{"id":19967,"date":"2003-04-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-04-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2003\/04\/01\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/"},"modified":"2003-04-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-04-01T00:00:00","slug":"growing-edge-in-brief-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Edge In Brief:"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianbook.com\/Christian\/Books\/product?p=1006328&#038;item_no=730877\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"subhead\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Grow Your Church from the Outside In<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n<p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">by George Barna (Regal, 2002)<\/p>\n\n<p>Studying people who had and hadn&#8217;t attended church in the previous six months, researcher George Barna says unchurched people were more likely to be self-sufficient, logical, assertive, daring, and to have tasted all the Christianity they care for. Barna concludes that the church&#8217;s greatest enemy is not hostility toward Christianity, but apathy toward it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Most unchurched people figure they have gotten along just fine without church,&#8221; he writes, &#8220;and until someone gives them reason to feel otherwise, they will remain spiritually unattached.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Barna&#8217;s most important discoveries reveal what does give the unchurched reason to care. Worship services, he found, are a poor attraction, and few care about programs. They are, in fact, more likely to be attracted by intimacy, authenticity, and a heart for community building.<\/p>\n<p>Above all, Barna found, it&#8217;s not what a church does, or who its pastor is, but how its members care for one another that brings people into church. One pastor summarized, &#8220;People don&#8217;t want a friendly church, they want a friend.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chapters examine important considerations for drafting outreach strategy\u2014including language (the word &#8220;lost&#8221; is offensive; they prefer to be called &#8220;inquirers&#8221;), advertising techniques, and follow-up\u2014as well as the regional and demographic differences.<\/p>\n<p>Any surprising finds? How about this: the majority of unchurched prefer churches that have fewer than 200 people, sing traditional hymns, and encourage children to be in the service with parents. I was also surprised by the 12 myths of ministry.<\/p>\n<p>Barna does not present a model for outreach or innovative ideas, but he offers information to determine which models and ideas might work for you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">Drew ZahnStratford, Iowa<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianbook.com\/Christian\/Books\/product?p=1006328&#038;item_no=23743\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"subhead\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The McDonaldization of the Church<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n<p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">by John Drane (Smyth &#038; Helwys, 2002)<\/p>\n\n<p>I like McDonald&#8217;s. My wife accepted Christ at McDonald&#8217;s. I go to a megachurch some might call the McDonald&#8217;s of the American church. So I approached John Drane&#8217;s book wondering if I&#8217;d be swayed to an irreconcilable criticism of the way my church does things. Instead, I left hopeful about the future.<\/p>\n<p>Drane draws from George Ritzer&#8217;s &#8220;McDonaldization thesis&#8221; regarding society&#8217;s development throughout modernity. Ritzer sees four values: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. Our material goods and, increasingly, our relationships and desires are quickly manufactured and brought to the marketplace. We obediently walk through roped-off receiving lines, gobble up what&#8217;s put before us, and move on to the next entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>Churches have grown over the last half-century by embracing values of size, spectacle, expertise, and efficiency, and have taken the attributes of a system-machine-package. An SMP can shepherd only so long.<\/p>\n<p>Drane sees seven characteristic people groups, from traditionalists to hedonists, trying to find a place. Many fail to find it in church.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We spend most of the time looking at the backs of other people&#8217;s heads.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>How can the church reshape itself as a home where Christ ministers to all types of people? Drane does not want to replace one SMP with another. No, he prescribes circumspection, plus a commitment to explore the essence and spirit of Christ&#8217;s call, and the resulting  implications for the church in this diffuse culture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-article-bio\">David ZimmermanLombard, Illinois<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group aligncenter is-style-sidebar has-global-padding is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianbook.com\/Christian\/Books\/product?p=1006328&#038;item_no=39355\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God<\/strong><\/a><br>\u00a0\u00a0by Lee Griffith (Eerdmans, 2002)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0060392452\/?tag=christtoday-20\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Stupid White Men<\/strong><\/a><br>\u00a0\u00a0by Michael Moore (Regan, 2002)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0140282025\/?tag=christtoday-20\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Age of Spiritual Machines<\/strong><\/a><br>\u00a0\u00a0by Ray Kurzweil (Penguin USA, 2000)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianbook.com\/Christian\/Books\/product?p=1006328&#038;item_no=069412\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Bible As It Was<\/strong><\/a><br>\u00a0\u00a0by James L. Kugel (Belknap Press, 1999)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/0684844419\/?tag=christtoday-20\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>The Clash of Civilizations<\/strong><\/a><br>\u00a0\u00a0by Samuel Huntington (Touchstone Books, 1998)<\/p>\n<p>\n<span style=\"\" class=\"\">ON THE NIGHTSTAND<\/span><br>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">What Tony Campolo is Reading<\/h2><br><br>\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-copyright\">Copyright &copy; 2003 by the author or Christianity Today\/<em class=\"citation\">Leadership<\/em> Journal.\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/le\/help\/permissionsprivacy\/permissions.html#answer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"copyright\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> for reprint information on<em class=\"citation\">Leadership<\/em> Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grow Your Church from the Outside In by George Barna (Regal, 2002) Studying people who had and hadn&#8217;t attended church in the previous six months, researcher George Barna says unchurched people were more likely to be self-sufficient, logical, assertive, daring, and to have tasted all the Christianity they care for. Barna concludes that the church&#8217;s <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[1363,1479],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154,160],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[683,156,685],"tax_ctp_tags":[3604,3609,3610,3646,4809,5074,5190],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-19967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-david-zimmerman","tax_ctp_authors-drew-zahn","tax_publications-2003-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_publications-spring_2003-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-church-attendance","tax_ctp_tags-church-growth","tax_ctp_tags-church-health","tax_ctp_tags-community-life","tax_ctp_tags-research","tax_ctp_tags-statistics","tax_ctp_tags-trends"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Growing Edge In Brief: - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Grow Your Church from the Outside In by George Barna (Regal, 2002) Studying people who had and hadn&#039;t attended church in the previous six months,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Growing Edge In Brief: - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Grow Your Church from the Outside In by George Barna (Regal, 2002) Studying people who had and hadn&#039;t attended church in the previous six months,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Drew Zahn and David Zimmerman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"CMS Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3\"},\"headline\":\"Growing Edge In Brief:\",\"datePublished\":\"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/\"},\"wordCount\":616,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/\",\"name\":\"Growing Edge In Brief: - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Grow Your Church from the Outside In by George Barna (Regal, 2002) Studying people who had and hadn't attended church in the previous six months,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Growing Edge In Brief:\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3\",\"name\":\"CMS Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CMS Admin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Growing Edge In Brief: - CT Pastors","description":"Grow Your Church from the Outside In by George Barna (Regal, 2002) Studying people who had and hadn't attended church in the previous six months,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Growing Edge In Brief: - CT Pastors","og_description":"Grow Your Church from the Outside In by George Barna (Regal, 2002) Studying people who had and hadn't attended church in the previous six months,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/","og_site_name":"CT Pastors","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","article_published_time":"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Drew Zahn and David Zimmerman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CTpastors","twitter_site":"@CTpastors","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/"},"author":{"name":"CMS Admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3"},"headline":"Growing Edge In Brief:","datePublished":"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/"},"wordCount":616,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/","name":"Growing Edge In Brief: - CT Pastors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website"},"datePublished":"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2003-04-01T00:00:00+00:00","description":"Grow Your Church from the Outside In by George Barna (Regal, 2002) Studying people who had and hadn't attended church in the previous six months,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Growing Edge In Brief:"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","name":"CT Pastors","description":"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization","name":"Christianity Today","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","caption":"Christianity Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3","name":"CMS Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CMS Admin"}}]}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Growing Edge In Brief:","url":"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Uncategorized","author":"Drew Zahn and David Zimmerman","creator":"Drew Zahn and David Zimmerman","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"CT Pastors","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2003-04-01T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"2003-04-01T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2003-04-01T00:00:00Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Growing Edge In Brief:\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/pastors\\\/content\\\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/pastors\\\/content\\\/growing-edge-in-brief-3\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"\"},\"articleSection\":\"Uncategorized\",\"author\":\"Drew Zahn and David Zimmerman\",\"creator\":\"Drew Zahn and David Zimmerman\",\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[],\"dateCreated\":\"2003-04-01T00:00:00Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2003-04-01T00:00:00Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2003-04-01T00:00:00Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/christianitytoday.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","byline":{"writer_byline":"Drew Zahn and David Zimmerman","writer_byline_override":""},"primary_category":null,"secondary_categories":[],"featured_video":null,"related_articles":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19968,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19967\/revisions\/19968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_authors?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_books","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_books?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_categories?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guides","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guides?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_format?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_multimedia","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_multimedia?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_point_editor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_point_editor?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_publications?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_tags?post=19967"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_topics?post=19967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}