Are All of Our Shrinking Churches Evangelistic Failures?
“Are Christians evangelizing less, leading to a decline in church membership? Or is the decline a result of rejecting pragmatic ecclesiology and shallow views of conversion? Do the declining numbers reveal a failure to evangelize or more responsible and better definitions of success?” - 9 Marks
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Excellent article. We need to cultivate the idea of patience, perseverance, and faithfulness instead of just looking at numbers of attenders.
Is the decline or disappearance of churches in persecution areas the fault of those churches? Is the disappearance of churches in what is now Islamic areas the fault of those churches? No. Can churches grow in persecution areas? Yes. But perhaps instead of emphasizing how persecution/hardship helps believers "grow" (which can happen), understand as well that persecution can decimate churches. To some extent, current American culture is our own fault (see this article: https://www.proclaimanddefend.org/2015/05/06/is-our-culture-our-failure/). Yet we still have to witness to people in that changing and difficult culture without changing the gospel. Doing so may result in smaller, but more Biblical, churches.
Wally Morris
Huntington, IN
I'm reminded that I came to this forum when something I wrote about Vacation Bible School was copied here by Jim Peet. (also one of my first interactions with my now pastor, Greg Linscott) I appreciate the call for a longer term emphasis in evangelism precisely because such a huge portion of "conversions" I've seen have borne no fruit. In past decades, it seems that "evangelism" was a mile wide and an inch deep, and that worked for a while (sort of ) during the 1950s and 1960s when a prevailing attitude among many is "we go to church in part because the Godless commies cannot."
Not so much in the post-Woodstock era, more or less my entire life. Now that does not excuse us from being a sparse trickle instead of the Platte River, if that is the case, but there is great opportunity out there for us to go back to a Biblical view of evangelism and get at least to a stream worthy of a kayak or canoe.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I appreciate the call for a longer term emphasis in evangelism precisely because such a huge portion of "conversions" I've seen have borne no fruit.
Yes. We need to remember it is not our job to convert. It is our job to tell the good news and the bad news as we point people to the good news of Jesus Christ.
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