Christian pollster George Barna is out with his annual list of trends in the Christian church. And, once again, the results are not very encouraging. Some of the twelve findings . . .

Although large majorities of the public claim to be “deeply spiritual” and say that their religious faith is “very important” in their life, only 15% of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as the top priority in their life.

Three out of every four teenagers have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity. Among the most common of those endeavors are using a Ouija board, reading books about witchcraft or Wicca, playing games involving sorcery or witchcraft, having a “professional” do a palm reading or having their fortune told. Conversely, during the past year fewer than three out of every ten churched teenagers had received any teaching from their church about elements of the supernatural. (At the risk of being shamefully self-promoting, my third book in The Why Files series deals exactly with these issues.)

The notion of personal holiness has slipped out of the consciousness of the vast majority of Christians. While just 21% of adults consider themselves to be holy, by their own admission large numbers have no idea what “holiness” means and only one out of every three (35%) believe that God expects people to become holy.

There are nine more equally discouraging findings. Barna seems to document Christ's claim that "few" will find an authentic relationships with God. That is discouraging!