Do you live in a mission field?

The Christian Post, a new discovery for me, has a great article on the need for church planting and evangelism here in the U.S.:

America Still 'Less Reached' Despite Church Planting Surge

(By the way, if you think you are living in a Christian nation, c'mon.  Are you kidding?) 

The decline in churches is very visible if you take a drive through some Chicago neighborhoods with me.  There are areas of the city where most of the historic church buildings that used to serve the community are now converted to condos.  And understand that those churches have not been replaced.  There are simply fewer churches and fewer people following Christ per capita in the city.

I have nothing against condos.  But, I do hate the fact that in a city where every church has to be granted special zoning to use a building for religious purposes, buildings that were already zoned are being sold to developers for profit rather than being reinvested into the kingdom. 

But the cool thing is, New Life has been gaining opportunities to partner with churches that are on the decline to restart them, building off of the legacy of their past while moving into an aggressive outreach-focused future.  As a church we've done 5 restarts and we're asking God for more opportunities to help reclaim church-zoned property for vibrant ministry and outreach.  Fun stuff.

Bottom line--America is a mission field and there aren't enough churches reaching people.  Don't be fooled by prominent churches into believing that churches are on the incline.  We're not--but I believe we can be.  But currently there are fewer churches closing than opening.  That's why we need to mobilize more leaders, creativity, risk, passion and resources into church multiplication.

Yeehaw!

Comments

[Mo]

Even the idea of church is often looked upon as old fashioned and pointless. (And from some of the churches I've seen, I can't blame people for that attitude!)

The cure for this is not becoming more flashy, more entertaining in order to catch people's attention. The cure is teaching people that their faith is based upon facts, not emotion, and not this nebulous concept called 'faith'.

People need to be trained in knowing not only what they believe, but most importantly, why they believe it. Then they can have the tools they need to intelligently stand against a world that screams at them day and night that every faith system is as good as another, if only you believe it strongly enough.