GRAPEVINE, Texas (ABP) — “This is the time that is right for an explosion of biblical leaders,” Pollster George Gallup Jr. told a Texas audience June 30.
Gallup received the John Newport Foundation Annual Leadership Award for his years of research. The award, which honors a longtime administrator and scholar at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was presented by the foundation during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly in Grapevine, Texas.
Gallup — author, researcher, scholar and public speaker — served as president of the Gallup Poll for 50 years before retiring in June 2004. As a graduate of Princeton University, he opened the Princeton Religion Research Center in 1977.
The world of polling is a great opportunity to explore what's beneath the surface of life and see how people respond to God, he said. Today polls indicate many Americans are on a spiritual quest, he said.
“We so desperately need leaders that will exercise leadership with a biblical view,” he said. “We need to move quickly because, as somebody said, ‘Church is only a generation away from extinction.'”
Gallup suggested introducing the Bible as literature in schools to help keep the church alive and promote leadership. Recent research indicates many teachers think students cannot be properly educated without a working knowledge of the Bible, Gallup said. Familiarity with God leads to a more productive life, he said.
As a student Gallup questioned his faith, but he saw the questioning as a necessary process. “It has been rightly said, ‘The strongest faith is a challenged faith,'” he said.
Gallup is an Episcopalian but prefers not to argue about differences in faith practice.
“Why don't we all lift up all faith and tell our stories as Christians,” he said. “That's the way to reach people.”
Gallup said leaders should be aware of demographics. Likewise, technology can be a great ally to faith, because it allows a child in Afghanistan to share faith stories with a child in the United States, he said.
“God wants for and longs for a deep and resounding response from the American people,” he said.