Barna writes,

"The most discouraging study we ever conducted was one in which we attempted to identify churches in the U.S. that consistently and intelligently evaluate life transformation among the people to whom they minister. We found that very few churches – emphasis on very – measure anything beyond attendance, donations, square footage, number of programs and size of staff. None of that necessarily reflects life transformation. Further, our on-going research continued to show that churches do not act strategically because of a paucity of leadership. My objective had always been to get good information into the hands of leaders so they would convert those insights into great strategic decisions about how to minister more obediently and effectively. Not having the leaders in place to utilize such information was an obstacle I had not foreseen.

"To make a long story brief, I hit a point of crisis at the end of 2003. I did not want to stop ministering to the Church; I simply wanted to do something that mattered. Giving information to people whose sole interest seemed to be searching for facts that confirmed what they had already chosen to do, or seeking statistical evidence to support their teaching, was not something that seemed like good stewardship. My passion was to work with ministries to facilitate genuine life transformation. Frustrated, upon the completion of our 2003 seminar tour, I told the Lord I could not continue doing what we had been doing for the past 20 years."

It's not a very brief press release, but that's good. It's worth reading the whole thing. Barna Research Group (now called The Barna Group) downsized from ~100 employees to only eight, moved from a large office into a more compact space, and "reconfigured the company to have five operating divisions":

1. Barna Research Group -- Yup, still doing research for Christian ministries (which is good, because they're still great at it).

2. BarnaFilms -- "providing ministries with visual media that will help them to affect the way people think and behave"

3. BarnaBooks -- "a strategic partnership with Tyndale House Publishers ... Starting in 2005, these branded books will reveal what is happening in the emerging Church – not the postmodern, candles/coffee/couches types of anti-modern ministries, but the Revolutionary ministry that is percolating to the surface of American society through new forms of ministry such as the cyberchurch, house churches, marketplace ministries, and tribal faith experiences."

4. Josiah Corps -- "To address the church’s leadership paralysis, the vision for the Josiah Corps is to annually identify a nationwide collection of kids between the ages of 8 and 12 who have the calling and gifting to be godly leaders, and to pour 10-15 years of resources into their lives so that they are ready to lead us in fighting the good fight by the time they reach their early twenties."

5. Transformational Church Network -- will "work in a symbiotic relationship with life-transforming churches, as well as the parents of the future leaders involved in the Josiah Corps."

This is some heavy stuff. It's just a pity that his view of the "emerging church" is such a caricature. Hopefully he'll do some better research on the EC and get the real thing.

In our information-drive society, it's not surprising that something this explosive would come out of the camp of Mr. Barna. It'll be interesting to see what happens next ...