Baptist Press on The Barna Group's Study of Calvinism by Peter Lumpkins

Baptist Press executive editor, Will Hall, published a worthy summary of The Barna Group's study on Calvinism's impact within American Protestantism.  Hall's very title--Barna study shows apparent divide between SBC, other denominations on Calvinism--reflects what Ed Stetzer, author of the study of Calvinism within the SBC, apparently did not perceive--the gargantuan gulf between what's Calvinistically happening* in Protestantism overall  (including the Southern Baptist Convention) and what Stetzer's research allegedly revealed is Calvinistically happening in the SBC exclusively.

Indeed as Stetzer rehearsed The Barna Group's study findings, he seems strangely anxious to dismiss Barna flat-out. Contra Barna's conclusions, he writes:

"I think there IS a resurgence of Calvinism (particularly within evangelicalism), but since it is younger, and a subset of a very large pool of pastors (for polling purposes), it is not evident via the research" (emphasis original, embolden mine)

Furthermore, the comment thread strongly suggests The Barna Group is quite incapable of knowing its business. Said they:

"I'm not sure that Barna's research accurately reflects the trend that I'm seeing"

"...as is usually the case with Barna, distinctions & definitions are poorly made and so they arrive at unhelpful conclusions"

"I worried about the motive for the research in the first place"

"This statements [sic] makes me wonder at the research...He obviously included non-confessional reformed, which doesn't seem to be good research"

Indicative of the above sampling is the tacit assumption that Ed Stetzer's own research into Calvinism in the SBC was much more credible than Barna's is in American Protestantism.  However, as Baptist Press pointed out,

"In 2007, the North American Mission Board's Center for Missional Research released findings that nearly 30 percent of recent seminary graduates (1998-2004) serving as church pastors identified themselves as Calvinists. Details about the sample methodology and size were not released and this study [i.e., Stetzer's study] is not available for public review" (embolden added)

What is incredibly difficult to fathom is the gap I mentioned above, the gap between what's Calvinistically happening* in American Protestantism, which includes both evangelicals generally and the SBC particularly (per The Barna Group Study) and what's Calvinistically happening exclusively in the SBC (per Stetzer's study).  It seems to me, if we take both sets of numbers at face value (while Stetzer wants to dismiss Barna, he apparently asks us to just trust his methodology was not flawed since the details are not open for public scrutiny), a viable explanation must exist. 

At one point, Dr. Stetzer chooses to rely on anecdotal evidence to persuade:

"But, again, I think there is a Reformed resurgence. I just taught at Re:Train in Seattle and preached at Mars Hill Church, so I can see parts of it. Actually, I can see it in some other studies of evangelicals"

While ones own personal experience cannot ever be ruled out completely, I find just shy of humorous that a trained statistician cites his own preaching experience to be indicative toward overturning a full ten-year study by evangelicalism's most notable research organization. In addition, Stetzer cites "other studies of evangelicals" which, according to him, presumably shows empirical evidence supporting his point.  We challenge Dr. Stetzer to produce the studies.  Give us the goods. We'd like to examine those studies with our own eyes.

With that, I am...

Peter

Read Will Hall's significant contribution to Calvinism's impact on American Christianity

*perhaps what's NOT Calvinistically happening in American Protestantism is more accurate

Comments

[sãoray]

In my circle of evangelicals, I don't see any more calvinists than at any other time in my life. But the calvinists friends I do have are sure a lot "edgier" now; faux hawks, threaded shirts, apple gadgets, home-brew kits, mma gear, etc...

So, while I haven't seen a resurgence in calvinists numbers (let me play the anecdotal game too =P), I have seen a resurgence in their public relations/image.

[Michelle]

Very interesting research.I would definitely think that we should be able to see the effect of this generation of Calvinism by now, in the number of churches that identify them self as "Calvinist". 10 years is plenty of time to see changes within the church.

Since I do believe that there are more individuals who adhere to the doctrine of Calvinism today that what there was 10 years ago, I suspect that the Calvinists being turned out of today's universities are really only replacing the former, already established Calvinist churches pastor's, which would not result in growth in the number of Calvinist churches at all.

This is not to say that Calvinism is not growing amongst individuals today BUT they are likely to be attending churches already established.

It would be interesting to see how much already-established Calvinist churches have grown in attendance/membership today, compared to 10 years ago.

Of course, what do I know? It's all conjecture on my behalf.

[sãoray]

p.s. I think it's interesting that the reformed social media outlets haven't addressed Barna's findings. As far as I can tell, only Stetzer (and he's only psuedo-reformed) has even brought it up. Cognitive dissonance?

[Wes Widner]

Any statistician who does not release the raw data and methods he used is up to something and ought not be trusted.

As far as I know, Barna has released his source data and has carefully detailed the means he has used to come up with his conclusions.

Oh, and Barna doesn't charge churches to collect his data for him. LifeWay does that.