In a meeting with David Olson, “The American Church in Crisis.” A statistical look at the church in America. Let’s just say his first conclusion is that Barna and Gallup are optimists. The George’s (Barna and Gallup) report 47% of people in America attend church on weekends. According to Dr. Olson, that figure should be 17.3%. I think this is similar to a PCA study of a few years back.

Dr. Olson says the church today has these three challenges:

1. Start churches to make up for the closed churches each year.

2. Start churches to make up for the decline in attendance of churches over 40 years old.

3. Start churches to keep up with the population growth.

Even with a net growth of 300 churches per year in the U.S. we are 2900 church starts short each year in just keeping up with population. We have got to find ways to do better at starting MORE and HEALTHIER churches.

That’s why WRC does the School of Church Planting and why we need to network together in something like Net35. We cannot do it alone. One church budget nor one denominational budget will get it done. We won’t do it just by holding conferences. We’ve got to find guys, empower them, and send them.  

God help us to partner together to reach Your Kingdom, not build our own.

Tags: Church in Crisis, Church Planting, U.S.