Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 13th week.

8.5 Hours a Day Spent on Screens
Adults are exposed to screens (i.e., TVs, cellphones, even G.P.S. devices) for about 8.5 hours on any given day, according to a study released by the Council for Research Excellence

5 Best Ways to Reach People with Information About Your Church
(1) Family. (2) Friend or Neighbor. (3) Informative Newspaper Ad. (4) Outdoor Sign. (5) Magazine/Newspaper Ad.

More Americans Look to Comedians for News
24% of respondents to a Rasmussen Reports poll agreed that TV shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are “taking the place of traditional news outlets.” Fewer than half (45%) disagreed, while the rest were unsure.

Traditional parenting leads to well-adjusted children
Traditional parenting methods that focus on breastfeeding, discipline and high expectations are most likely to produce well-adjusted and able children.

Beauty Over Brains
Nearly 25% of women would rather win America’s Next Top Model than the Nobel Peace Prize, according to a study of 2,000 18- to 34-year-old women commissioned by Oxygen Media.

Black Girls Are 50 Percent More Likely To Be Bulimic Than White Girls
About 2.6 percent of black girls were clinically bulimic, compared to 1.7 percent of white girls.

Teenagers with Social Skills Make More Money as an Adult
According to a University of Illinois professor who studies the sociology of education, high school sophomores who were rated by their teachers as having good social skills and work habits, and who participated in extracurricular activities in high school, made more money and completed higher levels of education 10 years later than their classmates who had similar standardized test scores but were less socially adroit and participated in fewer extracurricular activities.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- Unconventional Easter Church Services :: Glow Sticks, Hip-Hop, and Egg Drops
- Tulsa Easter Church Services :: LifeChurch.tv and Church on the Move

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- Church Plants :: Why Some Survive
- Blaine Bartel Reveals Two Truths He Learned From Creating Big Events for Oneighty
- What Teens Want

Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 12th week.

U.S. Christians are Dwindling
The percentage of Christians in America, which declined in the 1990s from 86.2 percent to 76.7 percent, has now edged down to 76 percent. Ninety percent of the decline comes from the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ. Baptists have increased their numbers by two million since 2001, but continue to decline as a proportion of the population. (via)

Most Mainline Protestants Say Society Should Accept Homosexuality
Among mainline Protestants overall, 56% say homosexuality should be accepted, compared with only about one-in-four evangelical Protestants and four-in-ten members of historically black Protestant churches.

Brain ability declines after age 27
Brain ability peaks at age 22 and mental powers begin to dwindle at age 27, Virginia University researchers found.

More Babies Born in 2007 Than Any Other Year in U.S. History
The 4,317,119 births in 2007 topped a record first set in 1957 at the height of the baby boom. Births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40%.

Happiness is contagious
Knowing someone who is happy makes you 15.3% more likely to be happy yourself. A happy friend of a friend increases your odds of happiness by 9.8%, and even your neighbor’s sister’s friend can give you a 5.6% boost.

10 Reasons Why Homeless People Choose To Be Homeless
The tenth reason: “A large percentage of homeless shelters have a religious affiliation. Not all but many of those that do have one impose a requirement to attend religious services in order for a person to be granted access to their food and shelter facilities. This can, of course, be offensive to some and particularly those who belong to an ethnic minority, which tend to be over-represented amongst the homeless population.”

More Senior Citizens are Using the Internet
Internet usage among people ages 70 to 74 increased by 19 percentage points from 2005 to 2008. For people 75 and older, the increase was 10 percentage points.

What About Asexuals?
A survey carried out in 1994 found that 1.05 per cent of respondents had “never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all”.

Women talk three times as much as men
The average woman says 20,000 words in a day. The average man says 7,000 words in a day.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- Americans’ Most Important Relationship

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- 3 Keys to Avoiding Failure with Good Communication
- Understand Your Community with Claritas’s Segmentation Research
- Mount Paran Church of God’s New Children’s Ministry Sanctuary
- Ed Young Jr. on Great Leadership in the Church
- Attendance at Church is Scarce for a Third of America
- 10 Tips for Great Preaching

Sometimes we create easy-to-use yet complex systems to work around the Bible’s difficult-to-do yet simple mandates.

If you need a church property, AcreScout.com is an excellent place to find church real estate. Look for the church building you need or find vacant land for building a church. Here are the latest church properties for sale:

NEW JERSEY

$995,000 :: St. Peter and Paul’s Roman Church (Trenton, NJ)
11,478 square feet church size
1,200+ chapel seating
Built in 1900.

Also, be sure to check out AcreScout.com/vacant-land to find the latest vacant land listings. Hopefully, there will be a property that is perfect for your church.

FREE CHURCH PROPERTY ADVERTISING
Do you want Church Relevance to highlight your church property for sale? Well, it is fast, free, and simple.

1. Get your licensed real estate agent to register for a free AcreScout account.
2. Have your agent add your church property to AcreScout’s listings.
3. Church Relevance will periodically highlight and link to the latest church properties for sale on AcreScout.

Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 11th week.

John C. Maxwell is Blogging
Check it out for great leadership insights.

Most Mosaics Have No Biblical Worldview
Less than 0.5% of adults in the Mosaic generation (those aged 18 to 23) have a biblical worldview, compared to about 1 out of every 9 older adults.

Mainline Protestant Denominations Are More Liberal Than Conservative
48% of clergy from the seven largest mainline denominations say they are liberal while 34% identify as conservative. Also, 56% of mainline clergy identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, compared to 34% of those who affiliate with the Republican Party. These denominations are the United Methodist Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, American Baptist Churches USA, Presbyterian Church USA, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

1 in 50 U.S. Kids Are Homeless
The National Center on Family Homelessness estimates that 1 in every 50 American children was homeless between 2005 and 2006. That totals roughly 1.5 million kids.

Children As Young As Preschoolers Tend To Follow Majority Opinion
Children as young as age three and four are able to recognize and trust a consensus. In addition, young children are good at remembering who was and was not a part of the majority group.

College Freshman Drink More Than Study
Students who said they had at least one drink in the past 14 days spent an average 10.2 hours a week drinking, and averaged about 8.4 hours a week studying. Nearly 70% of respondents said they drank. Of those, 49.4% spent more time drinking than studying.

Young Women May Be Drinking Heavily To Get Attention Of Opposite Sex, But Men Not Impressed
Research suggests women believe men find excessive drinking sexually attractive and appealing, but it appears this is a giant misperception. Although traditionally, men drink more than women, research has shown that women have steadily been drinking more and more over the last several decades.

1 in 5 UK Adults Think It Can Be Acceptable For a Man to Hit a Woman for Wearing Sexy Clothing in Public
16% think it can be acceptable for a man to hit a woman for nagging or constantly moaning at him. (via)

Target Specific People by Advertising on Facebook
Target people based on keywords, location, age, gender, education, workplaces, relationship status, sexual preference, and spoken languages.

Immigration Explorer
Select a foreign-born group to see how they settled across the United States.

Innovation3 Gathering Notes
Get a one-page synopsis of each session from January’s Innovation3.

KeepDesigning.com
Free vector art for graphic designers.

Song Manager
Make worship planning easier by organizing your songs, building set lists, and printing lead sheets with Song Manager.

ImNotBuyingIt.com Video

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- 5 Types of Church Participants
- 1 in 4 Teen Girls Has an STD

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- America’s Biblical Illiteracy
- 2 Responsibilities for Ministering in an Age of Information Wealth
- 6 Parts of Your Church Building that Affect Your Worship Service
- 10 Factors for Higher Attendance in Church Plants
- Mark Batterson’s 4 Preaching Tips
- Gary Haugen on Christians’ Responsibility Against Injustice

If you need a church property, AcreScout.com is an excellent place to find church real estate. Look for the church building you need or find vacant land for building a church. Here are the latest church properties for sale:

NEW JERSEY

$975,000 :: St. Stephens (Trenton, NJ)
3,383 square feet church size
11,400 square feet parish center size

Also, be sure to check out AcreScout.com/vacant-land to find the latest vacant land listings. Hopefully, there will be a property that is perfect for your church.

FREE CHURCH PROPERTY ADVERTISING
Do you want Church Relevance to highlight your church property for sale? Well, it is fast, free, and simple.

1. Get your licensed real estate agent to register for a free AcreScout account.
2. Have your agent add your church property to AcreScout’s listings.
3. Church Relevance will periodically highlight and link to the latest church properties for sale on AcreScout.

Here is the review of the best links of 2009’s 10th week.

Kids (and adults) Prefer Veggies With Cool Names
In a new study, 186 four-year-olds were given regular carrots and, on other lunch days, they were given the same vegetables renamed X-ray Vision Carrots. On the latter days, they ate nearly twice as many. Whether it be ‘power peas’ or ‘dinosaur broccoli trees,’ giving a food a fun name makes kids think it will be more fun to eat. Similar results have been found with adults. A restaurant study showed that when the Seafood Filet was changed to Succulent Italian Seafood Filet, sales increased 28% and taste rating increased by 12%.

Brain Differences Found Between Believers In God And Non-believers
Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers. They’re much less anxious and feel less stressed when they have made an error.

Rick Warren on Politics
“Politics is always downstream from culture. If you want to influence culture, you have to change hearts. And, you can’t change a heart with a law.”

Food Stamps Skyrocket
A record 31.8 million Americans received food stamps at the latest count, an increase of 700,000 people in one month with the United States in recession. Also, here’s a map of the geography of the U.S. recession.

Worried Workers
Workers are spending an average of 2.8 hours each day worrying about job security.

People Overpromise and Underdeliver
Researchers discovered that people were consistently overly optimistic when asked to predict their own future behavior. And another study discovers that power can cause people to think they have more personal control over outcomes than they, in fact, do.

1 in 31 U.S. Adults are in Jail, on Probation, or on Parole (Full Report PDF)
The total correctional population is 7,328,200. (Prison = 1,512,576 // Jail = 780,581 // Probation = 4,293,163 // Parole = 824,365)

How the Weak Economy Has Affected Americans During the Last Year
70% cut back on entertainment. 40% put off major purchases. 40% cut grocery spending. 39% pared down vacation plans. 16% went without medical or prescription drug care. 9% chose to not purse their educational plans.

Teenagers do listen to their parents when it comes to smoking
Teenagers are more positive today towards their parents’ attempts to discourage them from smoking, regardless of whether or not they smoked, than in the past. The most effective actions parents could take include dissuading their children from smoking, not smoking themselves and not allowing their children to smoke at home. Younger children were more positive about these approaches than older children.

Media Images of Alcohol Can Drive You to Drink
Young men who watched the movie American Pie with accompanying commercials for alcohol were more apt to grab a beer or glass of wine from the refrigerator, compared to those who watched a movie without the drinking prompts. Also, U.S. teens that have items with alcoholic beverage brands printed on them seem to be more prone to end up being binge drinkers.

Five Things to Do Before You Advertise Your Church
(1) Put more effort and thought into your communication planning. (2) Define what you want to accomplish with your promotional efforts. (3) Advertise who you really are, not who you are not. (4) Fix what is broken in your church. (5) Do your homework before you launch any kind of advertising outreach.

Watch Sessions from The Idea Camp
Get free video excerpts from The Idea Camp conference, a free hybrid conference for idea makers.

OneBody Church Social Network Software
Get a free open source download.

THE REVIEW OF 2008
- The Intersection
- 7 Innovative Church Buildings in America
- The Sticker Lamp

THE REVIEW OF 2007
- Craig Groeschel’s 3 Questions for Church Evaluation
- Republicans vs. Democrats :: Religious Differences
- Bobby Gruenewald’s 5 Tips for Studying Lists
- Church Marketing with a Twist :: LifeChurch.tv’s New Billboards

Generation Z is everyone between 2001 to 2021. They are who your children’s ministry will strive to reach for the next two decades.

While it is difficult to forecast how Generation Z will evolve, I think we have enough data to predict that these children will have their innocence robbed at earlier ages and engage in sexual activities earlier and more often than previous generations.

THE POWER OF LYRICS
The University of Pittsburgh surveyed ninth-grade students and discovered:

Exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex was one of the strongest associations with sexual activity.

Compared to those with the least exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex, those with the most exposure were more than twice as likely to have had sexual intercourse. Similarly, among those who had not had sexual intercourse, those in the highest third of exposure to lyrics describing degrading sex were nearly twice as likely to have progressed along a noncoital sexual continuum compared to those in the lowest third.

GENERATION Y STATS
Currently, the United States has 750,000 teenage pregnancies each year.
One in four (25%) U.S. teen girls have sexually transmitted infections.

GENERATION Z TODAY
Obviously, pop lyrics have digressed from the days of the Beatles (i.e., “I wanna hold your hand.”) to the era of Beyonce (i.e., “I know you want my body. Tonight I’ll be your naughty girl”).

Many of today’s Generation Z kids already listen to mainstream pop music. In fact, 44% of UK parents sing their babies pop songs and TV theme tunes rather than nursery rhymes. And if they do not listen to provocative pop music yet, media conglomerates will package it to them and tell them to listen.

Look at the some of music nominees for Nickelodeon’s 2009 Kids’ Choice Awards:

• Beyonce
  “Now take it off while I watch you perform.” (Suga Mama)
• Chris Brown
  “Let’s get and make love on Venus.” (Gimme Whatcha Got)
• Alicia Keys
  “So maybe we can go to first base because I feel you.” (Teenage Love Affair)
• Jesse McCartney
  “Spend the night with me and I’ll rock you.” (Rock You)
• Katy Perry
  “I kissed a girl just to try it. I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it.” (I Kissed a Girl)
• Pussycat Dolls
  “I can get off when you ain’t around.” (I Don’t Need a Man)
• Rihanna
  “What you got up in them jeans? Put it on me, or get lonely.” (Lemme Get That)
• Kid Rock
  “that little p**** l***** finger f***** h* a** c***.” (F*** U Blind)
• T-Pain
  “She was s***** on me. And I was l***** on her.” (69)

Considering a large part of Nickelodeon’s audience is Generation Z, the future looks rough for these kids, particularly those who are already listening to Kid Rock, T-Pain, the Pussycat Dolls, and Katy Perry.

For Discussion:
- Where do you see hope for Generation Z?
- How can ministries best help Generation Z from becoming the probable statistics of teen pregnancies and STDs?