What Does It Mean to Live by Faith in the Service of the Fatherless?

HT: Desiring God

Most and Least Unchurched Cities

Many people wonder what U.S. city is least churched. Areas with the largest share of unchurched adults included San Francisco (44% of whom had not been to a religious worship service in the last six months), Portland, Maine (43%), Portland, Oregon (42%), Albany (42%), Boston (40%), Sacramento (40%), Seattle (40%), Spokane (39%), New York (38%), Phoenix (38%), Tucson (37%), and West Palm Beach (37%),  among 85 major cities studied by Barna Research Group based on 40,000 interviews conducted over the last 7 years.

By contrast weekly church attendance was highest among residents of Birmingham (67%), followed by Baton Rouge (62%), Salt Lake City (62%), and Huntsville (60%). In another approach to the same questions, cities with lowest share of self-identified Christians inhabited the following markets: San Francisco (68%), Portland, Oregon (71%), Portland, Maine (72%), Seattle (73%), Sacramento (73%), New York (73%), San Diego (75%), Los Angeles (75%), Boston (76%), Phoenix (78%), Miami (78%), Las Vegas (78%), and Denver (78%). Even in these cities, however, roughly three out of every four residents align with Christianity.

The cities with the highest proportion of residents who describe themselves as Christian are typically in the South, including: Shreveport (98%), Birmingham (96%), Charlotte (96%), Nashville (95%), Greenville, SC / Asheville, NC (94%), New Orleans (94%), Indianapolis (93%), Lexington (93%), Roanoke-Lynchburg (93%), Little Rock (92%), and Memphis (92%).

The research also pointed out some other interesting church engagement patterns.  Read more here.

The Sins of a Backbiter

A backbiter is a person with back trouble—not his own, but someone else’s. He is a pain in another person’s back. The word “backbite,” according to Webster, means “to say mean or spiteful things about (one absent): slander.” The word in the Hebrew from which backbite comes suggests the idea of “to play the spy.” That is, the backbiter attempts to spy out the faults and defects of another person’s life or to circulate reports unfavorable to others by low and petty remarks as well as those which may be malicious and slanderous. It is conveyed in the New Testament by the word “evil speaking” (James 4:11; 1 Peter 3:16). How is your neighbor’s back today?