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Comparing
the American
and World Church •
TODAY 37,000 people in •
3,000 new churches are opening every week worldwide. • The
Church in • In
1900, • In
Islamic (Muslim) •
After 70 years of oppression in • In
AD 100, only one in every 360 people was an active believer. Today one
out of
ten people is an active believer. • In
AD 100 there were 12 unreached people groups per congregation of
believers.
Today, with six million churches worldwide, there are 600 congregations
for
every remaining unreached people group! •
Worldwide, Christianity is growing at the rate of 90,000 new believers
every
day. (Source: “ The
decline of the Christian church in •
3,500 churches are closed each year while 1,100 new churches are
planted every
year, a net loss of 2,400. •
According to denominational statistics, virtually half the churches
across the •
During the last 10 years, the combined communicant membership of all
Protestant
denominations has declined by 9.5% or 4,498,242 while the national
population
has increased by 11.4% or 24,153,000. • No
county in •
Estimated • • In
the LCMS total members gained from the outside annually is down 30%
since 1971.
Total worship attendance has decreased 15% during this same time span. • Are
you as shocked as I was at these statistics? I was almost breathless.
You might
be asking the same questions I am asking. “How did this happen?”
”What do I
do?” “What can our church do?” God
has saved us and empowered us to live for his purposes. Among his
purposes for his
people is what the Bible refers to as the “Great Commission” (Matthew
28:18-20). It is Jesus’ last command to his disciples. He sent them out
to all
people to make disciples. Note that this is the Great Commission,
not
the Great Suggestion. Too many believers and churches simply do
not elevate
Christ’s command to share his life-saving gospel with the lost. To be a
disciple of Jesus, to be the Most
importantly, God would have each believer respond by faith, not out of
despair.
God asks us to believe, pray according to his word and act. The early
disciples
stepped out in faith; “After they prayed, the place where they were
meeting
was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the
word of
God boldly” (Acts 4:31). The
Problem: The Church identifies itself as
“gathered” rather than “sent.” Many
see the
church as only a gathering of people in a church-looking building.
Let’s face
the hard reality that although we say that the purpose of the church is
to
proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost world; our practical
theology
expressed in our actions speak louder than any vision statement, any
motion
passed by unanimous decision or any rousing sermon. Only when the
church is
convinced that God’s sending is a significant aspect of its divine
“genetic” make
up will the Christian church in the Jesus
said, “Peace
be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John
20:21)
Again he said “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
comes on you;
and you will be my witnesses in Jesus
intended
every one of his disciples and his church to be “going” - to be a
living
mission. This sent aspect of our identity reflects the relationships
among the
persons of the Godhead. The Father sent Jesus (John 3:16, 20:21) and
Jesus and
the Father sent the Spirit (John 14:26, 15:26). It then follows that
God would
send us, his redeemed. God’s sending is a gracious mission because he
tells us
that in our going he “will be with us” (Matthew 28:20) and the
very
Gospel message we deliver is the news of free salvation in Jesus. We
must clearly
hear the commission of Jesus to “go” to the lost, and build our
identity as
“divinely sent” into every aspect of our ministry together. Let’s have
a
balanced understanding of the church as “gathered” and “sent” and
thereby
fulfill God’s calling on our lives as disciples and his calling on our
lives
together as church. Rev. Gene
Goldsby |