By Christy Barritt

Digital Reading Habits

A new study by the Barna Group on the topic of e-reading and digital books showed that one-quarter of American adults own an e-reading device. Christians are right on par with the national average with one in four Christians using an e-reader or tablet for reading purposes.

Among ministers, e-reading has risen from 14 percent to 44 percent from 2010 to 2012.

People who most often read digitally are between the ages of 29 and 47, white, college educated, have an annual income above $60,000, and are married with children. Overall, women are more likely than men to own an e-reader.

A typical reader uses e-books one-tenth of the time. More dedicated readers use e-books for one-third of their reading.

A representative sample of 1,116 adults were surveyed for this study.

Church Relationships Are Missing Something

Nearly three out of every four churchgoers say they have significant relationships with people at church, but less than half are intentionally helping other believers grow in their faith.

Those are the results from a new study by LifeWay Research.

LifeWay Research presented the statement, “I intentionally try to get to know new people I meet at church.” Only 53 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement, with only one in six churchgoers strongly agreeing.

Scott McConnell, director of LifeWay Research, said, “Advertisers know that it takes multiple introductions to get someone’s attention. Unfortunately, a visitor to church may have to meet six people before someone cares enough to get to know them.”

The research also revealed that the characteristic that best predicts better relationship building at church is participation in small classes or groups of adults.

Christians Happier Than Atheists

A new study by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that Christians are happier and more socially connected than atheists—at least on Twitter.

The study analyzed data from nearly 2 million tweets from more than 16,000 users on the popular social networking site. Their goal was to examine the differences between Christians and atheists in natural language.

Christians used more words that conveyed positive emotion and fewer words that conveyed negative emotion than nonbelievers did. The study also found that believers tend to be more connected and talk more about social processes than atheists.

Researchers looked for tweets containing words such as love and nice, as well as negative words like hurt and nasty when gathering their results.

“Overall, the present research demonstrates a positive relationship between religion and happiness that can be observed in the subtle differences in language use,” the study said.

Christians and Leadership

More than half of Christians in the United States identify themselves as leaders (58 percent) according to a new study by the Barna Group. Despite that number, 82 percent of those same survey participants indicated that they believe the country is facing a leadership crisis because there aren’t enough leaders.

Another interesting result from the survey was that the leadership qualities participants identified in themselves did not line up with the leadership qualities they expected in others.

The number one quality people look for in a leader is “integrity.” Other important traits that Christians identified were authenticity (40 percent) and discipline (38 percent). Those three qualities were chosen above “passion for God,” which came in at 31 percent.

Despite those results, that same group said they’d want to work for a boss who was collaborative, competent, and humble.

Christy Barritt is an award-winning author, freelance writer, and speaker living in Chesapeake, Virginia. She and her husband Scott have two sons.
www.christybarritt.com