New Barna Report Reveals 'Unusual' Increases in Spiritual Activities
Tuesday, Apr. 4, 2006 Posted: 7:25:48AM EST

The Barna Group observed ''significant'' and ''unusual'' increases in many measures of spiritual activity in the last year. Rather than a growth in one or two religious activities, a new survey found growth in a majority of the core religious behaviors studied by the Barna group.

The combination of so many measures of spiritual activity growing at the same time is unusual, said George Barna, whose company has underwritten and conducted such research for more than 20 years.

"It is typical for us to see one or maybe two measures surge forward in a given year, only to stabilize or perhaps retreat to prior levels in subsequent years," the founder of the research institute added.

In 2006, however, there were increases in five of the seven core spiritual activities. Bible reading jumped to 47 percent of adults reading Scripture during a typical week after several years of stalled growth. Once at a 20-year low of just 31 percent in 1995, Bible readership made gradual increases and hit the highest level this year since the 1980s. the rest