The Barna Group
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The Barna Group is a firm based in Ventura, California. It consists of five divisions focusing on primary research (The Barna Research Group); communications tools (BarnaFilms); printed resources (BarnaBooks); leadership development for young people (The Josiah Corps); and church facilitation and enhancement (Transformation Church Network).[1] It was founded in 1984 by George Barna, a media research specialist holding graduate degrees in urban planning and political science, for the purpose of providing "research and marketing expertise as a service to Christian ministry."[2] For the first seven years of its existence, the Barna Group provided research services for the Disney Channel, work that provided enough cash flow to allow the company to gradually expand its services to the Christian community.[2] Other clients have included the American Broadcasting Company, VISA, and the military.[3] In 1991, the company cut ties with Disney to concentrate its resources on a campaign to transform the church.[2] According to the Barna Group, "The ultimate aim of the firm is to partner with Christian ministries and individuals to be a catalyst in moral and spiritual transformation in the United States. It accomplishes these outcomes by providing vision, information, evaluation and resources through a network of intimate partnerships."[1] Scientific opinion polls provided by The Barna Group are frequently cited in national and international news media in articles about American religion.
The concept of notional Christians seems to have been created by the Barna Group for the purposes of gathering statistics. They define the term as follows: "We categorize Notional Christian as those who describe themselves as Christians, but do not believe that they will have eternal life because of their reliance upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the grace extended to people through a relationship with Christ. (A large majority of these individuals believe they will have eternal life, but not because of a grace-based relationship with Jesus Christ.)"[4] The term implies that some have the notion that they are Christian, though they do not meet the Barna Group's definition of Christian.
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[edit] References
- ^ a b About the Barna Group, Ltd.
- ^ a b c Stafford, Tim. "The Third Coming of George Barna." Christianity Today, August 5, 2002
- ^ Barna, George. Revolution, p. vii. (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2006)
- ^ Barna Group. ""Notional Christians"". Barna Group. http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=Topic&TopicID=46. Retrieved on 2008-08-09.
