The Culture Around Your Church Determines How Best to Reach It

What makes Christianity contagious?  We are sufficiently familiar with some of the answers: Contagious Christianity is imaginative, engaging, enthusiastic, and growing. Those four ways we know; but three others warrant some explanation.

Cultural Relevance

Culturally relevant expressions of Christianity are much more contagious than culturally alien expressions.  The very early Christian movement had to schedule its first “council” to clarify and settle this important strategic principle.  The first constellation of house churches—in Jerusalem, led by James, constituted a culturally Jewish expression of Christianity.  Most (or all) of the believers in Jerusalem were Jews who affirmed Jesus as the promised Messiah.  Keeping Judaism’s Sabbath laws and customs, and worshiping in Aramaic, were completely natural to them.  Gentiles were very welcome in the Jerusalem church, if they submitted to circumcision, gave up their Gentile culture and adopted Jewish ways, and learned the Aramaic language.

There was, however, a problem.  Up north in Antioch, Gentiles were becoming disciples and were not submitting to circumcision, and so on.  So, as reported in Acts 16, James called a meeting in Jerusalem to settle the matter once and for all. Paul advocated that the faith should not impose one language and one set of customs on other peoples; the faith was called to adapt to every tongue and culture on the face of the earth.

Paul’s case prevailed, and the principle of (what came to be called) “indig­enous” Christianity became the policy of the early Christian movement.  Acts 16 reports the most important decision ever made to facilitate the expansion of Christianity—in every cultural context, in every age.  But it would be an under­statement to say that the Church has not consistently followed the policy.

Often, the Judaizing principle operates in more informal ways, short of official policy, in which Christian leaders simply assume that a specific dialect, and a sub-culture’s customs and aesthetic, are necessary for Christian expression and experience.  This was one problem that John Wesley observed in his Church of England in the eighteenth century.  The “common people” did not speak establishment Christianity’s language. They did not dress, conduct themselves, and enjoy the same kind of music that characterized polite, refined “Christian” society.  How could such people become “real Christians?”  You know the rest of the story.  Methodism’s approach began on the people’s turf, and the approach adapted to the “common people’s” style, language, aesthetics, and music, and a contagious movement emerged—of, by, and for the people that establishment Christianity had written off as unfit for Christianization.

We should not assume, in most of our churches, that we are at all past that problem today. Many secular people are not like  “good church people,” culturally, and they do not understand stained-glass voices and ecclesiastical jargon.  In case you have not noticed, among the unwashed pagan masses, there is no epidemic interest in eighteenth century pipe organ music!

As Jesus, in the Incarnation, took on Galilean culture and spoke Galilean folk-Hebrew, so his Body the Church is called to extend such incarnational expressions to every people.  Then Paul modeled the way, as he became “all things to all people” that “some might be saved.”   The indigenous principle can be stated in one sentence.  Each people’s culture is the natural medium for expressing God’s revelation to them.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George Hunter

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comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

You Can’t Love a City if You Don’t Know a City, Part 1

“The city” is an emerging phrase that seems to be embraced by a growing number of Christians. I intentionally say they are embracing the phrase, because I do not think that all are actually embracing the city, but rather they are embracing the idea of embracing the city.

I think that the song “God of this City” by Bluetree (sung here by Chris Tomlin) is a great powerful song that gets at the longing– Christians want to embrace, engage, serve, and reach cities. Fair enough. It is a good thing.

As one who grew up on Long Island outside NYC and planted my first church in Buffalo among the urban poor, I love the concept of “city reaching.” Yet, I am convinced that you cannot love a city if you do not know a city.

Now, full disclosure, I am biased. I run a research firm and we do city research, so you should be aware of that. I run a research firm because I believe that we need to know so we can engage.

Over the next few weeks I plan to do a series on city KNOWING related to city REACHING. I will draw from several sources (and feel free to suggest other models as well). First, I will use some examples from the study we did in Austin, TX for the pastors and churches there. Second, I will draw some on some research I’ve done on San Diego and Baltimore. Third, I will point to some ethno-linguistic research on people groups in cities. Finally, I will actually walk through a report on church planting in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore corridor. These will be done concurrently rather than consequentially, because the church planting study is going to be released here at the blog for you to consider and discuss and I will have more posts about that than the others.

My hope is that this will generate some ideas about how you might do city research AND encourage you to learn more about your context to be faithful in God’s mission there.

Read Part 2 of this series here.

Read more from Ed here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

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Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

You Can’t Love a City if You Don’t Know a City, Part 5

I’ve been slowly working through this series about how to understand our cities so we can better reach them with the gospel.

In today’s post, which I co-wrote with Philip Nation, we want to focus in on how to get a study started and what might be the result from one in your own city.

The groups that meet together for the sake of the city face a formidable challenge. How does a group move from simply understanding the state of their city to acting on what they know? For the church, simply understanding the make-up of a city is helpful, but never enough. Our task is to turn the city upside down because we’ve proclaimed that there is a King whose name is Jesus (see Acts 17:1-7).

But, since beginning this series, many have asked how to start such a process and what they can expect from it. Let us give a few answers to those questions.

Where to start?

We find that in many cities the group is already there. It has normally taken on the form of the prayer gatherings of pastors and other believers. It is often a transdenominational group that is active in praying and occasionally mobilizing for certain evangelistic efforts such as a large crusade. Such groups can make the decision that combining their current efforts (of prayer and evangelistic efforts) with an in-depth knowledge of the city can mobilize churches in greater ways. So, if you are a part of such a group, the foundation is already being laid for a greater impact on your city.

But, if you’re reading this and are unaware of any such group in the city, don’t let that dissuade you. It is certainly possible that a few church leaders could simply decide that reaching deeper into their city is a necessary step and a greater understanding is needed.

What else is there to know?

Sometimes I encounter people who are certain that they have a full grasp on the nature of their city. From a demographic standpoint, that is possible. After all, there is a certain amount of information you can glean from a quick Google search. But, knowing the ethnic diversity (or lack thereof), spread of age ranges, and the like can only tell you so much.

In our City Studies, one of our major goals is to identify the affinity groups in each city. The affinity groups that you readily think about can be found through surface level demographic surveys (generational groups, ethnicities, education levels, etc.). But there are unofficial “tribes” that exist in a city that can only be discovered through a robust research process. In one city we studied, with approximately 2 million residents, we found 140 tribes that included everything from pockets of ethnic families to swimmers to woodworkers. By doing a survey of the residents of the city, we were able to not only identify these affinity groups but the percentage of believers among them. In fact, in this particular city, swimmers were the tribe with the least percentage of believers among them. A demographic study could never show give you that kind of information. But what it means is… well, read on.

Actionable information

So what do you do when you discover that the tribe in your city with the greatest percentage of lost people is swimmers? The issue that gives me the greatest hope is that now the church will begin to see the bridges they have into the community where the lost reside.

If I’m a pastor in that town, I start asking who in my church swims regularly. As a group of churches seeking to reach the city, we inform our intercessors to begin praying regularly at the times when people are most likely coming and going from swimming for believers to have evangelistic conversations with their friends. A group of churches might even join together to begin sponsoring the swim meets and finding other ways to serve that tribe.

But that is just one example. Other insights can be gleaned from these studies as to the ethnic make-up of a region in the city, educational level of sections of the city, and even the societal needs that are present. Each affinity group that is discovered is a potential place where the gospel can be introduced and compassion can be shown. Whereas demographics are often just a smattering of factoids in a presentation, our hope is to give a group of churches actionable information that will lead to gospel engagement.

Mobilizing churches

The information gleaned about your city should lead to doing something about it. But too often, a bit of knowledge hits the church and rather than feeling ready, they can feel overwhelmed. Recently, the well-known actress and activist Ashley Judd spoke about the tragedy of child sex trafficking in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a heart-wrenching presentation worth your time. And, for a typical church in America that averages 80-100 in attendance, it may seem like an overwhelming issue to tackle.

But imagine the work that ten or twenty or fifty churches could accomplish if they joined arms for the sake of the gospel; proclaiming the good news to every man, woman, and child; saving spiritual and physical lives; and caring for the hurting in their city. Congregations working together for the good of the city are a powerful force in the hands of Christ.

I can see believers emboldened by the joint work with brothers and sisters in Christ to assault the darkness in their city and shine the light of Christ in places where He has not been known. We’re not just talking about pastors gathering once a month to pray for one another – though that is a very good work. Now believers across a city are getting to know one another, provoking one another to love and good deeds, presenting Christ to new tribes in the city, and caring for the hurting in His name.

The actionable knowledge that comes from researching a city can lead churches to leverage their resources into the areas where Christ has not been made known. It will help to understand where new churches should be planted and established churches need to be revitalized. It is a work that will help you to know more and, I hope, act more.

Read other posts in this series here: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 6.

Read more from Ed here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

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COMMENTS

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Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

You Can’t Love a City if You Don’t Know a City, Part 6

Today on the blog I have Glenn Barth dropping by as we continue looking at city reaching from a research perspective. Glenn is well-known in the city reaching community (and yes, there is a community working on these ideas). He is the author of The Good City: Transformed Lives Transforming Communities. I have been impressed with his work and asked him to drop by here at the blog.

We talked a few weeks ago about the value of face-to-face interviews and I asked him to write more. Here are his thoughts… and he will be around today to interact with your questions and comments.

Here’s Glenn:

How Face-to-Face Interviews Create Cross-Domain Movements

 

In an age of online surveys and an ocean of anonymous quantitative research, face-to-face interviews bring together the power of information and relationship-building to provide breakthroughs for collaborative movements in cities. I actually spend my time guiding Christian leaders to take the first step toward understanding the church outside the walls of local congregations as a part of an exploration process.

Before launching out with a small group of leaders to mobilize others to work with you in transforming your community, slow down long enough to ask questions that can help bring understanding about what God is already doing in your city. We advocate doing face-to-face interviews using a combination of quantitative and qualitative questions. The quantitative questions will give quick snapshots of information in Yes/No, multiple choice, Likert rating scales, and the like. Carefully crafted open-ended qualitative questions will reveal personally customized information with the nuance of the spoken word (e.g. voice inflection, facial expression, body language, and more). This latter approach is vital in building a relationship with those being interviewed.

The key is listening, not promoting. The best approach has three elements:

1) Look at the person you are interviewing.
2) Give him/her verbal affirmation.
3) Give him/her visual affirmation.

I encourage interviewers to take notes on paper rather than recording the interview electronically or typing notes into a computer. Some have told us they would love to bring a video camera on the interviews. Once a piece of technology like a camera or digital recorder enters the conversation, the other person may become less candid. We want to build an authentic relationship as well as collect information.

This is a survey biased toward action, based on what is learned. Aim toward the expansion of a sense of collaboration with the first focus on getting to know followers of Christ who are in a variety of leadership roles and who may be able to influence the culture of the city. We have found it best to start with qualitative questions that begin with the person’s sense of God’s calling or personal mission and move toward the mission and history of the organization he or she works with. Ask about pressing issues confronting the community and suggested solutions. Near the end of the interview, explore the person’s willingness to collaborate with others to address important community issues through service using his or her unique mix of gifts and strengths.

In Modesto, CA, we have just completed an interview process that engaged a team of 18 marketplace, ministry, and church leaders. These leaders conducted 108 interviews with leaders of organizations in each of seven areas that shape and influence culture. I anticipate that in the near future, with the information and relationships built that there will be collaborative work that comes together to address issues that are of concern to many in this city.

There are limitations in using this approach. First, you will have a smaller sample size than most quantitative surveys. Second, what I have described is not a random sample. The survey subjects in this case are carefully chosen with the aim in mind of building a coalition of leaders to serve the city. Those leading the survey process will need to be careful to include persons of both genders, persons of each significant ethnic group represented in their city, and persons from different generations.

This type of survey takes a committed corps of leaders. In Modesto, it took six months to bring together the leaders who would commit to doing these interviews. I come alongside city leadership teams as a coach. We make it clear from the start that the work they choose to do is their work. The local leaders will guide the process and achieve outcomes which they choose to pursue.

Upon completion of this type of survey, it’s important to close the loop with a survey report to those interviewed. We recommend calling together a meeting in which the leaders of the survey process outline next steps based on the conclusions from the survey.

Doing this kind of research is an important part of knowing a city. It creates community as it discerns the community and empowers innovative collaboration for city transformation.

Glenn is the President of Goodcities, a ministry helping leaders collaborate for city transformation. Here is a description of their work:

What is a good city? A good city is a place where people find meaningful employment, create families, live in neighborhoods, engage in the arts, education, government, and live out their faith. In a good city, unjust systems are confronted and compassionate help is offered to those in need. It is a place where God’s redemptive plans are experienced by its citizens and sojourners. A good city offers the experience of God’s common grace, the opportunity to experience God’s salvation, and a future filled with hope.

Let me encourage you to connect with Glenn at www.goodcities.net or on twitter: @glennbarth.

Read the prior posts in this series here: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5.

Read more from Ed here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

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COMMENTS

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Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

You Can’t Love a City if You Don’t Know a City, Part 4

I’ve been working through some idea about researching a city in order to reach a city.

In part 2, I introduced a case study of church planting in Baltimore / Washington. This study is an unpublished report on the current state of church planting in the Washington DC and Baltimore Corridor focuses on identifying the church plants and who is planting them.

I found it fascinating and one helpful element to understanding what God is doing in a city.

Here is more from that study.

—————————————————————————————

Church Planting in Washington DC / Baltimore Corridor

New Church Plants Identified

Church planting has continued to expand over the last five years.

  • 274 churches were identified that have started in the last 5 years
  • It is estimated that as many as 70 churches or a quarter of the total of the new churches have not been identified. These churches are usually independent, non-English speaking, small denominations, or house churches, etc…

 

The Following Questions Relate to the 274 Identified Churches.
Who are Planting Churches?

Denominations/associations lead the way over all other efforts combined in the planting of churches.

222 churches were planted by denominations/associations 81%
31 by national and local networks 11%
54 by church planting churches (have planted 3 or more churches) 20%
47 are independent plants 17%

The total adds up to over 274 and over 100% because of co-sponsoring between church planting churches, networks, and denominations.

What Denominations/Associations are Planting Churches?

22 denominations/associations were identified for planting churches. Southern Baptists are starting 49% of the new churches.

133 by Southern Baptist 49%
17 by Assemblies of God 6%
14 by Church of God Cleveland 5%
10 by Church of the Nazarene 4%
9 by Christian Church 3%
6 by Foursquare 2%
6 by Anglican 2%
27 by other denominations/associations 10%
52 not by denominations 19%
What Networks are Planting Churches?

National networks are just getting established in the area. Although few in number, the pastors generally have more training, are better funded, and experience a higher survivability rate.

8 by Baltimore/Washington Christian Church network **
5 by Ecclesia *
3 by Stadia
3 by Orchard
2 by Acts 29
2 by ARC *
2 by Liberty
2 by New Thing
2 by Redeemer City to City *
2 by SENT **
1 by Kairos
1 by Virginia Evangelizing Fellowship
0 by Calvary
0 by Launch
by Mosaic *
by Vision 360
* National Network with a local representative
**Local Network

Who are the Church Planting Churches (churches planting 3 or more churches in our metro areas in the last 5 years)?

Although other churches were church planting churches 10, 15, or 20 years ago, most of these became church planting churches in the last 5 years. These church planting churches have been identified.

5 Capital Baptist Church, Annandale, VA
5 Mountain Christian, Jappa, MD** ***
5 New Life Christian, Chantilly, VA** ***

4 National Community Church, DC*
4 New Life Wesleyan Church, Waldorf, MD
4 Northwest Baptist Church, Reisterstown, MD

3 Capitol Hill Baptist Church, DC***
3 Church of the Resurrection, DC***
3 Grace Fellowship Church, Timonium, MD**
3 McLean Bible Church, VA*
3 Frontline of McLean Bible Church, VA*
3 by The Gathering of McLean Bible Church, VA*
3 Pathways Church, Bel Air, MD
3 The Falls Church, Falls Church, VA***
3 Word of Life Int. Church, Ashburn, MD

*Churches who are planting exclusively through multi-site locations.
**Churches planting through multi-site locations and new churches
***Churches with internship/residency programs for new church planting pastors

“For God did Not Give Us a Spirit of Timidity, But a Spirit of Power, of Love and of Self-Discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

—————————————————————————————

I find the list interesting. The people involved in the research tend to be non-denominational (with a Restoration / Independent Christian streak) so they are not generally denominational apologists. Thus, the overwhelming number of church plants being denominational is worth noting. When you combine Southern Baptists (who planted almost half) and Pentecostals (Assemblies of God, Church of God Cleveland, and Foursquare), you see a strong majority of the churches. Also of note: the lack of plants from mainline denominations.

Now, they may have missed some plants (though they worked hard to identify them), but I found this interesting. Networks get a lot of press and are doing great things, but denominations are doing much of the planting in this area. (It is probably helpful to note that the SBC targeted this region through something called Strategic Focus Cities, a denominational church planting initiative, and that probably increased the SBC numbers more than you would see in another city).

Read more on this series: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 5.

Read more from Ed here.

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| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Vision >

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

See more articles by >

COMMENTS

What say you? Leave a comment!

Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

You Can’t Love a City if You Don’t Know a City, Part 3

This is part 3 of a series on city research entitled, “You Can’t Love a City if You Don’t Know a City.”

When working in city research, you have to consider what to include. Many important things can and should be studied: language and immigration, poverty, church plants, church closures, parachurch presence, crime, etc. All of these are helpful, but I will try to share what a very basic project could involve. (Tomorrow, I will look again at an example of a church planting study. And, thanks to several comments in the last post as well as a few emails, I will also give you examples of other things that groups study.)

But, let me say at first that such research tends to be a multidenominational, regional effort. In most cases, no one denomination is well-suited to undertake the task. (Unless you are the Assemblies of God in Springfield, MO, where they have their headquarters and two, count ’em, TWO Bible colleges.)

It is not just that doing this research needs multiple denominations, it can actually help build unity and help churches focus on a common mission. Research is an area where churches can naturally partner without many theological concerns (like in church planting, for example).

We have found this works best when a city has a coalition or roundtable of pastors and churches working together, developing a plan, and implementing that research plan. The importance of this group is seen in:

 

  1. Praying together for your city.
  2. Working together to utilize the data and to share it with the rest of the churches in the city.
  3. Mobilizing individual believers, small groups, individual churches and churches working together to meet needs and share Jesus Christ is a task that is bigger than just a few churches.
  4. Determining how to fund the research – this is the equivalent of doing two national studies, only they are being focused on your city. Examples of ways to fund the research:
  • Shared equally by the coalition of churches
  • Shared by an expanded group of churches
  • Donors passionate about the city

As we look at doing city research, we want to have a good look at the churches and the people. For us, we want to create a benchmark survey of residents and a survey of churches. A benchmark study enables us to see if we really are making progress as we reach and serve our community.

For example, many city strategies are filled with enthusiasm about what they think they are doing, but often it is just enthusiasm without impact. They see people doing things, but they have no way to tell if they are making a difference. By tracking things every few years, we can see if we are making progress.

There are many ways to do this, but I will share two: the resident survey and the church survey.

One way to do a resident survey is through a “random digit dial” (RDD) phone survey of residents asking about their interests/affinities, their attitudes about local Christian churches, their religious preference and church attendance, their religious beliefs and specifically if they their about and relationship with Christ.

This provides a reading on the vitality of the churches in that metro area, the receptivity of people to the Gospel, and their affinities. The affinity groups provide tangible entry points that individual believers, small groups, or churches could seek to reach (more on that later). Since around 100 affinities are identified there are many avenues to motivate and mobilize believers to reach the lost right around them.

The church survey can be mailed to all Christian churches in the metro area and asks questions about who the church is reaching (number of new commitments to Jesus Christ and the age, education, ethnicity, and income of attendees), involvement of attendees in ministry, and how the church is seeking to reach people in their community. This helps the local city churches to know who is working in their community.

The end result is to get Christians, pastors, and churches thinking about their context more discerningly. We have found that the research PROCESS actually helps motivate churches for mission. And, to do it together.

It is fascinating to me to see how seldom churches communicate with each other. By surveying the churches, you learn more about who is already at work.

Studies like this enable them to learn who their co-laborers are in the harvest AND what that harvest field looks like.

Read previous parts of this series here: Part 1; Part 2; read Part 4.

Read more from Ed here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

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COMMENTS

What say you? Leave a comment!

Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

You Can’t Love a City if You Don’t Know a City, Part 2

Last week, I started a new series on city research and analysis. I will be taking several approaches, with examples and case studies along the way. And, feel free to suggest resources in the comments that would be helpful to include.

Part of knowing a city is knowing its churches. I will share more on that later from three separate studies, but knowing a cities church plants generally requires a different approach. Recently, Todd Wilson shared what I think is one of the best studies of its kinds– looking at church planting in a region.

The study, Church Planting in the Washington DC and Baltimore Corridor area, was put together by by Ron Johnson, Director of Accelerate. Accelerate is an alliance of church planting churches, networks, and denominations for the purpose of accelerating church planting in the Washington/Baltimore corridor.

I will be sharing it in several parts. First is an introduction to the report. See my comments at the end.

The State of Church Planting in the Washington DC / Baltimore Corridor 2005-2010
Why this Research?

A group of like-minded church planting leaders and ministries in the Washington – Baltimore metro area is seeking to collaboratively support church planting. The group seeks to champion the cause of church planting while minimizing organizational structures and overhead. These leaders are seeking to continue the work God is already doing through each of them while also looking for ways to work collaboratively to enhance the effectiveness of church planting in the geographic area.

The group is coming together as the Accelerate Alliance. The Accelerate mission is to:

  • Attract, inspire and equip Kingdom-minded leaders and
  • Connect them so they can
  • Collaborate with their time, talent and treasure to
  • Accelerate the creation of healthy, reproducing faith communities resulting in transformed lives and transformed communities

The first step in discerning the approach and strategy of Accelerate was to research and discover what God is already doing in church planting in the Washington DC / Baltimore metropolitan areas. A primary goal of the initial research was to discover how best to accelerate church planting in the area.

The vision for Accelerate was conceived and birthed by New Life Christian Church who has funded the initial work on Accelerate via Ron Johnson’s (the Director) time. Accelerate is a pilot initiative closely aligned with New Life and with Exponential (a non-profit national ministry that exists to champion church planting and who runs the Exponential Conference).

Healthy church plants start with spiritually, physically, and emotionally healthy church planters. We anticipate that the best path to accelerating planting in our area is through serving church planters. These findings will help guide us to determine how we best fulfill our mission and therefore advance the Kingdom.

Survey / Research Approach

Research was conducted to identify as many of the new churches planted in the last 5 years in the Washington DC / Baltimore metro area as possible. Denominational and network leaders were called, searches on the internet were conducted, school systems were asked for names of churches meeting in schools, and church planters were asked what other church planters they knew. 81 phone interviews were conducted with church planters, pastors of church planting churches and denominational leaders. There were 25 appointments with church planters. 15 church services were also attended to get a feel for the ministries of the new churches.

As part of the research questions were asked to discern the tensions and needs of church planters.

A team of church planting influencers from denominations, networks, church planting churches, and church planters met to review what was being learned and offer input toward meeting the needs of church planters.

Acknowledgments

This was an exhaustive search involving nearly 1/2 year of a person’s effort. However some limitations were recognized:

  • It is difficult finding and connecting with many churches under five years old. For example, over half of the churches meeting in schools in one county did not have an EIN number with the government, a web site, a yellow pages listing, or a white pages listing
  • It is difficult identifying non-English language / nationality churches because of the language barrier and they often do not use traditional advertising. Some of the non-English / nationality churches are use to maintaining a low profile in their own countries, so they take the same posture in the US
  • Many new churches remain under the care and financial oversight of a sponsoring church so records of them are more difficult to find
  • New independent churches with bi-vocational pastors are often hard to identify
  • The scope of the survey does not identify smaller faith communities like house churches that are not meeting in public places or can’t be found publically
  • These numbers represent surviving churches and don’t reflect others that did not make it to five years.

Observations of Demographic Populations that are Growing the Most

The diversity of the population continues to grow as people move here from all over the country and the world. Although different populations are often concentrated in areas, the population of the Washington DC / Baltimore corridor is one of the most integrated of cities in the country. The “church” often lags behind the culture in its response to demographic shifts.

These points are made by observation and talking to other church/denominational leaders. The 2010 census data detail is not yet published and the 2000 census would not reflect a lot of this change.

These demographic populations are growing the most.

  • Outer suburbs – although the economy slowdown greatly slowed down this trend
  • Hispanic population both in inner cities and older suburbs
  • Suburban African America population in Maryland
  • One denominational leader pointed to a growing African population in the city replacing the African Americans moving to the suburbs (this does not show up in a census study)
  • First generation immigrants in older suburbs and inner city whose first language is not English
  • 1.5 and 2nd generation children of immigrants everywhere who straddle culture but who experience life primarily in English
  • Urban centers with many high rise apartments especially near subway stops that are filled with young adults who are predominantly Caucasian, but also Asian and African American
  • Although the inner city poor population is not growing, it is becoming increasingly isolated from the church as thriving inner-city African American churches move to the suburbs to follow their constituents who are becoming middle class

This type of study is not intended to give you percents like a poll does, but it is an important and helpful approach in research. They have given their methodology (and you should be skeptical when research has no methodology). They have told you their limitations (and if they know those, it is a better project). The end result is a helpful look at planing in this area… more soon on that this week.

The next post on this case study will focus on the Executive Summary, who is planting churches, and the role of denominations and networks in church planting.

Interested in this series? Read Part 1 here; go to Part 3 here.

Read more from Ed here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

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COMMENTS

What say you? Leave a comment!

Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

Cultural & Religious Cheat Sheet

For the past week, I’ve blogged quite a bit on statistics and their use. I’ve discussed the misuse of stats, how to discern which stats are good and which are not, and even presented some new research on pastors’ views of the election and the use of stats.

You’ve responded with good questions and robust discussion (especially on my Facebook page). Through it all, I found a common theme in your tweets and comments: Where do I find accurate stats? While I can’t vouch for every research study conducted at every research firm under the sun, there are many trustworthy sources out there. You know their names, and I consider many of their leaders personal friends.

Since many of you use stats (as the research I presented yesterday showed) and want trustworthy ones to use, I thought I would share these stats I compiled for the Exponential Conference held this past April. These are as up-to-date as I could make them. But like any stat, they could be updated and changed. So before you use them, be discerning and verify them from the source listed in parentheses.

WORLD STATISTICS

• World population is over 7 billion people and growing at over 80 million per year (Population Media Center)
• Facebook has 1 billion monthly active users (Facebook)
• If the world were 100 people (100people.org)

  • 33 Christians, 22 Muslims, 14 Hindus, 7 Buddhists
  • 77 people would have a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 23 would not
  • 1 would be dying of starvation, 15 would be undernourished, 21 would be overweight
  • 48 would live on less than $2 USD per day
  • 87 would have access to safe drinking water, 13 would use unimproved water

 

UNITED STATES STATISTICS

• 827,609 abortions in 2007 (most recent data) (CDC)

Finance (endoftheamericandream.com)

  • Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income
  • Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million
  • Total U.S. credit card debt is more than 8 times larger o than it was just 30 years ago
  • Americans now owe more than $904 billion on student loans, which is a new all-time record high
  • 1.5 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2010. That represented the fourth yearly increase in bankruptcy filings in a row

Medication (endoftheamericandream.com)

  • 11% of women take antidepressants (highest in the world)
  • Children are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than Europe.

Sexually Transmitted Disease (SimplexLove.com)

  • One in five people in the United States has an STD.
  • Two-thirds of all STDs occur in people 25 years of age or younger.
  • One in four new STD infections occurs in teenagers.

We’re Number 1! or USA! USA! (endoftheamericandream.com)

  • Highest incarceration rate and the largest total prison population
  • Highest divorce rate in the world
  • Highest teen pregnancy rate
  • Most obese
  • More school shootings
  • Highest child abuse death rate
  • Produces more pornography
  • Gets more plastic surgery

PEOPLE ARE LOOKING (LifeWay Research)

• 88% of Americans agree “There is more to life than the physical world and society”
• 76% of Americans agree “There is an ultimate purpose and plan for every person’s life”
• 67% of Americans agree “A major priority in my life is finding my deeper purpose”
• 78% of Americans agree “It is important that I pursue a higher purpose and meaning for my life”

PEOPLE ARE BELIEVING (Pew Research Forum)

• 88% of American believe in God or a universal spirit
• 75% of Americans pray at least one a week

PEOPLE ARE WAITING

• 41% of the formerly churched said they would return to the local church if a friend or acquaintance invited them (LifeWay Research)
• 63% of Americans are willing to receive information about a local church from a family member (LifeWay Research)
• 56% are willing to receive it from friend or neighbor (LifeWay Research)

Read more from Ed here.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

See more articles by >

COMMENTS

What say you? Leave a comment!

Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

The Future of Christianity in the USA

Last week, I gave some reflections here on the recent Pew Forum data, most specifically about the rise of the “Nones.” I was glad to write more about the issue for USA Today. They put in on the front of the webpage yesterday and you can see it in your morning paper (page 10a) today.

In a news column, you have to keep you word count to a certain level, but I did write a longer version and thought I would share it here:

You’ve heard it suggested that the United States is simply Europe on a 50-year delay. Most churches will be museums before your grandchildren reach adulthood.
Though new numbers from Pew Research released this month point to a decline in American Protestants, no serious scholar believes that Christianity in America is on a trajectory of extinction. And, as a Ph.D. researcher and practicing evangelical Christian, I say to those who’ve read recent reports and come to that conclusion, “Not so fast.”

You see, many in the USA who identify as Christian do so only superficially. These “cultural Christians” use the term “Christian” but do not practice the faith.

Now it seems that many of them are even giving up the label, and those cultural (or nominal) Christians are becoming “nones” (people with no religious label).

Christian nominalism is nothing new. As soon as any belief system is broadly held in a culture, people are motivated to adopt it, even with a low level of connection. Yet, much of the change in our religious identification is in nominal Christians no longer using the term and, instead, not identifying with any religion.

In other words, the nominals are becoming the Nones.

I’ve seen this in my own family, growing up in an Irish Catholic community outside New York City. Yet, really, the Catholic Church was the church we didn’t go to. Today, I am an evangelical Christian and I attend church like one, but most of my extended family do not attend church– and don’t bother to call themselves Catholics any longer. The nominals became “the nones.”

Furthermore, the cultural value of identifying as a Christian is decreasing. When that happens, those whose connection to Christianity was more an identifying mark than a deeply held belief find that they don’t need that identity anymore. The label does not matter.

When we consider why someone does (or does not) label themselves as a Christian, we see three broad ways people identify as Christian.

Cultural Christians” mark “Christian” on a survey rather than another world religion because they know they are not Hindu, Jewish, etc., or because their family always has. “Churchgoing Christians” identify as such because they occasionally attend worship services.

On the other hand, “conversion Christians” claim to have had a faith experience in which they were transformed, resulting in a deeply held belief.

The recent growth in “nones,” I believe, comes primarily from cultural and churchgoing Christians shifting to the category no longer using a religious identification.

The obvious question is, why the decline at all and what does the future hold? Some may say this sounds exactly like what has happened in Europe.

Well, yes and no.

Europe’s religious decline happened for different reasons than what we are seeing here– bloody religious wars and a church/state alliance leading to mandated religions led to distaste and rejection of religion. That’s not the case in the United States and I don’t think we will go that path.

Yet, there is movement in religious identification.

This shift should cause us to consider three ramifications:

  • First, Christians continue to lose what some have called a home-field advantage. Christianity is no longer the first choice of many seeking spiritual meaning, and identifying as Christian is not necessary to be an accepted part of society.
  • Second, the squishy middle is collapsing. It makes less sense to be a cultural Christian today. Better to be spiritual than religious, unless your religion matters to you, as it does to devout Roman Catholics, Protestants and many others.
  • Third, Christianity is not collapsing, but it is being clarified.

If you cut through the recent hype, and look to studies such as the General Social Survey, you’ll find that the United States is filled with vibrant believers.

The survey shows that the evangelical movement has remained generally steady from 1972 to 2010 (and, contrary to what you might have heard, the data include young adults), that church attendance has declined among mainline Protestants, and that the “nones” have increased.

But no collapse.

Other examples of resiliency abound.

Each year, Gallup asks Americans whether they consider themselves a born-again or evangelical Christian. Since 1992, the percentage has fluctuated from a low of 36% in 1992 to a high of 47% in 1998.

The 2011 yearly aggregate is 42%, very similar to the percentages over the past eight years.

So, Christianity has hardly been replaced by the “nones.”

So, if not extinction, what does the future look like? If trends continue, I believe that the future will look more like the present-day Pacific Northwest. There, we find a majority of the population is spiritual but not religious, yet vibrant churches and devout Christians abound.

For example, in the Foursquare Church (a mid-size Pentecostal denomination), the Northwest District oversees 150 churches. Fifteen years ago, 66 of those churches did not exist. Those 66 churches alone report 40,000 new believers. Similar examples of such vibrant growth, there and elsewhere, demonstrate the point.

So, in an increasingly secular environment we have vibrant congregations. That’s the future.

It’s true that many mainline churches in America, like their European counterparts, have closed down and converted into concert halls and museums. But I find it telling that churches like Sojourn Community church in Louisville are buying back former cathedrals, and filling them anew with vibrant young congregations.

Even in the shadow of the decline of cultural and nominal religion, the future of vibrant Christianity in America is all around us.

The future of Christianity in America is not extinction but clarification that a devout faith is what will last.

Christianity in America isn’t dying, cultural Christianity is. I am glad to see it go.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

See more articles by >

COMMENTS

What say you? Leave a comment!

Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

Clarity Process

Three effective ways to start moving toward clarity right now.

The Rise of the Nones

Recently, the Pew Forum released, and USAToday’s ever-vigilant Cathy Grossman reported on, another study that I think is helpful for us to understand the context in which we live. In the study, they indicate that the number of Americans with no religious affiliation (identified as the “Nones,” as in “none of the above”) is climbing.

I had the opportunity to look at the data beforehand, and was not particularly shocked by it, though many will likely trumpet this as a huge shift. It’s not. This is simply the natural progression of what is taking place in our context.

A big part of what is happening is that the “Nominals”– and by that I mean nominal mainliners primarily, but nominal evangelicals as well– are shifting and becoming the “Nones.” This makes sense, as the cultural currency (in other words, the value a society places on identifying as a Christian) is decreasing. And thus, we see a movement away from Christian identity as a cultural value.

I’ve written on multiple occasions about how the term Christian is used. Most recently I talked about “census Christians” (census Christians are those who, when filling out a form, pick “Christian” rather than “Hindu” or “Jew”) and “churchgoing Christians” (churchgoing Christians considering themselves Christians because they occasionally attend a church.) I believe that this move is primarily the result of people who are “census” and “churchgoing Christians” shifting to the category of those who don’t have any identification at all– the Nones.

Furthermore, I don’t think this is all bad. As I’ve discussed on The Exchange (see the entire episode here, as well as a short clip here), there is great opportunity in being able to speak with more definition and clarity about what a Christian is, and is not.

So, should we be alarmed? First, one of the characteristics of faiths like mine is that we tend to see opportunity in everything. Furthermore, being a monotheist, all monotheist faiths tend to see what goes around them either as the blessing of God or in some sense the judgment of God. So in other words, when the people of Israel in the Old Testament saw bad news and were in crisis, they did not believe that there was no God. They simply believed that God was disciplining them. So, in that great tradition, I think that God is teaching us something through this difficulty. I think God has a lesson here for our churches.

As such, I think it’s fair to say three things:

  • First, we continue to lose what some have called our home-field advantage. On a growing basis, identifying oneself as a Christian is not a means to societal advancement but can actually be a means to societal rejection.
  • Second, the “squishy middle” is collapsing. Nominalism will go its way. I believe the future of Christianity in North America will look more like the present-day Pacific Northwest, as I have explained here.
  • Third, and finally, it is still a vast overstatement to see this as a collapse of the Christian faith in North America. The reality is that evangelicals have been relatively steady as a percent of the population over the last few years, however there is still great cause for concern here– and for action.

For me, it is both a concern and an opportunity.

I am concerned that people are moving away from any religious memory that so many churches, particularly seeker churches, could appeal to. In other words, you can’t bring the Nones back to church– they simply don’t find it appealing.

I see an opportunity for churches to clearly state what a Christian is, as others are no longer claiming that title as frequently. Furthermore, teaching believers to live on mission in their contexts, rather than just to bring their friends to church, is how we will reach the Nones.

So, as society moves away from Christian identification, let’s meet them on the road and say, “We did not believe in that expression of Christianity anyway. Let me tell you about Jesus and how he changes everything.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.

See more articles by >

COMMENTS

What say you? Leave a comment!

Recent Comments
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for this information. I'm going to use this article to improve my work with the Lord.
 
— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

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