Church Relevance blog reports on David Kinnaman’s (president of The Barna Group) presentation on how young non-Christians perceive Christianity.

Non-Christians aged 16-29 years old were asked, “What is your current perception of Christianity?”

• 91% said antihomosexual
• 87% said judgmental
• 85% said hypocritical
• 78% said old-fashioned
• 75% said too involved in politics
• 72% said out of touch with reality
• 70% said insensitive to others

Not surprisingly 84% of non-Christians are friends with Christians, but 15% say the lifestyle of the Christians is not different.

This is the context where you minister. I know that deal with this point of view is difficult; but we only overcome it through relationships; one person at a time. The only reason this mindset exists is because they do not know YOU.

A new book Beyond Megachurch Myths is being hyped by the Christian Post,

Megachurches together have the same number of attendees at weekly services (roughly 4.5 million) as the smallest 35 percent of churches in the country, wrote Scott Thumma and Dave Travis in Beyond Megachurch Myths.

There is nothing really new to report here; but I just wanted to to encourage those of you who engage in weekly ministry.  This discussion is frankly inside baseball. It has little to do with actual ministry because whether you serve in a megachurch or a small rural church or in a rented basement; ministry is small.

Ministry is about small details. Remembering to follow through and keeping commitments. It is about genuinely caring and serving. If you serve in a church of 3,000 you still deal with small groups of people. So every one who works in the trenches of weekly ministry is in the same boat.

Take away

The big take away here is never think it is easier for people serving in big churches. And those in big churches remember that ministry is small. Successes are small. Successes are incremental. Focus on the people you serve, do it well for the glory of God.

Despite all the growth in online spiritual content (including blogs like this one), Book Industry Trends reports that religious books increased 5.6% in net revenue for 2006 and the religion segment showed the highest growth in dollar sales.