In Sermon Illustrations: "Sermon Opener"

More Born Again: New Barna Research Finds 45% Of ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

More Born Again: New Barna research finds 45% of all U.S. adults meet the Barna Group “born again” criteria. That’s up from 31% in ‘83. It hovered in the 36% to 43% range from ‘92 through ‘05. The current figure represents the largest single-year increase since ‘91. A 16-point rise among Baby ...read more

Tags: What Is Evangelism?

Bible Readership Plummeted To A 20-Year Low Of ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Bible Readership plummeted to a 20-year low of just 31% in ‘95, and began to slowly climb back to levels, finally returning to the 40% mark in ‘00. Increases began again in ‘04, continuing through ’06 and now 47% of adults read the Bible during a typical week, ...read more

Tags: Bible Influence

Religion Matters To Teens According To A 4-Year ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Religion Matters To Teens according to a 4-year study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 80% of teens identify themselves as Protestant, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Mormon, or Jewish. 82% are affiliated with a local congregation, 80% have few doubts about their beliefs. 71% feel ...read more

Tags: Children

Depression 15 Million Americans Suffer From ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Depression 15 million Americans suffer from depression and fill 189 million antidepressant prescriptions annually. It plays a significant role in the 30,000 annual U.S. suicides. The cost of lost productivity, absenteeism, and ...read more

Tags: Emotions

The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe Has Passed ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe has passed Harry Potter at the box office, making it the second biggest ’05 film after Star Wars. Internationally, it went over $400 million, making ...read more

Tags: Children

Persistent Kids: The Center For A New American ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Persistent Kids: The Center for a New American Dream reports 55% of young people say they are usually successful on getting their parents to give in. 40% have asked their parents for an advertised product they thought their parents would not approve of, and of those 59% say they don’t give up—they ...read more

Tags: Children

Myspace.com, The Controversial Social Networking ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

MySpace.com, the controversial social networking site, is the second most popular site on the Internet, trumping even Google. It has over 57 million users, and is ...read more

Tags: Children

Boston Has Seen Its Number Of Protestant ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Boston has seen its number of Protestant churches double in the past 30 years, from 300 in ’70 to over 600 today. Emmanuel Gospel Center research finds ...read more

Tags: What Is Evangelism?

100 Years Old: The April 1906 Azusa Street ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

100 Years Old: The April 1906 Azusa Street revivals in Los Angeles are considered the birth the modern Pentecostal movement. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, adherents to Charismatic faiths now number more ...read more

Tags: What Is Evangelism?

E-Mail Content Sharing 63% Of Internet Users ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

E-mail Content Sharing 63% of Internet users share various content via e-mail at least once a week, 25% daily, and 11% never. Of those who share content, 88% share jokes or cartoons, 56% news, 32% health care ...read more

Tags: Workplace

Gaming Growth Dfc Intelligence Expects Worldwide ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Gaming Growth DFC Intelligence expects worldwide online gaming subscription revenue to reach nearly $7 billion by 2011, more than tripling in the next 5 years. Business Week reports more than 50% of ’05 subscription revenue came ...read more

Tags: Church General

Individuals Read Web Pages In An "F" Pattern. ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Individuals Read Web Pages in an “F” pattern. They’re more inclined to read longer sentences at the top of a page and less and less as they scroll down says a recent Nielsen Norman Group study. That makes the first 2-3 words of a sentence very important. Surfers connect well with images of people ...read more

Tags: Evangelism How To

Atheist Paid To Attend Church: Jim Henderson, ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Atheist Paid To Attend Church: Jim Henderson, author and President of Off the Map, placed a winning eBay auction bid of $504 to send a Chicago atheist to church (one visit per $10 bid). Off the ...read more

Tags: What Is Evangelism?

Dynamic E-Books: The Biggest Barrier To E-Book ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Dynamic E-Books: The biggest barrier to e-book world domination has to be the screen. An LCD display has much lower resolution than paper, and is reflective. On a PDA reading time is severely limited by battery life. But the dedicated e-book reader is about to make a comeback. Soon to be released ...read more

Tags: Bible Influence

More Channels: The Average U.s. Household ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

More Channels: The average U.S. household received 96.4 TV channels in ‘05, up nearly 4 from ‘04. Yet, on average we only tune to 15.4, ...read more

Tags: Evangelism How To

Public Acceptance Of Homosexuality Has Increased ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Public Acceptance of homosexuality has increased in a number of ways in recent years. On three specific issues - allowing gays to serve openly in the military, adoption by homosexual couples and legalizing gay marriage - opposition has fallen considerably in the past decade, though each issue ...read more

Online News The Daily Audience Online For News ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Online News The daily audience online for news has grown dramatically since ‘02 - a surge fueled by the rise in home broadband connections. Some 50 million Americans now seek out news on the internet on a typical day. 71% of these news consumers go online for news on the average day, while 59% get ...read more

Tags: Evangelism How To

Rousing Music Research Shows That People Who Use ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Rousing Music Research shows that people who use high- energy music to start their day before they face challenging situations can increase their ...read more

Tags: Emotions

Among Boomers Of All Ages, 50% Have Positive ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Among Boomers of all ages, 50% have positive feelings of anticipation about their retirement and 50% have neutral or negative feelings. “Retirement” generates ...read more

Tags: Guilt

Media Danger For Kids: Just-Released Medical ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jul 17, 2006

Media Danger For Kids: Just-released medical studies find constant exposure to media may be harmful to children. The studies link TV and video games to a host of modern youth ills, including obesity, sexual activity, consumerism, and antisocial behavior. The more TV 3rd-and-4th-graders watch, the ...read more

Tags: Children