The Next Chapter for the Church. r
Saw this Article in the KYOWVA Evangelistic Association: newsletter earlier this year,
I made a few editorial clippings but the overall message is we need to Prayer for the Church and have lots of work to do. Enjoy.
The American church is facing a series1of challenges regarding its future. 80% of churches pre covid, could be
in the category of subtracting or suryiving.
Those in the subtracting category are
those who are experiencing a numerical
decline. Those in the surviving category are
those who have currently reached
a state of plateau. Neither growing nor declining.
For the first time in the that Gallup has tracked American religious membership, more adults in the
United States do not
attend church than attend
church. In the book the Great De-churching,
author Jim Davis reveals,
"More people have left the church in the last twenty-five years than
all the new people who became Christians from
the First Great Awakening, Second Great
Awakening, and Billy Graham
crusades combined."
Many of those
declining congregations are made up of an aging
congregation who are growing weary and who also have
some uncertainty
about the
future of their local expression of the Kingdom of
God. We are seeing churches
close at a rate unlike anything
we have seen in America.
According to Lifeway Research, in
2019 approximately 3,000 Protestant churches were started in US, but 4,500
Protestant churches closed. Just
five years prior, in 2014, the same Lifeway
study found that 3,700 churches had
closed and 4,000 had opened.
Another challenge that must be considered is a diminished pool of those who preach the Word It
is not uncommon for
churches to face a ministerial search
that lasts more than a year.
Focusing
on keeping the people you have and not
reaching those who are lost. This type
of thinking also confuses what
it means to be faithful. Faithfulness is defined as keeping the lights on
and the door
open instead of being
on a mission to reach those who are outside of a relationship
with Christ. Faithfulness should be defined as being the best stewards
of God's resources.
The changes that are facing
us today require us to be very
intentional about
our solutions. It is also time for congregations to consider what
is possible if they were to unite their resources
with like-minded congregations. Church mergers have always
been a challenge,
but examples are available to give us hope for the
future.
In the event that a church makes the painful decision to no longer
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