What Do We Do To Reach The 75%?

I live in a city who has long held the honor (?) of having more churches per capita than any city in the US. It would be reasonable to assume that my city is must be the most churched city in the US... but it isn't. In fact, numbers from the Georgia Baptist Convention showed a few years ago that on any given Sunday 75% of our city is sleeping in... and that number is growing.
Our city needs the gospel and to be a part of a thriving, healthy gospel community.Existing churches are not effectively reaching our city.
What will it take to reach that 75%? New Churches.

The following article gives a number of statistical and biblical reasons behind church planting and is written by Scott Thomas.

This Is Why We Plant Churches

With churches existing in perceived abundance, why would Kingdom resources be directed toward starting new churches? Some people strongly believe that new churches will only weaken the already struggling existing churches. Why not spend our energy and resources helping revitalize declining churches? Some of the existing churches that are in decline can be revitalized. Unfortunately, most cannot because of established forms, traditions, mindsets, cultures, and inherent pride. The statistics for established churches are not promising:

• Between 50 and 75 U.S. churches close their doors every week. (Barna Research)
• More than 80% of the churches in the U.S. have plateaued or are declining. (Barna Research)
• In the United States alone, there are over 200 million unchurched people, making the U.S. the third largest mission field in the world. (Barna Research)
• Since 1991, the number of adults in the U.S. who do not attend church has nearly doubled. (Barna Research)
• Seventy-seven percent of Americans do not have a consistent, life-giving connection with a local church. (Dave Olson)
• The largest unreached people group in America is the 20-somethings. (Barna)
• 51.9 million people in the U.S. between the ages of 20-38 are not connected with the existing churches. (Gallup Poll)
• Eight million 20-somethings alive today will no longer attend church by the time they turn 30. (Barna Research)
• The percentage of people in attendance at a Christian church has dropped from 20.4 percent in 1990 to under 18 percent in 2005. In ten years, that number is projected to be less than 15 percent. (Olson)
• America has more people but fewer churches per person. There are 60 percent fewer churches per capita now than there were in 1920. (Dave Earley)

Jesus’s command to His followers is clear: “Make disciples of all nations.” We will not fulfill this without starting new churches in new communities and among different people groups. As Luke records in the book of Acts, Jesus coupled this Great Commission command with the statement, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The story of the book of Acts is the story of the establishment, growth and multiplication of the church in initial and partial fulfillment of these commands to multiply.

• Mission to Jerusalem (chapters 1-7)
• Mission to Judea and Samaria (chapter 8)
• Mission to the ends of the earth (chapters 9 to 28)

Acts 29 (the envisioned “chapter 29”) is where the story continues in our generation to pursue the Great Commission by planting churches and campuses and communities on mission.

How disciple making and church planting go hand-in-hand, after the jump:

The Three Perpetuating Phases of Disciple Making and Church Planting

1. Making disciples results in the formation of new churches.

Proclaiming the Gospel to all nations in the power of the Spirit consistently results in the establishment of new gospel communities. Planted churches reproduce themselves and make disciples by planting other churches.

Communities of believers are often called by the Holy Spirit to send people to specific places where the gospel is not preached and the result will be a new church. In Acts 13, the body was gathered together and worshipping when the Holy Spirit interrupted them to set apart Paul and Barnabas for the work He had called them. The church prayed and fasted and then laid hands on them to send them out to plant many churches where no church existed.

2. Planting new churches results in more disciples.

The Great Commission was given in a church-planting context. The early believers were to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. The only way for this mandate to be carried out until Christ’s advent was through communities of believers in particular geographic areas. At the inception of Jesus’s words, only one such community existed. So it was out of necessity and faithfulness that other communities would have to be birthed. (JD Payne, pdf)

The Great Commission is a call to make disciples who will partner with a community of believers who are on mission to make disciples. It is impossible to separate missions and evangelism from the role of the local church.

It is documented often that new churches experience significantly more conversions and baptisms in their early church-planting years compared to mature churches. “Churches over fifteen years of age win an average of only three people to Christ per year for every one hundred church members. Churches three years to fifteen years old win an average of five people to Christ per year for every one hundred church members, but churches under three years of age win an average of ten people to Christ per year for every one hundred church members.” (McNichol)

3. Planting new churches continually renews the established Church.

As a congregation ages, powerful internal institutional pressures lead it to allocate most of its resources and energy toward the concerns of its members and constituents, rather than toward the needy harvest. An established church can too easily get absorbed with the busyness of administration or the various programs of the church so that keeping the fellowship happy becomes the priority.

It will not hurt the church if people are called away to go and make disciples elsewhere. It will hurt the mission if they stay put. As I read about the church in Jerusalem and Antioch, I see them identifying, equipping and sending men to plant churches.

I attest that every local church should be constantly and intentionally discipling, training, developing and then sending its best men out into mission—to make disciples of all nations. We have to get out of the mindset of building up one single church and start developing a Kingdom mindset, a movement mindset. The mission of the church is about the movement of God and not about the monument to our self or our denomination or our tribe.

Tim Keller said, “Vigorous church planting is one of the best ways to renew the existing churches of a city, as well as the best single way to grow the whole Body of Christ in a city.”

Scott Thomas is the president of the Acts 29, the church-planting network co-founded by Pastor Mark in 2000.