Will Teenagers iBible?

Posted on: 03/2/08 11:16 AM | by Jonathan McKee

The podcast is called A Li’l Bit. It’s a weekly 10 minute Bible study for teenagers. It’s free, it’s quick, it gets them in the Word, and it provides application and a reading challenge for the rest of the week.

The idea is this: we’ve seen more Christian teenagers carrying iPods than Bibles (sadly, even at church camps and retreats). So, why not provide yet another way to get the Word into their heads… through their earphones.

In last week’s EZINE I shared about this and linked a report about podcast use among teenagers. Over 50% do listen to podcasts. More importantly, 78% of teenagers have a portable media player, of which 82% are iPods. If youth workers publicize the convenient little iBible-study to their Christian students struggling to get in the Word, chances are they will give it a shot.

We just launched the podcast a week ago with three episodes already– the fourth will be launching today. Last week we announced it for the first time in our EZINE. So far the responses have been very postive. But I’m curious what you think. If you have a few moments, do me this favor:

  • Jump on A Li’l Bit’s web site www.ALilBit.com and check it out.
  • Click on the link for any of the episodes (using the iPod controls on the site- pretty cool) and give a listen to an episode or two.
  • Use iTunes comment feature to post a comment if you like it.
  • Feel free to comment here in this blog as well. We’d love your feedback.
  • Most importantly, spread the word to your kids. Send your kids an email and have them subscribe to this free podcast. We’re all about getting the Word in their heads!

 

Americans Keep Switching Religions!

Posted on: 02/26/08 4:52 PM | by Jonathan McKee

The report was released just Monday. The results are in…

Americans are fickle about their religion!

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released the results of their 35,000 person poll concluding, “Americans not only change jobs, change where they live, and change spouses… they change religions too.”

Yahoo News reports:

According to Pew, 28% of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another one. And that does not even include those who switched from one Protestant denomination to another; if it did, the number would jump to 44%.

Some other interesting facts from the report:

  • one third of Americans raised Catholic have left the church
  • two thirds of Jehovah’s Witnesses have left that church
  • the single biggest “winner” of a group that has changed their minds was the group called “unaffiliated” (including athiests and agnotics) who lost 50% of their original group to one church or another.
  • the highest rates for marrying within one’s own faith were Hindus (90%) and Mormons (83%)

The summary of the report has a nice chart that summarizes it pretty well. The actual report web page is pretty interesting, even at a glance. You can look at an AFFILIATIONS page that breaks down the percentage of people from each religion in the US, or look at a MAP that shows you the percentage of US adults affiliated with certain groups per state, or even look at the PORTRAITS of a particular religious group, detailing the demographic characteristics such as age, ethnicity, educational level, and income level.

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