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** IS THE CHURCH ON THE ENDANGERED LIST?
Many Americans are on a spiritual quest. This should be good news
for the church. But, according to researchers, many of them are
choosing noninstitutional forms of religion. A recent poll by Gallup
shows that weekly church attendance is holding steady at about 40
percent of the population - the same rate as in the 1950s. But other
researchers - like Dave T. Olson, director of TheAmericanChurch.org
- claim only 17.7 percent of the population attends a church service
any given weekend.
Olson, who bases his numbers on annual church attendance reported by
individual U.S. congregations, says, "People who only go to church
now and again exaggerate how often they go."
Albert Winseman, religion and social trends editor for the Gallup
Organization, says people are shopping for alternatives to church
and that is one reason 3,000 local churches close their doors
annually.
"Most denominations are either declining or stagnant," says
Winseman.
The Assemblies of God is one of the few Christian groups to show
steady growth in recent years. The Yearbook of American and Canadian
Churches reports the Assemblies of God and Southern Baptists are the
only Protestant faith groups of the largest 25 to report an increase
in membership for 2004.
An April Gallup poll indicated 65 percent of Pentecostals attend
church weekly, second only to Church of Christ (at 68 percent) among
Protestant groups.
VANISHING PROTESTANT MAJORITY
Half a century ago, two-thirds of the population considered
themselves Protestants. Officially, for the first time last year,
self-identified Protestants dipped below half of all Americans,
according to Gallup research.
Evangelical and Pentecostal church attendance looks stable, but
membership isn’t keeping pace with population growth. Olson says
although the same number of people are attending church as 15 years
ago, there are an additional 48 million people living in the
country.
But people are not necessarily flocking to other faiths. J. Gordon
Melton, author of the Encyclopedia of American Religions, says
tabulating all the Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and New Agers
accounts for only 7 percent of Americans. Self-professing atheists
comprise another 10 percent of the population.
"In the culture today we don’t have the churchgoing momentum we did
in the 1950s, when ’respectable people’ attended church every week,"
says Earl Creps, director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at
Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri.
"There’s no guarantee anymore that people are going to come to
church."
Although only 17 to 40 percent of Americans attend church regularly,
about 80 percent of the population professes Christianity.
Pollster George Barna, who last year wrote the book "Revolution:
Finding Vibrant Faith Beyond the Walls of the Sanctuary," believes a
transformational shift is occurring in how Christians view church.
He claims more than 20 million committed yet disaffected
"revolutionaries" have struck out on their own to form house
churches, family faith communities and cyberchurches.
WHAT CHURCH OFFERS
Creps, author of "Off-Road Disciples," believes these
"revolutionaries" are forfeiting a great deal by not being involved
in a local church. "A great church offers relational connections,
people modeling how to live faith, accountability, the enormous
power of a group worship experience and the operation of the gifts
of the Spirit," he says.
Theologian J.I. Packer says the reality of corporate church life
pervaded first-century Christianity and should today as well.
"Individuality is not correct, according to biblical standards,"
says Packer, author of "Knowing God." "The church is central in
God’s plan. God uses the church to set up His kingdom - the
corporate relational reality where people respond to Christ as King.
We can’t dismiss the structure God has established."
Many observers believe house churches and cyberchurch movements are
short-lived trends that will never amount to more than 5 percent of
Christians.
Melton says such methods don’t represent a new phenomenon. "For
decades people have been saying they can be a good Christian and
never go to church," he says.
Gallup sees a strong link between individual spiritual commitment
and church attendance by measuring factors such as prayer, Bible
study and small group involvement.
"People can say they are a spiritually committed person without
attending church, but it happens only 5 percent of the time,"
Winseman says.
Creps says merely getting people into the sanctuary isn’t the goal.
"The issue really is the need for every person to come to God
through His Son Jesus Christ. That involves a connection with a
community of Christians - which we call church."
"The church is God’s primary vehicle for the proclamation of the
gospel," Winseman says. "The abundant life is found most abundantly
in the community of the local church."
--John W. Kennedy, Today’s Pentecostal Evangel
This article reveals the current condition of the church and some new trends in Christianity but for the church to be the Acts New Testament church we need to continue to explore and discover from acts what it looks like and what it does.
We Always Turn to Something
In Thessalonica, notice those who heard the gospel responded by 1Thes1:9 turning to God from idols to serve the true and living God.
In our 21st century western society there has been a huge paradigm shift, a turning away from Judea/Christian God centred worldview, to a new atheism which desires a complete secularisation of society with a non religious (irreligious) values and secular institutions.
But the very fact they are turning away from God doesn’t mean they are turning to something which is neutral. In fact, to turn away from God means you have to be turning to something else, which by default becomes our 21st century idols.
We see it with the rise of militant atheism–pseudo science. We see it with mass consumerism becoming an idol (credit crunch). The new liberalism sweeping our country becomes an idol, humanistic Christianity with our own personal fulfilment at the top of the agenda rather than the Glory of God, our own self-sufficiency and importance, our own personal vanities and obsessions all become idols and become the centre of our worship and take the place of God and rob us of genuine worship.
(Source: Aubrey Vaughan, Essential Worship)
THE STORY OF ERNEST GORDON
There is a book (and now a movie) called To End All Wars that tells of the extraordinary life of Ernest Gordon, a British Army officer captured at sea by the Japanese at the age of 24. Gordon was sent to work on the Burma-Siam railway line that the Japanese were constructing through the dense Thai jungle for possible use in an invasion of India. For labour, they conscripted prisoners of war they had captured from occupied countries in Asia and from the British Army itself. Against international law, the Japanese forced even the officers to work at manual labour, and each day Gordon would join a work detail of thousands of prisoners who hacked their way through the jungle and built up a track bed through low-lying swampland.
The conditions were horrifying. Naked except for loin cloths, the men worked under a broiling sun in 120-degree heat, their bodies stung by insects, their bare feet cut and bruised by sharp stones. Death was commonplace. If a prisoner appeared to be lagging, a Japanese guard would beat him to death, bayonet him, or decapitate him in full view of the other prisoners. Many more men simply dropped dead from exhaustion, malnutrition, and disease. Under these severe conditions, 80,000 men died building the railway--393 fatalities for every mile of track.
Ernest Gordon was gradually wasting away from a combination of beriberi, worms, malaria, dysentery, and typhoid. Paralyzed and unable to eat, Gordon was laid in the Death House, where prisoners on the verge of death were laid out in rows until they stopped breathing. The stench was unbearable. He had no energy to fight off the bedbugs, lice, and swarming flies. He propped himself up long enough to write a final letter to his parents and then lay back to await the inevitable.
For most of the war, the prison camp had been a survival of the fittest, every man for himself. In the food line, prisoners fought over the few scraps of vegetables or grains of rice floating in the greasy broth. Officers refused to share any of their special rations. Theft was common in the barracks. Men lived like animals. The conditions brought out the worst in them. And you can see how self centeredness is virtually synonymous with disunity. When we live for ourselves, we do so to the exclusion of living for others.
Something happened to Ernest Gordon in the prison camp. It became known as "Miracle on the River Kwai." One event in particular shook the prisoners. Phillip Yancey recounts what happened in his book Rumours.
Japanese guards carefully counted tools at the end of a day's work, and one day the guard shouted that a shovel was missing. He walked up and down the ranks demanding to know who had stolen it. When no one confessed, he screamed "All die! All die!" and raised his rifle to fire at the first man in line. At that instant an enlisted man stepped forward, stood at attention, and said, "I did it." The guard fell on him in a fury, kicking and beating the prisoner, who despite the blows still managed to stand at attention. Enraged, the guard lifted his weapon high in the air and brought the rifle butt down on the soldier's skull. The man sank in a heap to the ground, but the guard continued kicking his motionless body. When the assault finally stopped, the other prisoners picked up their comrade's corpse and marched back to the camp. That evening, when tools were inventoried again, the work crew discovered a mistake had been made: no shovel was missing.
One of the prisoners remembered the verse "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Attitudes in the camp began to shift. Inspired by his sacrifice, prisoners started treating the dying with respect, organizing proper funerals and burials, marking each man's grave with a Cross. Prisoners began looking out for each other rather than themselves. Thefts grew increasingly rare. Men began selling their watches to the Japanese soldiers to buy medicines for the sick. The prisoners even built a tiny church and each evening they gathered to worship and pray for one another. Gordon himself received extensive care from the other prisoners and was eventually nursed back to health. The unity inspired by sacrifice impacted him more than just physically. It had a profound impact on his spiritual life.
(From a sermon by Bret Toman, Unity For the Glory of God, 1/3/2011)
There is a popular children’s show on the Disney Channel called Out of the Box. The theme song is one of those songs that, once you’ve heard it, sticks in your mind all day. It ends with the words, “Out of the box, it’s really up to you what comes out of the box.”
In the business world the new catch phrase is “thinking outside the box.” It is a challenge to go beyond the ordinary and do something extraordinary.
The church today is stuck in the box. Our focus has shifted from people to pews, from saving souls to Sunday assemblies. Today when you mention Christianity most people immediately think of the worship assembly. As long as we continue with this mentality we are stuck in the box without hope of growing beyond.
A prank that’s as old as most of us here today is to call up a store and ask, “Yes, do you have Prince Albert in a box?” When the clerk answers in the affirmative then you respond, “Well, you’d bet...
WORSHIP AND THE WOMAN AT THE WELL
The Nelson Study Bible states:
"By mentioning the two different worship sites, the woman was perhaps trying to shift the conversation away from the subject of her own sins to theological questions. Or perhaps she realized that she was a sinner (v. 18), and knew that she was required to offer a sacrifice. The woman probably assumed that because Jesus was a Jew, He would insist that the sacrifice be offered in the temple at Jerusalem. The Jews insisted that the exclusive place of worship was Jerusalem. But the Samaritans had set up a rival worship site on Mount Gerizim, which according to their tradition was where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, and where later on he met Melchizedek."
THOUGHTS ON THE CHURCH
Here are some thoughts on The Church from a few 30 on down in age, individuals from the book "The Relevant Church":
Quotes:
Tyler Watts, "I think I disconnect from the Gospel of Jesus Christ when I'm not involved in close relationships with other believers."
Philip Evans, "Every believer needs a 'church' even if it's just four or five of you meeting together to worship, I know my relationship with Christ would deteriorate if I didn't surround myself with people who encourage and challenge me in my faith."
James Bullock, "I love the diversity of church--so many different people saved from a range of pain, addictions, lifestyles--now all set free in a community together."
Andy Squyres, "When I hear the word 'church,' I think of the body of Christ in its fullness, without denominational or dogmatic boundaries, church in all its organic glory, shifting and growing, as all living things do."
Cory Passehl, "Church is not just a building or Sunday morning service, but a place where the Body of Christ comes together for encouragement, edification, challenging, rebuking. It's a place where people are cared for, a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and a place of worship."
Jendi Reiter, "Church is the one place where I am accepted 'as is.' Church gives me an understanding of human frailty and reminds me that we all need God's forgiveness-even me. Growing up as a reformed Jew, I was always pressed to achieve and compete. Then when I began attending a Christian Church in college, I discovered church could be a place of amazing refuge, acceptance, and salvation."
Robin Lemke, "I know that people say they don't need church, but anytime we gather together, God promises to be with us. What could be more enticing than God's presence? Why wouldn't we go where God promises to be?"
ROGER WILLIAMS: WORSHIP AS A "RELIGIOUS FIX"
Roger Williams was thumbing through a magazine on a short flight from Sacramento to San Diego. He had taken his seat when two well-dressed, attractive 20-something-year-old women sat down next to him. Their conversation competed with his attention to his magazine.
They talked about the club scene, what they liked to drink, who they were dating, their intimate relationships with men, both single and married. Then it turned to a gripe session. "Why do guys have such a hard time committing?" one asked. The other said, "And why don't they ever leave their wives like they promise to?" Then their conversation shifted to work. Finally, one of them said, "But you know, if it wasn't for my church, my life would be really hell."
"Wow, you go to church? I know exactly how it feels. If it wasn't for church, I don't know where I'd be."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," the other lady said, "if I miss more than two weeks of church, everything in my life goes nuts."
Then the plane started its descent and everything got quiet. Roger just sat there stunned at what he had heard as this conversation had unfolded. And then he writes, "Worship was just a religious fix. For them, their worship of God, what they did and how they lived their lives reflected who and what they truly worshipped."
One-third of Americans Reassess Priorities After Terrorist Attacks
(RNS) One-third of Americans say the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were a "life-altering experience" that caused them to change their priorities, according to a new Gallup poll.
Nearly half of conservative Christians -- 46 percent -- say the attacks caused them to change their lives, according to the poll of 1,019 adults. Non-whites and women under the age of 50 were the most likely to report a change after the attacks.
While 66 percent of Americans say the attacks have not changed their lives, more than half of those who have shifted priorities say they are spending more time with their families and friends.
And despite a surge in worship attendance immediately after the attacks, another Gallup poll shows no longstanding change in the religious observance of most Americans. Most Gallup polls show that around 40 percent of Americans recently attended a church or synagogue within the last week. That figure rose to 47 percent after the attacks, but has since fallen back to 42 percent.
Pollster George Gallup Jr. said the terrorist attacks have had a "powerful but short-lived impact on the spirituality of the U.S. populace." Still, Gallup found a slight rise in the personal importance of religion for most Americans. A May 2001 poll found that 57 percent said personal religion was "very important," and that number rose to 64 percent a week after the attacks. The Dec. 14-16 poll saw that number fall back to 60 percent.
Americans, however, seem to have an increased sense that religion is playing a more important role in the larger society. Last February, 39 percent of Americans said religion was increasing its influence in society. In December, 71 percent said it was on the rise. Those num...
THOUGHTS ON THE BODY OF CHRIST
Here are some thoughts on The Church from a few 30 on down in age individuals from the book "The Relevant Church":
Quotes:
Brian Kay, "It is impossible to be a follower of Christ and not be part of a local church!"
"No one can have God as Father who does not also have the church as Mother.'
"There are several good reasons to believe that the normal Christian life becomes entirely undone when it is not lived in the presence of other believers, in regular acts of worship and service."
Robin Lemke, "I don't think there is any question in Scripture that God expects us to come together in a community to worship Him and support each other. The thrust of the New Testament from Acts onward is about followers of Christ risking their lives and freedom to make believers and establish churches. Nowhere does Paul or Silas or Peter go into a city to make believers, then send them home and expect them to simply pray by themselves and in so doing follow Christ."
Tyler Watts, "I think I disconnect from the Gospel of Jesus Christ when I'm not involved in close relationships with other believers."
Jeremy Walden, "The phrase 'go to church' makes me crazy. I am the church. Believers are the church. Instead of talking about just going into a building for a service, let's start talking about getting together with other believers to discuss God and pray together. That type of gathering is where we'll find community, a place of encouragement, sharing listening, and worship."
Philip Evans, "Every believer needs a 'church' even if it's just four or five of you meeting together to worship, I know my relationship with Christ would deteriorate if I didn't surround myself with people who encourage and challenge me in my faith."
James Bullock, "I love the diversity of church-so many different people saved from a range of pain, addictions, lifestyles-now all set free in a community together."
Andy Squyres, "When I hear the word 'church,' I think of the body of Christ in its fullness, without denominational or dogmatic boundaries, church in all its organic glory, shifting and growing, as all living things do."
Cory Passehl, "Church is not just a building or Sunday morning service, but a place where the Body of Christ comes together for encouragement, edification, challenging, rebuking. It's a place where people are cared for, a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and a place of worship."
Jendi Reiter, "Church is the one place where I am accepted 'as is.' Church gives me an understanding of human frailty and reminds me that we all need God's forgiveness-even me. Growing up as a reformed Jew, I was always pressed to achieve and compete. Then when O began attending a Christian Church in college, I discovered church could be a place of amazing refuge, acceptance, and salvation."
Robin Lemke, "I know that people say they don't need church, but anytime we gather together, God promises to be with us. What could be more enticing than God's presence? Why wouldn't we go where God promises to be?"
Emily R. Geyer, "I don't go to church out of obligation, but because I desire to worship Jesus in a place that is set aside for him, a consecrated space. It's very different than a Bible Study in my living room or just praying in my car."
(Source: "The Relevant Church" Edited by Jennifer Ashley, with Mark Driscoll, Mike Bickle and Mike Howerton. From a sermon by Michael McCartney, Church 12 Pt 1, 6/20/2012)
WORSHIP IN THE THRILL AND THE AGONY
The 2012 Olympics gave a great illustration of how Christians can trust God in the thrill of victory AND the agony of defeat. If you watched the Olympics, you probably saw Gabby Douglas's big smile. When she won the Individual Gold in gymnastics. She said, "I give all the glory to God. It's a win-win situation. The glory goes up to Him, and all the blessings fall down on me."
She praised God publicly in the "thrill of victory." You may NOT have heard about another Olympian who praised God in "the agony of defeat." Ryan Hall failed to finish the Olympic Marathon race when he pulled a hamstring on the final day.
But look at what he "tweeted" the very next morning on his official Twitter page: "God is so good. My circumstances have the possibility of shifting my perception of His goodness ... but His goodness never changes." And he's already looking ahead to his next race.
