"Unchurched" defined: 'those who are not members of a church or have not attended services in the previous six months other than for special religious holidays, weddings, funerals or the like.' (Aubrey Malphurs).
George Barna indicates that the number of unchurched Americans has increased 92% in the last thirteen years.
Probably the most startling information that I have recently discovered is that 'there is a much larger segment of Americans who are currently leaving churches precisely because they want more of God in their life but cannot get what they need from a local church.' (George Barna).
What does this all mean? It means that change is needed and needed soon. We have been too slow to change. Some of my well intentioned pastor friends have told me "David, change comes slow. Give us more time." "Our churches are slow to change and we don't want to upset the apple cart". I understand more about change today than I did 20 years ago, because changing is uncomfortable for me too, the older I get. But we need to change now! I contribute this attitude regarding change to one statement which I was taught in Bible School:
"Deal with things the way they are and not the way they ought to be."
I have altered that statment to read:
"Deal with things the way they are until you can change them to become what they ought to be."
My friends are telling me to slow down and be patient. This is what I tell them: "I have been waiting 40 years to see our churches and Bible Institutes change". Very few have even made the attempt. Thank God there are a few that are trying. My good friend Ray McAlister at Emmaus Baptist College is making some serious inroads to long needed change in our schools specifically in the area of accreditation.
I have been waiting 40 years to see if a new vision of outreach evangelism and missionary activity would begin. We have seen some pleasant changes in the increase of foreign missionaries doing indigenous church planting. But we have not seen an appreciable increase in soulwinning and outreach evangelism take place among our churches. If this trend continues for the next 20 years the number of churches in our fellowship of the ABA will drop significantly. The number of new works is abysmal. So far this year since the ABA national meeting we know of only 3 new works nationally.
It is time for our churches to change their attitude toward evangelism and repent of this gross negligence. God is removing his hand of blessing from our churches because we have been negligent. We need to change now. If we don't have a radical revival of outreach evangelism now there will be a significant drop in the number of our churches over the next 20 years which will shake us to our knees. And then...it will be too late!
David
4 comments:
"Deal with things the way they are, not how they are supposed to be" is usually an excuse to do nothing.
This quote is often used to discourage us from confronting racism in our churches, or from confronting unGodly behavior from various Christians.
That quote is a cop-out... nothing more.
I was told in one of our Bible Institutes that a pastor needs to wait 10-12 years to really be able to change things in a church.
The magic number I heard was three years to begin to change things, five years to really have an impact.
The irony is that the same people who demand that I force people to accept the KJV as the only true word of God and embrace traditional hymns the second they accept Christ are the same ones saying that positive change needs to happen slowly.
I have noticed something like that to because the Bible Institute I heard 10-12 yrs. is absolutly KJV only. It seems like there is a set of beliefs that go along with KJV only in parts of the country. Not as much in California when it comes to the music.
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