Below is the interview with David Kinnaman, President of The Barna Group and a man who has a heart for the Lord. Keep an eye on him!

David Kinnaman is the President and Strategic Leader of The Barna Group. He is the author of the best-selling book, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, and the Barna report, Teens and the Supernatural.

Since joining Barna in 1995, David has designed and analyzed nearly 500 projects for a variety of clients, including Columbia House, Compassion International, Easter Seals, and Focus on the Family just to name a few.

David and his wife, Jill, live in Ventura, California, with their three kids.

Interview
1. How did you get in the field you’re in?

I can really say God led me into it. I was going to college and I planned to be in ministry. My dad is a fulltime pastor, but he discouraged me from going into ministry for the sake of following in his footsteps; he wanted me to discern God’s call for my own life. I read one of George Barna’s books, titled User Friendly Churches, and it really inspired me to imagine how I could use research and strategic planning to think about the systems underneath the systems. I volunteered to become an intern at his company in Southern California, and once I graduated I became fulltime with the company.

2. What leaders have made a memorable impact on your life? Why?

My dad is someone I really admire. He’s got a great heart for ministry and terrific communication ability. He built a really effective church in Arizona and has been reaching the community. He’s really driven to be used in a significant way.

George Barna is another leader I really admire. He took me under his wing early on and mentored me in some of the best ways. He was more hands-off, and was willing to let me do what God’s called me to do. He’s been helpful and challenging in focusing my skills and abilities. He has a great passion to serve God’s people.

3. What is the biggest opportunity you see for organizations/ministries today? Why?

I think the opportunity to help people connect the dots in simple and profound ways is a huge opportunity for ministries. We’re living in a post-Christian culture, meaning Christianity is no longer the dominant viewpoint by which Americans interpret their role. We’ve asked people whether the resurrection of Jesus Christ was literally true, or just a story used to illustrate a larger principle, but not true. Three out of every four people believe it is true. Seven out of 10 say they’ve made a commitment to Jesus Christ. But most Americans are not living as if the resurrection is true, and most Americans are not living as if they’ve made a commitment to Jesus Christ. It’s a huge chance for us to connect the dots for people; to show them this is what it means to be living as how the resurrection actually happened. Out of a kingdom imagination, there are things we should be pursuing; that’s what God has called us to do. So many things are changing, and it makes for enormous opportunity.

4. What are the challenges that you see holding organizations/ministries back from this?

I think the biggest challenge is fear of change. We become so focused on minimizing critique of our organization, and in some ways start to be so effective in telling a particular kind of story, that it’s very hard to start something different or start a different story. The most vocal critics, although small in number, are often the ones steering the policy and vision decisions and that’s a danger. We aren’t showing the courage to pursue the passions that God wants us to pursue.

5. What would you say to the executive staff to encourage them to take that leap?

The single most important thing to spark change is the power of the vision. As you begin to have a clear mental picture of the preferable future, where you want to lead your organization toward, the more that vision becomes planted in your heart, the more the other things become distractions and obstacles to work through. And that’s what a leader really does, establishes the vision.

They’re able to summon courage and have the perseverance to stick to it. They’re able to hire and train the people that will make it work. God brings leaders to all different kinds of organizations. There are different kinds of leaders for different styles and time periods in a corporate life cycle. God also has people that are gifted as second-generation leaders; those that can take over from the founder and freshen-up the footprint and contours of the culture.