The United States of America… a country known across the world as a Christian nation. “In God We Trust” is printed on every coin and bill, and church steeples boldly darken our skylines. So why do we need more churches?
- Between 50 and 75 U.S. churches close their doors every week.
- More than 80% of the churches in the U.S. have plateaued or are declining.
- In the United States alone, there are over 200 million unchurched people, making the U.S. the third largest mission field in the world.
- Since 1991, the number of adults in the U.S. who do not attend church has nearly doubled.
- The largest unreached people group in America are the twenty-somethings.
- 51.9 million people in the U.S. between the ages of 20-38 are not connected with the existing churches. (Gallup Poll)
- Eight million twenty-somethings alive today will no longer attend church by the time they turn 30.
- Our nation (a Christian nation) leads the world in every category of violent and domestic crime and social decay. (NationBuilder.com)
*Unless otherwise stated, these statistics are used with permission from Barna Research Online.
We do not need more of the same type of church, but we do need new churches! As Rick Warren says, “We need all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people!”
What about the existing churches? Why not spend our energy and resources helping revitalize declining churches? Some of the existing churches that are in decline can be revitalized. Unfortunately, most cannot because of established forms, traditions, mindsets, cultures, etc. Some churches have simply completed their life cycle but have been unwilling to acknowledge it because that would be too painful.
Every healthy organism lives, reproduces, and eventually dies; therefore it is natural that churches should be born, reproduce themselves into new churches, and then eventually die. Think about it… in all of history the greatest church planter of all time was probably the Apostle Paul, yet none of his churches exist today! However, "The Church" continues to exist because it reproduced by planting new churches!
We are committed to empowering leaders, churches, denominations, and ministries to create new kinds of churches that impact the world and transform their cultures. We do this by coming alongside you and tailoring our resources to meet your needs.
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