What is the Harvest Project?
The Harvest Project is a transformative initiative launched by Back to the Bible to redefine success in Christian ministries by shifting focus from traditional output metrics—like attendance, decisions, and reach—to meaningful outcomes such as spiritual formation, life transformation, and enduring fruit, addressing the widening "belief-practice gap" in American Christianity where many profess faith but few exhibit deep discipleship.
At its core, the project features the SALT Index (Scripture Absorption and Life Transformation), an annual, rigorous national benchmark survey that measures beliefs, practices, and tangible life changes across a representative sample, providing credible data to track spiritual health trends and serve as a wake-up call for renewal. Complementing this public credibility effort is the "Measure What Matters" campaign, which partners with ministries—offering free, customized tools, dashboards, and coaching funded by donors like the Green family—to establish private baselines and track internal progress in disciple-making.
Ultimately, this long-term movement fosters accountability, honesty, and effectiveness, aiming to close the discipleship deficit, reverse faith deconversion trends, and cultivate a Church that prioritizes formation over performance, with the inaugural 2025 report released in early 2026 sparking broader conversations about authentic gospel impact.
The Harvest Project is flipping the ministry scorecard from attendance to transformation. It confronts the belief–practice gap (60%+ identify as Christian, but only ~35% engage Scripture regularly) by championing fruit over reach as the new success standard. In short, if lives aren’t visibly changing, we’re not truly succeeding — no matter how high the headcount.
Soon to be released, The State of Christianity in America is centered on the inaugural 2025 SALT Index report that highlights a profound "belief-behavior gap" in American Christianity, where 61% identify as followers of Jesus, yet only 33% personally trust in salvation by grace through faith, nearly 50% never engage Scripture weekly, and a mere 13% align their behavior with God's standards—revealing high doctrinal knowledge but shallow formation, with metrics like 8% controlling anger and 5% consistently helping others underscoring invisible transformation.
Drawing on 50 years of misplaced emphasis on outputs like attendance and decisions rather than outcomes such as Scripture absorption and observable obedience, the campaign positions the SALT Index as a turning point, emphasizing that regular Bible engagement (4+ times weekly) correlates with stronger emotional health, moral alignment, and discipleship, while calling for a paradigm shift from exposure to impact. Through key messages amplified via media briefings, the initiative—backed by Back to the Bible—aims to spark national conversations on authentic spiritual health, urging ministries to measure what matters for renewal and reproducible faith in a nation with unprecedented access but unprecedented shallowness.