According to The Barna Group, born again Christians in the U.S. are predicted to spend $1 billion on media products for children younger than 18 this Christmas. Unfortunately, many of them are concerned about the media content of the products they buy.

• 70% of those who bought downloads for their kids’ mobile phones were concerned about the content 
• 46% of video game purchasers were concerned about the content 
• 33% of CD purchasers were concerned about the content
• 31% of magazine purchasers were concerned about the content
• 26% of DVD purchasers were concerned about the content
• 24% of computer software purchasers were concerned about the content

Obviously, if parents are concerned about the content, they should not buy it. Unfortunately, somewhere between a quarter and a half of all Christian parents still buy the media products.

Questionable content often shapes culture in unquestionably negative ways. It makes the jobs of children’s pastors and youth ministers more difficult when even the Christian students subject themselves to negative influences, particularly when parents are the ones buying the bad influences.

Nemertes Research predicts that by 2010, the Internet will be unable to support its user demand unless service providers invest 70% more funds ($55 billion) than planned into their infrastructures.

Streaming video, file sharing, and music downloads are dramatically increasing bandwidth use. And wireless devices such as the iPhone and Blackberrys are giving users greater access. In other words, people are using more bandwidth more often.

As a result, users could increasingly encounter Internet “brownouts” or interruptions to the applications they’ve become accustomed to using on the internet.

If their prediction is true, things could dramatically slow down for Internet ministry in a few years. Personally, I have confidence that either advances in technology will solve the problem or the service providers will come up with the cash to keep the Internet running well. Time will tell. But for now, heads up!

[via USA Today]

Jan von Holleben is a German photographer with a very creative style. His “Dreams of Flying” exhibition is sure to inspire you if you are a children’s ministry graphic designer or even just a lover of art. Here are a few pieces from that collection.

Check out the rest of the exhibition on Jan von Holleben’s website.

Mark Batterson of National Community Church (Washington, DC) has made available on his blog a free download of NCC’s 2007 annual church survey.

Enjoy the freebie!

Related: Free Church Survey from Granger Community Church 

In a recent Christian Post article, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, CA) reminds us that “everyone should be quick to listen” (James 1:19 NIV). He also offers the following four tips for becoming a better listener:

1. Withhold judgment and criticism from the start.
   Don’t evaluate until you’ve heard and comprehended it all.
2. Keep calm.
   Don’t become defensive.
3. Be an active listener.
   Ask clarifying questions, such as: Who? What? When? How? Questions like that will draw out those you are listening to and let them know you have their attention.
4. Paraphrase and summarize.
   You must be able to tell a person what they’ve just told you before you talk about what you need to talk about.

For more wisdom on each tip, be sure to read the full article.

QUESTION:
What are 3 mistakes a leader should experience to learn about leadership?
- Martin :: Germany

ANSWER:
I don’t believe leaders should experience specific mistakes. I would rather learn from someone else’s mistake than to make the mistake myself.

However, reality is that we all make mistakes. Hopefully, we learn from them, and more importantly, we don’t repeat them. Some mistakes are more common than others in ministry, but I think it is accurate to say that every minister’s leadership journey is a unique one - both in successes and mistakes.

So I cannot give you 3 mistakes I think every leader should experience, but I can share with you three leadership lessons I have learned from mistakes I’ve made.

1. Keep God before ministry.
   There have been times in my life when I have put too much of my focus on doing ministry and not enough focus on my personal relationship with God. It is a dangerous habit to develop because our personal relationship with God gives us the spiritual strength needed to pursue our ministry calling to its full potential.
2. Be a custom leader.
   When I began leading my first team of several volunteers, I interacted with each worker the same way. The problem with this is that people are very different and very unique. Different personalities interpret the same leadership differently. What works well for leading one person may be less effective for leading another. Over the years, I have tried to improve my ability to recognize different personalities and know how to best lead each one. I’m still far from perfect, but whenever I have the opportunity to lead someone one-on-one, I try to customize my approach for the best results.
3. Know your limits.
   The first ministry I worked for never tested my limits. The work was tough, but we had a great team and always met our deadlines. The second ministry I worked for was understaffed and underresourced. It quickly taught me my limitations. Even with extended work hours and extra manpower, it was impossible to do what needed to be done. I made the mistake of assuming that I could achieve unrealistic goals because I always made tough deadlines before. Understand that you are human and have limitations. Know your limitations. Plan realistically. Otherwise, you will burn yourself out.

If you have a question you want Church Relevance to answer, submit it via our Q+A form.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed 47 nations about a variety of topics this year. A few highlights include:

Wealth Affects Religion

• In poor countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, religion remains extremely important in the lives of individuals, while in wealthy nations, secularism is more common. One very wealthy nation, however, does not fit the pattern: the United States. Americans are considerably more religious than their level of prosperity would predict.

Communication Revolution

• People around the world continue to turn to television for news about international and national issues. The only exceptions are several African nations where radio is still the primary source of information. Newspapers continue to lose readers and trail far behind television as a news source.
• Online news sources are steadily gaining in popularity in the West and parts of Asia but draw only a tiny audience in Africa or Latin America.
• While computer usage has increased significantly in a many countries, particularly in Europe, it is growing relatively slowly, if at all, in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Americans and Italians are Snobs

• Americans are also more likely than most Western Europeans to think their culture is better than others. Over half of Americans (55%) agree with the statement, “Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others,” a larger percentage than in Canada, Spain, Germany, France, Britain and Sweden. But Italians are even more confident than Americans in their cultural pre-eminence; 68% of Italians believe their culture is superior.

For more insights, read the full report. It is a great resource for those involved in global ministry.

Facebook has launched a new feature called “Facebook Pages” that allows organizations to better promote themselves to Facebook users. It is similar to creating a Group but with significant improvements. Facebook Pages allow you to:

• Create a page for your ministry.
• Build a “fan” base.
• Message your “fans.”
• Create photo albums.
• Upload videos.
• Have a “Wall” (message board).
• Have discussion groups.
• Create and schedule events.
• Add additional features with Facebook Applications.
• Create targeted ad campaigns (costs money).
• Track statistics for your Facebook Page.

I created a Facebook Page for Church Relevance. Please join by clicking the “Add to my Organizations” text in the upper right corner.

If you haven’t joined Facebook yet, you should. It is great for networking with other ministers, and tools like Facebook Pages make it easy to further engage members of your church and community. If you need a friend, you can always add me.