Lean Times in the American Church

 By Al Baker - Posted at Forget None of His Benefits:

"And while straight up evangelism (open air preaching, door to door evangelism, investigative Bible studies), though fading from its place of prominence in times past, is hanging on in some circles, most churches have given up on that approach and insist that the better way to go is to pass out water bottles at Gay Pride events with labels which read 'God loves you.' They seem now to believe that our focus must be urging artists to use their church buildings to display their art and put on their plays, all with a desire to influence them for the gospel."

 

“Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Thine inheritance, the very ends of the earth as Thy possession.” -Psalm 2:8

After returning last week from a week of ministry in a closed country where perhaps as many as 30,000 people each day are becoming disciples of Jesus, I could not help but assess where the American church is today. Bryan Wintersteen, Joe Rolison, Ben Cohen and I met for four straight days, generally from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. teaching over one hundred church planters, pastors, evangelists, and young men preparing for full time ministry. Bryan gave a message each morning on following Jesus and the rest of us gave sixteen, fifty minute lectures. Joe taught on Ecclesiology, Ben taught on preparing and preaching sermons, and I taught on two things—multiplying disciples and Paul’s epistle to Titus. The men to whom we were speaking met from 8 a.m. to well after 6:30 p.m. There were no afternoons off where they might play a round of golf. There were no sightseeing trips. It was strictly prayer, worship, and learning how better to serve and follow Jesus. The men live on between $100 and $250 per month. Due to the growing persecution of Christians in their nation, I asked how many of them have been beaten for their faith in Jesus. At least half raised their hand. About five years ago one of these church planters had a burden to go into the mountains near his village and evangelize a tribe of people which had very little, if any, gospel witness. There was immediate interest in the gospel resulting in several conversions and baptisms. Now there are four or five churches there. I met five men from that tribe who are regularly evangelizing and discipling amongst that tribe. In the past, I have gone with several other American pastors into villages where we are planting churches and regularly witnessed anywhere from fifteen to twenty baptisms of adults at each church. None of us has ever experienced anything like this in our churches back home.

I say all of this to say that I am deeply grieved at the leanness of the American church. To be sure, there is still a great deal of activity. It seems like every American city with any population at all has at least one mega mega church (20,000 or more attending) with multiple campuses and the “lead” pastor speaking simultaneously at all of them with hologram technology. Just about every city also has several mega churches (1000 to 10,000 attending) while average churches (100 or less attending) which are clearly dying (about 3000 per year closing their doors and becoming restaurants, museums, or Hindu temples) are still part of the American fabric.

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