As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“First, I praise God that Christians would ask this question. We should never take scriptural commands lightly, and Hebrews 10:25 is one, unfortunately, that many Christians often overlook. The question arises from a heart serious about God’s Word, serious about obedience, and serious about worship. So, are we sinning? In short, no, and for five main reasons.” - TGC
“The data was reflected in recent weekly national pastor panel surveys for April 7-13 conducted by Barna measuring their well-being, attendance and giving.” - CPost
“A new study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research found 1 in 5 Protestant churchgoers (19%) say they typically travel to church alone. Most travel to church with their spouse (54%), while close to a third say their child or children ride with them (31%).” - F&T
“Southern Baptist congregations saw an increase of more than $82 million in overall giving in 2018, according to the latest Annual Church Profile (ACP) report.
“The study found that … 61 percent of millennial evangelicals (ages 18 through 34), 54 percent of ‘boomers and matures’ (ages 55 and over) and 44 percent of Generation X (ages 35 to 54) respondents” said they attend church once per week or more. - Christian Post
“This article compares church membership data for the 1998-2000 and 2016-2018 periods, using combined data from multiple years to facilitate subgroup analysis. On average, 69% of U.S. adults were members of a church in 1998-2000, compared with 52% in 2016-2018.” - Gallup
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
Discussion