Grace Maricopa

The Researcher

Dr. George Barna is a U.S. researcher, author, and professor best known for his long-running work on religion, culture, and worldview in America. He is the founder of the Barna Group, established in 1984, a firm that became widely cited for its national surveys on faith, beliefs, values, and social trends. Today, Dr. Barna serves as a professor, Director of Research, and co-founder of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University.

The Research

Recent research from Dr. Barna has revealed a shocking reality and what he describes as a clear failure of the Christian Church to fulfill it's mission. Dr.Barna's research shows that many church leaders and church attenders exhibit little to no alignment with biblical beliefs and behaviors. He identifies the root cause of this misalignment as a lack of discipleship in the American church.

Barna further states that there is a substantial body of evidence demonstrating that the ministries of many local churches are failing to produce genuine spiritual growth by introducing people to core biblical principles that form a biblical worldview. He notes that the majority of an individual's worldview is formed before the age of thirteen, pointing to the failure of parents and children's ministries, which often do little more than entertain children and youth.

Although the evidence of ministry failure in the spiritual formation of children is concerning, it is not nearly as alarming as the statistics Barna presented regarding adults. Barna reports that only 4% of Americans possess a biblical worldview, while just 10% of Americans are even leaning toward one. This means that a staggering 85% of Americans-- including many who self-report as regularly attending church-- do not hold a biblical worldview. Barna also reports that since 2020, the percentage of regularly church attenders who hold a biblical worldview has declined sharply, leaving only about 2% with a biblical worldview.

When asked, Barna identifies one possible reason for this sharp decline, Barna identifies the perceived hypocrisy of the parents within the household as a significant factor. He concludes that when parents to claim to prioritize Christian faith and the worship of Jesus, yet demonstrate a greater commitment to worldly events and activities-- such as sports and entertainment-- through their use of time and money, they teach their children through their actions not to trust them on matters of faith. As a result, children come to believe their parents are as confused about spiritual matters as they are.

However, Barna ultimately traces the root of this failure to a lack of sound biblical teaching in both Christian schools and the Church. Christian schools often lack quality biblical education and fail to help students to bridge Christian values with current cultural events and discussions. Pastors are also found to be lacking. Barna argues that Pastoral ministry is more than preaching a sermon; it is a ministry philosophy and practice that incorporates discipleship into the core purpose and mission of the church.

The Response

Foreseeing this spiritual decline and increasing biblical illiteracy, our church has intentional taken steps to strengthen our Grace Groups in order to unify our church and make disciples. During our Ministry Leadership meeting in March, I presented a new structure for our church-wide discipleship. Beginning in May 2026, all of our Grace Groups and Children's Ministry will move to a unified curriculum, The Gospel Project.

The Gospel Project is a theologically rich, Christ-centered discipleship program that will unify our church as all ages-- from children to adults-- study the same biblical passages and biblical principles each week. This approach will foster unified spirtual growth within our church while also equipping parents to engage in meaningful, theological conversations with their children throughout the week.

A couple short videos about The Gospel Project can be found on YouTube here and here.

The Reason

Christ's final instruction to His followers-- a pericope known as the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)-- centers on making disciples, not merely on securing decisions for Christianity. Nevertheless, this command remains largely unfulfilled. In fact, most Christians cannot identify a single disciple they have made or are currently developing, not even ONE.

The gap between the command of Jesus and the practice of Christians today reveals the reason why Grace Maricopa must invest deeply in discipleship. Developing disciples must be the church's primary focus-- an investment that yields lasting kingdom results as authentic discipleship reaches outward into the community, evangelizing, converting, and then training new believers in the truth of God's word and in how to disciple others. When the members of Grace Maricopa embrace this responsibility, they align the church with Christ's central mission and actively participate in building a spiritually healthy congregation.

Your Response

If you haven't yet, join or start a Grace Group. Begin a lifelong practice of making disciples, strengthening churches, and changing communities for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Post tenebras lux,

Pastor Dan | Ps. 46

Attached to this month's newsletter is a link to our church's official Spotify playlist which has all the music we sing (or will sing eventually) on rotation. If you want to get to know the songs we have in our catalogue faster, we encourage you to listen in! Also, a Youtube playlist with the same music is forthcoming.

As always, our church is seeking out volunteer help for the worship team. This is a vital part of our church's mission, and we want to provide current team members with a rotation to help give them some weeks off. If you want to volunteer in this ministry, please reach out to Pastor Zachary for more details.

(Short devotional on a song we will be singing for Easter)

His Robes for Mine, by Chris Anderson

Hymns need not be old to be classified as hymns, nor to be of such rich value to the church. Such is the case of this song, His Robes for Mine, written by Chris Anderson in 2004. Anderson himself served as a pastor for 25 years before stepping into leadership of a Christian publication company. He is also a hymn writer, having penned fifty songs.

His Robes for Mine was written as a reflection of the doctrine of God's justification of those who have faith in Him. The first verse is as follows: "His robes for mine: oh, wonderful exchange! Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered 'neath God's rage. Draped in his righteousness, I'm justified. In Christ I live, for in my place he died." Speaking of the "Great Exchange" as Martin Luther called it, the wonder of the cross is that God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in Him, we may become the righteousness of God (2Cor.5:21). Christ Jesus, as though he were a wicked sinner, suffered on the cross, and not merely the persecutions of the Romans and revilings of His own people, the Jews. No, Christ Jesus suffered so much more than that when the pure fury of God's judgment against sin was poured on Him. The hymn in verse three says "Christ drank God's wrath on sin, then cried, "'Tis done!" Sin's wage is paid; propitiation won." And yet, because Christ's sacrifice pleased the Father, death had no right to claim Him. The infinite debt of our sin was swallowed up by the eternal worth of the Son of God, and to prove it without a shadow of a doubt, Jesus Christ rose from the dead! Thus was God's eternal seal on our verdict rendered "not guilty", and Christ proved it by slaying the enemy of death. We praise God for this, a wonderful mystery beyond human words!