The Rev. Rick Warren's best sellers The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church have emerged as the two most helpful books to pastors in the United States, according to a survey conducted by the Barna Group Ltd, a Christian research organisation based in Ventura, California.
In the survey, pastors were asked to name the three books they regarded as most helpful to them as a ministry leader during the past three years.
According to the survey, one out every five senior pastors named The Purpose Driven Life as the most helpful book they have read in the last three years. It was found also that the larger a pastor's church was, the more likely that cleric was to include this best-seller among their top three. Furthermore, the research showed that the book had twice the appeal among pastors who are Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964) in contrast to pastors who are Baby Busters (born
1965-1983).
findings
These findings have been posted on the Barna website, www.barna.org in an article entitled: Survey Reveals The Books and Authors That Have Most Influenced Pastors. The research was the product of telephone interviews done across the United States in December 2004. A total of 614 pastors of Protestant churches were
interviewed.
Not far behind The Purpose Driven Life was The Purpose Driven Church. Here 15 per cent of pastors described that volume as most helpful. The appeal of The Purpose Driven Church was consistent across all pastoral age groups, except for the Baby Bust pastors among whom only three per cent said it was a most helpful book.
recognition
"The rest of the list of invaluable books was a broad selection of more than 200 other titles. Only seven additional books gained recognition from at least two per cent of pastors and each of those seven publications was chosen by two per cent. Those books were What's So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey; Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala; Wild At Heart by John Eldredge; Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels; Spiritual Leadership by Henry Blackaby; Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley; and the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell," the Barna website said.
When the books designated as most helpful were placed in categories, there were three types of books that pastors found to be most profitable. "A majority of pastors (54 per cent) listed at least one book regarding discipleship or personal spiritual growth. Books about church growth, congregational health or ministry dynamics were the next most prolific, listed by 23 per cent of pastors. Leadership books were equally valued, identified by 22 per cent. No other category was cited by at least 10 per cent of the sample.
Less influential types of books included those about theology (nine per cent), evangelism and outreach (six per cent), pastoring (six per cent), and prayer
(five per cent). Books regarding charismatic perspectives (five per cent), trends and cultural
conditions (four per cent), and preaching (three per cent) also generated noteworthy interest, the Barna website reported. Barna reported that the size of a pastor's congregation influenced the type of books he/she regarded as most
helpful. The pastors of small congregations, Barna reported, "not only read fewer books than did pastors of larger churches, but also had more restricted
categorical tastes." Books about discipleship were the clear favourites of small congregation pastors, said the Barna website.
Pastors of mainline churches, the survey showed, "were more than twice as likely as their colleagues from non-mainline Protestant churches to cite specific theology books while being less than half as likely to list a
volume related to evangelism of outreach. Mainline
pastors were also less than half as likely to mention any books regarding leadership thinking or
practices."
Theology
Charismatic and Pentecostal congregations had pastors who were least likely to include books on theology among the most helpful books only two per cent actually did so, said Barna.
The age of pastors, the research organisation said, had a direct relationship to the books they described as most helpful. Pastors in their mid-50s or older were only one-third as likely as their younger colleagues to mention any books on leadership. The older pastors showed a preference for authors from their own generation, the Barna research showed.
Pastors 40 and younger were more than twice as likely to
mention books on prayer. Only half of this age-range included The Purpose Driven Life among the most helpful books and just one-sixth as likely to place The Purpose Driven Church in their top-ranked volumes. In fact, says, Barna, one-third of all pastors over 40 mentioned at least one book by Rick Warren, but only 14 per cent of pastors under 40 did so.
The under-40 pastors championed several authors who were not ranked highly by older pastors. Those authors included business consultant James Collins, seminary professor Thom Rainer; Seventh-day Adventist icon Ellen G. White; and pastor
John Ortberg.
Founder and CEO of the Barna Group George Barna noted what he described as the divergent tastes of younger pastors.
He said: "Given the divergent points of view that they consider most helpful and influential, it seems likely we will continue to see new forms and strategies emerge in their churches. They lean toward books and authors that extol adventure, shared
experiences, visionary leadership, supernatural guidance and
relational connections. If their choices in reading are any indication, they seem less obsessed with church size and more interested in encounters with the living God. They are also less prone to
identifying the most popular books in favour of those that are known for their passionate tone. The fact that less than half as many young pastors considered the Purpose Driven books to be influential in their ministry suggests that the new legion of young pastors may be primed to introduce new ways of thinking about Christianity and church life."
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