Something profound those of us who love the church need to think and pray about:
"There are churches all over the country exploding with growth and all kinds of new churches being planted...so how is it possible that there are 8 million less people attending church today than 20 years ago?" ~ Vince Anotucci, Founding Pastor of Forefront Church
3 comments:
what is going on? i just was thinking about this today. i was listening to some old maxwell stuff where he was talking about the number of churches in the 60's that had 2000+ people. there were like 10 or 20 churches in the US at that size. and now we have hundreds of churches over that size. yet, we're still in decline. what do we do? that's what i can't figure out . . . reading the shaping of things to come and the like causes me to rethink every "church growth" strategy i've ever considered. but, at the same time, the process suggested in these more "missional" approaches seems much less urgent, seemingly allowing people to drift into a passive form of outreach??? it's kind of like we know the answer to the question, "what's going on?" and that is, the "church" is in decline and if we keep doing what we've always done, we'll stay in decline. sure, our churches may grow, but the increasing rise of secularism will impact culture and people's lives far more than we will. i think i see what's going on, but i have no idea what to do about it???!!!
We don't need more churches like all the rest....
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Great thoughts, Jeremy. I agree. I think we know there is a problem, but really don't understand the reason behind our problem or how we go about "fixing" the problem. Pointing out, how all the more desperate we are upon God...
And maybe that really is this issue... Maybe we need to return to God in the O.T. "repentance" sense of "returning to God" - which includes repentance, humility, desperation and the expectation that God will hear, answer, forgive, heal and restore...
Ad as far "Deacon and Usher" - every church must be uniquely who God has called them to be while staying faithful to God's Word.
Thanks for the comments.
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