’s lower than it’s ever been. And so this is really important information for us to understand and to address in our own lives and in our churches, our families, and our personal ministries.

Sam Rohrer:

All right, ladies and gentlemen, you get the idea. Stay with us. Our focus today is this, ignoring the power of the culture, impact wise, very costly, especially to the church. Because if you imagine, and think about 4% only have a biblical worldview, how much salt and light, well, how much is there impacting the culture? All right, we’ll build that out in the next segment. We’ll have George share the findings, what actually was found in this report. Then we’ll talk about strategies to reverse what’s taking place, and then we’ll make individual application in the last segment. Well, today here on Stand in the Gap today, our theme is this, ignoring the power of the culture very costly, especially in the church. You say, “What in the world’s that about? ” What we’re dealing with, Dr. George Barna is the guest today again. And as we’ve done for a long time, as I mentioned in the first segment, reports, surveys, not so much surveys, but research with reports are done by Dr. George Barna and now at the Culture Research Center at Arizona Christian and reports not every month, but most months a report comes out and you can find all of them on the website at culturalresearchcenter.com.

And I would encourage you to go there. Regardless of who you are, if you have any interest at all, finding a report, looking through it, and then if you coordinate that with this program where we try to explain each of these, it’s a tremendous asset and a tool. So I’d encourage you to do that. Now, that being the case, let’s move on to it here because according to your report number two overview, George, what we’re talking about today, you say this in the first two paragraphs, I’m just going to quote that just to help to establish things appropriately here. You say this, “Even the nation’s most biblically grounded Christians struggle to fully apply scriptural principles in their lives, especially when it comes to thorny social issues such as marriage, family, and the sanctity of life.” You go on to say, “According to new national research, these challenges are not limited to contemporary hot button issues.

Similar worldview weaknesses are emerging among biblically aligned believers in essential theological areas, such as understanding God, the basics of creation and biblical history.” George, then you write in your report, number two, you go on, you say this, and I’ll ask you to put it all together. You say this, “The second report digs more deeply into these overall worldview levels with the hope of identifying strengths and weaknesses in the worldview development of American adults.” So here’s my question. Could you share now an overview of how you measured the strengths and weaknesses that you identified in American adults and then identify what you consider to be perhaps the greatest identified strength and the most significant weakness that has contributed to, I want to say this very measly 4% of American adults who hold a biblical worldview. Well,

George Barna:

Sure. Saying when we do the research, we’re looking at a broad range of core biblical principles, beliefs and the behaviors that come from those beliefs. And as we look at these things, I mean, in our current research, we’re looking at 53 different elements of a person’s worldview that we’ve been tracking since 2020. And so we’re measuring it consistently over the course of time so that we can talk about real changes that are happening in beliefs and behavior. And all of those questions fall within eight different categories of measurement. And so there are categories like purpose and calling, faith practices, beliefs and behaviors related to Bible truth and morals, another category, human character and human nature, another one has to do with lifestyle behavior, personal relationships, another one has to do with sin, salvation, and your relationship with God. Another category is understanding God, creation and history.

The eighth one is family and the value of life. And so we have questions related to both beliefs and behaviors in all eight of those categories. And we’ve been measuring these, as I mentioned now for all the years since 2020 when we started this national process. And what we’ve found is that currently the strongest category is this one of purpose and calling, knowing for instance, that we’re here to know, love and serve God and to glorify him with all of our strength, all our might, et cetera. But then the other category that does very well is that of faith practices. Now this one’s interesting because what we find is that, yeah, people are doing a lot of faith practices that scripturally we’re called to, but we’re also discovering that in spite of all that activity, there’s a lot of emptiness in some of that activity.

So for instance, there might be a pretty strong proportion of people who regularly attend church, but when we look at those people attending those services, what we often find is, but they don’t really have a deep, meaningful relationship with God. They don’t really understand what worship is, that kind of connection, that intimate connection with God, where we praise and thank him and so forth. There’s not much in the way of personal confession going on. So there’s this imbalance in that particular category, for instance, we’ll see. Yeah, there’s a lot of religious activity, but a lot of it appears to be kind of rote activity. It doesn’t have the depth of the relationship and the commitment behind it that you would hope it would. Now, if we go to the bottom end of the continuum, we find that the category where Americans, including Christians and even people with the biblical worldview, are weakest in is the category of family and the value of life.

So that has to do with things like abortion and marriage, sexual behavior and so forth. So this is what we measure when we look at all of this. And if people take a look at the report, they can see how each of those categories fared.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. Now, when I’m looking at that, I want to go back and ask this because you say that the nation’s most biblically grounded Christians … So that’s the category. Most biblically grounded Christians struggle to fully apply scriptural principles in their lives. And then you say, especially when it comes to thorny social issues such as marriage, family, and a sanctity of life, which is what you just cited, which is actually the bottom of the list when you found there. But when I read that, I immediately thought a number of things, George, and this is one of them. What do you mean by struggle to fully apply spiritual principles? And the reason I ask that, because it would seem that if true believers, we either believe, I mean, we either obey biblical commands and apply scriptural principles or we don’t. So why’d you put in the adjective, fully apply?

George Barna:

Oh, as I was alluding to, you can take any of those quote unquote thorny social issues and look at them. Let’s take the whole issue of marriage. So on the one hand, one of the things we measure is what people think marriage is. And with a lot of people who call themselves Christians or who regularly attend church services or who would be what we would call theologically identified born again Christians, they have a biblical worldview that suggests, yes, marriage is only one man to one woman. It’s not two men to each other, two women to each other, three people aligning however they wish. No, it’s one man to one woman and that that’s God’s only plan for all people across all cultures, but then we’ll find the inconsistency when we look at, but what do you believe about sexuality, sexual behavior? Because we’ll find a lot of the people who get it right related to marriages, one man to one woman will also say, but it’s morally acceptable for a man and a woman to have sexual relations with each other, even if they’re not married as long as at that time, they’re both willing contributors to that.

So that’s not biblical. So on the one hand, you’ve got people say, “Yeah, they understand marriage, but on the other hand, they don’t understand, but that also brings limits to the kind of relationships that you have with people of the other sex, whether that’s sexual or financial or however that may be. ” So this is what I’m driving at. It’s that, you know what, we’ve got people giving right answers here and there, wrong answers more frequently and so why is that? Partly it’s ignorance, partly it’s inconsistency, partly it’s just willful rejection of God’s truth.

Sam Rohrer:

Okay. All right. Now I have a logical follow up question. I think it’s a logical followup question to that. We’re still talking about the 4% who hold a biblical worldview, right? Is that who we’re talking about when you say they may agree that marriage yes is one man, one woman, but they don’t have a problem with sexual relations between two people who are not married. Is that what you’re saying?

George Barna:

No, that’s not the integrated disciples, the people who have a biblical worldview. These are people in categories such as emergent followers. People-

Sam Rohrer:

Not the 4%. In other words, that 4% number established, those would be what you’re calling integrated disciples. They’d be the genuine group. Is that what you’re saying?

George Barna:

Yes. Although here’s the asterisk to that. Even integrated disciples are imperfect. We find almost nobody that we interview who answers all of the questions biblically. All of us are sinners. All of us are really struggling to put this all together. And so even the people who have a biblical worldview, when we put them in that category, that means they answer 80% or more of the beliefs, belief related questions, and 80% or more of the behavioral related questions in a biblical manner. It doesn’t mean that they’re perfect. If we went with perfection, we would have virtually nobody in America who had that kind of a worldview.

Sam Rohrer:

See, that’s interesting. Boy, I can’t follow up too much because we’re going into the break here at this point. But George, this is very enlightening. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that this kind of wets your appetite a little bit because when you think about it and we’re going to work it through, these are profound pieces of information, but the application of it, the implications are what really are remarkable when you begin to think about this. And then we come back and we’re going to talk about some of the strategies based on these findings that George has come up with about how to reverse, well, this further declension that obviously it’s apparent on its face. We’ve got an issue and it’s within the church. All right, George, let’s go back and continue in your report. Ladies and gentlemen, again, we’re talking about its report number two, and it’s the second in the series this year dealing with American Worldview Inventory, and you can find it at culturalresearchcenter.com.

All right. In your report, George, I’ve been reading through that after citing the findings, some of which you have just highlighted, you went on and you said this, “The research provides us with a roadmap of how to raise the discipleship potential of American adults. Very few adults presently own a biblical worldview, but the survey also shows that with some commitment and very focused mentoring, millions of Americans could certainly develop a biblical worldview.” All right, based on this statement that leads to the whole concept of application, because we’ve talked about it before, valid research is only actionable if somebody takes and does something with it. And partly, a lot of research is not done honestly, therefore it produces maybe something that the one who does it wants to try improve. That’s not what you do. You base your surveys and you do your work objectively, not going in with some preconceived notion, and therefore it puts it in a different category.

And that’s why I’ve talked to many people, George, and I’ve shared some of these, what reports have said. And even certain Christian people I’ve talked to said, “Oh, well, you know what? That’s pretty hard sounding information. I can’t believe it. And it’s not that way in my church, or it’s not that way with where I’ve been. So therefore, it’s not right.” And I’ve gone back and said, “Wait a minute, no, no, no, no, no. This is national research. This is George Barna who has done it. I know him. I know his commitment and this is valid.” Now the point is, what do we do with it? Now that’s a question I’d like you to answer at some point because it’s interesting and maybe you work it in here, but the point being valid research. It’s like to me, like James says, looking at oneself in the mirror and then walking away unchanged.

If we look at what the word of God says and we walk away and we’re not changed, then what in the world are we doing? Same way I think with quality research like this. So application becomes important. Now all that being said, can you describe the roadmap that you referred to here to raising the discipleship potential of American adults and what that actually means? What’s that mean? And because you did not say, I noted this, because you did not say, “We’ll increase the level and depth of true biblical discipleship.” For example, but you said just raise the discipleship potential. All right, I thought that was some wordsmithing there that I wasn’t quite sure what it meant. Can you explain that?

George Barna:

Well, sure. I mean, we could talk for hours about this, but the issue here is that we measure worldview because we want people to have a biblical worldview so they can think like Jesus, which then enables them to act like Jesus because you do what you believe. And when you think and act like Jesus, that enables you to become his disciple because a disciple is someone who imitates the master and so if you think and behave like the master, you become their disciple. That’s what we want is disciples and certainly Jesus called us to be disciples and recognize that the only people who can make disciples are disciples. Why? Because you reproduce who you are. And so we want people who are going to be Christlike so that when they reproduce themselves, they’ll be like Jesus. And so when we look at this kind of information, what I’m trying to point out here is that we’ve got issues because number one, we don’t have very many disciples, maybe 3% of the adult population.

And then even when we look at the disciples, as we do partly in this report, what we find is that disciples have deficiencies in their worldview. Now, it tends to be biblical overall, but remember, you can only give what you have. You reproduce who you are. And so if that’s the case and your worldview isn’t fully aligned with what the Bible teaches, you’re going to be passing on some non-biblical stuff and passing it off as if it were biblical. That’s dangerous. That’s not what we want happening here. And so in part of the report, I’ve got a table in there where it shows with people who are biblically defined disciples, because there were six times in the scripture where Jesus said, “You do these things, you will be my disciple. If you don’t do these things, you can’t be my disciple.” When we operationalize those in the survey to identify, well, who are the biblical disciples?

Then we look at their worldview. We find that yes, it’s typically a biblical worldview, but it’s not a perfect biblical worldview. And so where are they missing the boat most frequently and we identify the areas there.

So that’s part of the reason why I talk about potential. The other reason has to do with our churches. Our churches in America, based on all the research I’ve been doing now for 40 years, are less and less focused on actually facilitating the development, not only of a biblical worldview, we don’t do that, but also we’re not focused on the development of disciples. Now that’s not to say that we don’t offer discipleship programs. It’s not to say that we don’t encourage people to take notes when we preach things from the Bible, but that’s not necessarily making a disciple. Making disciples are based on relationships. It’s based on a long-term commitment. It’s based on investing a lot of time every week. It’s based on having a plan. It’s based on Socratic dialogue. It’s based on accountability and Bible study. I mean, all of those things, which really don’t have anything to do with whether or not you win the attendance pin a church or you’ve got the certificate for completing the discipleship program.

Our research finds that there’s shockingly little relationship between people having completed discipleship programs in churches and actually being disciples based on the six factors that Jesus gave us for who are going to be his disciples. So that’s why I talk here about potential. It’s not just about raw activity, it’s not just about good intentions, it’s about doing the things that the scriptures outline for us on how do you make a disciple. If you’re ever in question, just go back and look at what Jesus did where he took 12 yahoos out of the desert and he made them into his disciples by investing three years of relationship and time and study and shared experiences and accountability and criticism and appreciation, all of those things, that’s what goes into making a disciple.

Sam Rohrer:

And let me follow up and ask you this question as well, because as I was reading some of the report, George, I had a thought that, well, is it a problem that people don’t have the knowledge or is it that they just simply don’t choose to obey all the way through the scripture. Scripture says, fear God and keep his commandments. So having the possession of knowledge, but just simply not choosing to do it, all right, that’s a problem. So in reality it’s probably both of those two, but are we dealing with more of a knowledge issue or a free will aspect of just saying, “I’m not going to do what I do know.

George Barna:

” Well, it is certainly both, at least based on the research I’ve been doing. On the one hand, we are a biblically illiterate people here in America. We own more Bibles than any other country in the world, but we don’t really know what’s in them. And it’s not just the biblical literacy, it’s the application of what we are illiterate about. We need to understand those things, but then we need to take them and build a lifestyle around them. And so that has to do with accountability and relationship. As I’m suggesting, discipleship isn’t just about memorizing biblical content and verses and principles. It’s about that knowing, but it’s also about the doing, and that goes back to where James in 2:17 talks about faith without works being dead. And so that’s why I think this research is important. It starts to identify for us. Okay, what are our blind spots biblically speaking?

We’re exposed to a lot. We take a lot of notes in church, but it’s not being brought together into a way of living. And so for instance, when we look at that middle category, the emergent followers, the people who are leaning toward having a biblical worldview, but they don’t have one now, what are they most missing the boat on? Well, things related to absolute moral truth, that that’s what the Bible is. God is the core of truth, the source of all truth. He downloaded it to us in his word. Things like believing that people are good. We’re not, we’re sinners. Things like thinking, if you’re good enough, you can earn heaven. You can never earn heaven. And if you think that, you’ve just denied the value of Jesus dying on the cross for you. Things like believing that the Holy Spirit is not just a symbol of God’s power and presence and purity, but the Holy Spirit is a real force, a living force that should be guiding you in your life.

So it’s all of these kinds of things that we’re talking about and more that we’re alluding to in this report.

Sam Rohrer:

George, that’s fantastic information right there. And ladies and gentlemen, the thought that comes to my mind, hopefully this comes to your as well, is that what do I believe? And is what I believe consistent with God’s word? And then if it is, am I doing it? Well, I mean, that’s a question that we should be asking ourselves and we’re going to come back. We’re going to conclude by saying, all right, now with all this information there, in part, what should the God-fearing person, you like me listening to this program, how should we take this information and actually use it? As we enter into our final segment here, again, just a reminder that this report that we’re dealing with today is called report number two, and it’s in the American Worldview Inventory Series here, 2026. Dr. George Barna oversaw that research and all of it that we present here generally once a month, but you can find the report and past ones as well at culturalresearchcenter.com.

There’s really no research out there that measures the values of people in America as long as been 40 years, not this particular series we’re talking about here that’s been since I think you said George 2020. But measuring attitudes and values of Americans generally, nobody has done that to this extent and for this long. And so it’s really just a wealth. It’s a gold mine of information. The question is, what will we do with it? And George, as you have said, and I now sigh with frequency, that when you have identified serious findings such as in the report we’re talking about, that produces serious conclusions. But then the question, I think you’re the first one who raised it on this program, and that’s what I say many times to others, you ask the question then of, well, what difference does it make? And I think that’s a great question because if we’re spending time talking about something, it doesn’t really make any difference, why waste the time on it?

But we haven’t wasted time here today and neither of you in doing this, so be frank here, but what difference does it make when only 4% of Americans hold a biblical worldview and many of them even struggle to live by basic biblical principles. What does this say? What difference does it make?

George Barna:

One would be, well, so what is our purpose? Why are we here? Well, if we’re here to know love and serve God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul and to glorify him in everything we do, then the question becomes, well, how can we do that if we don’t even embrace the ways of thinking and living that he’s given to us? And that’s what this 4% holding a biblical worldview really alludes to. The fact that at least 96% of Americans currently are not living for God. They’re living for themselves. They’re viewing life through their lens, rather than viewing it through a biblical lens. Those two sets of glasses, if you will, give us completely different visions of what living is all about. And so when I look at research like this, you’re right. I mean, I always, before we even put the questionnaire in the field, I try to imagine the responses that we’re going to get, the kinds of answers, the range of responses that we might receive and say, “All right, let’s say it was 30% of this, 60% of that, 22% to this.

So what? ” And if there’s not a good answer to what we can do with it, I have to take that question out of the

Sam Rohrer:

Survey

George Barna:

Because it’s maybe interesting, but if I can’t apply it in my life or in the life of a culture or a church or a family, then it’s a waste of my time. So when I look at this information, one of the things that it’s telling me is that, you know what, strategically, we are at such a low point of obedience to God and connection to God, that each of us needs to go back and reexamine everything. We’ve got to look at the institutions that we relate to, the relationships that we have, the lifestyle that defines us. And so if we look at institutions, I’ve got to look at my church, my family, what’s being taught, what’s being modeled, what’s being done, the actual activities and behaviors, what are the expectations, what kind of accountability exists. Those are the basic things that I need to look at to figure out, am I becoming the person that Jesus died on the cross for?

Am I putting myself in situations, in contexts, in relationships that will raise me up to be more Christlike? And if not, I’ve got to ask myself, well, then why am I embedded in that relationship? Am I doing things consistently that represent Christ well, that are consistent with the Bible, that are growing me as a disciple of Jesus? Because ultimately, I’m not called to be the employee of the month. I’m not called to be the most popular neighbor in the cul-de-sac. I’m called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. That might be aided by popularity or by excellence at work. But first and foremost, the calling is that I’d be a disciple. And if I am a disciple, then I’ve got to be making a disciples. It’s not something that I hide, that I don’t want other people to know, or that I don’t want being challenged.

I want it to be out there, front and center, so that people can see it. They can ask questions about it. They can even criticize me over it, which gives me an opportunity to dialogue with them about these things. So that’s critical. So what difference does it make that only 4% have a biblical worldview? Well, those of us who have the biblical worldview need to recognize this is our Esther moment. This is our time. We are here for such a time as this.

It’s a time when America desperately needs its believers to stand up and to not only be Christlike, but to be doing everything we can to help other people become Christlike. It’s a time for us to be looking at the faith community that we’re part of, our local church, whether that’s a conventional church, a house church, whatever it may be, and to be asking tough questions as to whether or not we are doing the things that are building biblical worldviews so that people can think like Jesus and then holding them accountable for those thoughts in their behaviors so that they can act like Jesus, so that in other words, they become disciples and then we’re sending them out to make additional disciples. That’s what this whole thing is supposed to be. And I would suggest that this would be a great time in American history for churches to consider a top to bottom overhaul where we no longer play the religious game as usual, but we go back and we study what the early church just spend months in the book of Acts trying to figure out who were they?

How did they do this? What happened? How did they respond? How can we be like that? Because it says in there that Jesus was adding huge numbers to those churches daily. Why? Because those people bucked the culture. Those people were trying to be like Jesus. They were so drawn to him. They wanted to be Christlike.

Our churches have to be pushing people that way and we’ve got to start with children. We can’t be so focused on the adults that we forget the children. A person’s worldview develops before the age of 13. If we want someone to be a disciple, their worldview is the core of it, and that means we’ve got to be focusing on children.

Sam Rohrer:

I think that’s excellent, George. And even there, we could go so much further on it, but even in early church, we know that they went out and they turned the world upside down by the way they lived. But even here in the last little bit, as believers, disciples of Jesus Christ, should our goal be to change the culture or is the change to the culture a natural result of being a biblical disciple?

George Barna:

First, if you are not transformed by Christ, there isn’t any chance that you’re going to transform the culture for Christ. So it’s got to start with you. How are you going to change the world? Well, you’re probably not going to have the megaphone to reach everybody, but you can reach somebody. And so you start with those individuals that God puts in your life and through the cumulative transformation that takes place in each of us, we will be the change that the culture needs. Thank

Sam Rohrer:

You, Dr. George Barna. Thanks for being with us today. Ladies and gentlemen, you can pick up this report, report number two, culturalresearchcenter.com. And think about this as we go out. If you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ, truly born again, does anybody around you know that? If they don’t, we ought to look in the mirror again because they ought to know that we are a child of God.