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 This was a lite read, Biblically speaking, but a good and challenging one nonetheless. In fairness, Barna's purpose was not to expound some great Biblical insight, but to report on what seems to be a new and exciting social movement inside (or outside, as your perspective dictates) the Christian faith.
I believe this trend seems to be new and different only because it's different from today's institutional norm. We have come to think of "church" as an activity. It's something we do, or something we attend, and it takes place between the hours of 10:00 and 12:00 each Sunday along with a bunch of other times we can add to that.
I don't think that's the proper way to look at "church." We, the followers of Jesus Christ, are the church whereever we are. The trend away from organized "churchianity" may be a new social movement, but given the right set assumptions, it can be thought of as very "first century" if you ask me.
Barna's premise is that God-loving Christians are leaving the "church" in mass numbers. My own personal twist on his thesis is that Christians are only leaving the organized denominations in order to meet much more like the first century Christians did in face-to-face, one-on-one fellowship with each other. No more worshipping with the back of someone's bald head (mine, for instance). We can worship God and encourage each other in the faith while sitting around our couches much more effectively in many cases. (Not to say that large gatherings with zillions of pews facing forward are wrong, of course. Just not as conducive to "provoking one another to love and to good works.")
I would not dare to suggest that Christians stop meeting together with other Christians. But I would encourage Christians not to assume that if someone doesn't meet with a group of several hundred people under the administrative care of a professional pastor, that they are not "going to church." They might be meeting with Christians in their homes far more often than once a week, and getting their fellowship outside of traditional church meeting places. That is very first-century, as church-owned buildings didn't crop up until the third century or so.
Read this book and ask yourself why you can't consider every moment in life to be an opportunity for ministry. Life is church around the clock. That is really the point worth making and emphasizing.
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