Major changes at major churches in the past month have left the Crystal Cathedral in California now under the leadership of Robert Schuller’s son, Robert, and Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., under the leadership of Senior Minister Bob Russell’s associate, Dave Stone.

The differences in the two transitions are notable:

Rev. Schuller, 79, told The Associated Press he plans to remain chairman of the board of international ministries at Crystal and stay active in the church. He will continue to appear with his son on the Hour of Power television ministry.

In contrast, Russell, 62, gave Stone decision-making power at the first of the year. Once he retires this summer, he will relinquish the pulpit entirely, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Russell detailed his retirement plan to Church Executive magazine last July.

Church leadership changes underscore another item of well-reported news this month about the aging of the baby boomers, the first of whom are turning 60 this year. A CBS story wonders about the impact for healthcare and the economy. I wonder about the impact for the Church.

According to researcher and author George Barna, in 2005 20-something Mosaics were the generation least likely to attend church in a typical weekend (41 percent) versus 42 percent of Baby Busters (40-somethings); 46 percent of Baby Boomers (60-somethings);and 51 percent of Elders (80-somethings).

The graying of the congregation is nothing new to church leaders who have watched the decline of youth in attendance for a few decades.

Average church attendance in the United States has hovered in the 40th percentile for the past 65 years, however, according to Barna and others who began measuring earlier, such as the Princeton Research Center. The findings published here in The First Measured Century report make a very interesting read on the 20th Century in America.

More significant than church attendance was a change in the view of truth during the 20th century, according to the report. Religious ethnocentrism declined significantly and across multiple generations.

Research from one U.S. high school showed that 91 percent of students surveyed in 1924 were comfortable with the statement, "Christianity is the one true religion and all peoples should be converted to it." When the same questionnaire was administered to the students in 1977, only 38 percent agreed. When it was administered again in 1999, 42 percent agreed, a statistically insignificant difference from 1977.

So it will be interesting to see the reaction of the country now to a story about missionaries converting people to Christianity and being killed in the attempt. The news captured the attention of the country 50 years ago when in January of 1956 five missionaries were slain while attempting to make contact with the Waodani Indians of Ecuador, known then as the Aucas.

Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Pete Fleming and Ed McCully not only agreed with the statement that Christianity is the one true religion and all peoples should be converted to it, they lived and died by it.

Were they ethnocentric? A movie based on the events of 1956, End of the Spear, opens in theaters Friday, Jan. 20, to portray missionaries in a positive light, showing how they literally brought life to a culture of death and violence.

I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Saint, Nate Saint’s son, and traveling with him and his adopted grandfather from the Waodani tribe, Mincaye. The man that killed Steve’s father has become his own best friend. What’s more, he has become a missionary of sorts himself. You can read more about Mincaye’s own mission work in Christianity Today magazine.

Would Mincaye agree that Christianity is the one true religion and all peoples should be converted to it?

Steve translated for Mincaye as he spoke to a church near Hyderabad, India, where a pastor was martyred last spring by Hindu extremists:

"I said to myself, why would God love me so much that he would give his only son to die for me? If God loves me that much I have to go tell other people, too. Even though I live a long ways away, that’s why I came to see you. Now who’s going to tell the others?"

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