As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
Reposted from The Cripplegate.
In my fifteen years as a pastor, I’ve seen my fair share of people who have left the church. Some have left the churches where I’ve been on staff for other churches—the sort of greener pasture mentality, you could say—and others have left the church all together. Its that second category that fascinates me the most.
“[T]hese trends may be less about our abandoning the supernatural and more about our abandoning each other.” - NReview
“Nearly two-thirds of Protestant churchgoers say they’ve invited at least one person to visit their church in the past six months, according to a new LifeWay Research study.” - BPNews
“Most churchgoers will put up with a change in music style or a different preacher. But don’t mess with a church’s beliefs or there may be an exodus, according to a new study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.” - CToday
Proclaim and Defend: “Holding three services, with the same size group, doing nearly the same thing in each service, is not likely meeting the discipleship needs of new believers and therefore not effectively carrying out the Great Commission.”
“A Gallup poll found 39 percent of Catholics reported attending church between 2014 and 2017. The figure is markedly lower than the 45 percent average reported from 2005 to 2008.” WRNews
Reposted with permission from The Cripplegate.
by Eric Davis
Maybe you’ve heard it. “We can’t make it to church today, so we’ll just do church as a family.” “I can just do church on a hike this morning in God’s creation.” “The church is really the people, so we can do church wherever. God is everywhere, after all.”
Do we really need to go to a building on a certain day for it to count as doing church? If so, isn’t that legalistic?
“If you allow your children to stop going to church because they dislike it but insist they go to math class because it is good for them, those are “atheistic” priorities, according to Russell Moore.” CPost
“Barna has released a report on the first of a two-part exploration of faith and spirituality outside the church, looking at the ‘fascinating segment of the American population who, as the saying goes, love Jesus but not the church.’”
“Earlier this year, the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that the Church of England was battling to maintain its place in an increasingly ‘anti-Christian’ culture as attendances at services fell to their lowest ever levels.” LTelegraph
Discussion