For a theological tradition that believes in the sovereignty of God and the triumph of his Son, we have become a cynical group.
We have our reasons, of course. Whatever the glorious expansion of the Church across the world may look like today, the Church is clearly waning in the West. It is worth noting, however, that the Church has done this before. The advance of the Barbarians across the decaying Roman Empire virtually extinguished the Gospel from Europe in the early middle ages. And let’s not forget that American spirituality was tepid and church attendance weak at the time of the Revolution, despite the Great Awakening. All this is to suggest that the mission is still on, the King is still reigning, and we should do our jobs.
A need, or rather an opportunity, of this scale calls for a massive undertaking far bigger than any single denomination. It falls to us to do our part and to engage cross-denominational efforts rooted in prayer, and fortified with human and financial resources.
What’s more, we should apply ourselves with urgency. The Church currently faces the greatest evangelistic opportunity in the history of North America. According to “The Great Opportunity,” an independent report commissioned by the Pinetops Foundation, if the present trends continue:
- Nearly 1.1 million young people will leave the church every year for the next 30 years.
- The current nominal Christian population will decline from 73% to 59%.
- The number of unaffiliated or secular people will double from 17% to 30%.
Currently, nearly 4,000 churches are planted a year. At the same time, nearly 3,700 churches close their doors every year. That delta does not account for the expansive population growth predicted by census data. The current church in America needs to return to the church-planting rates that were present in our country until the 1930s. We need, by God’s grace, to see the church-planting rate double to 8,000 churches planted every year.
The study acknowledges that their findings are an aggregation of other sources’ labors, but the sources used are respectable ones. Whatever the precise numbers may be, very few front-line church leaders in North America would dispute the general profile this study presents.
A need, or rather an opportunity, of this scale calls for a massive undertaking far bigger than any single denomination. It falls to us to do our part and to engage cross-denominational efforts rooted in prayer, and fortified with human and financial resources.
What could that kind of collaboration look like within our own tradition and across the evangelical Church?
