Church Members Fall Into Inactivity” (Churchleaders.Com).How

Another challenge concerning the Millennials is that a lot of these young adults are growing up without attending church. The Barna group calls them the unchurched segment and report that this segment has increased in the last 10 years, from 44% to 52% (5 Reasons). This is a problem because it decreases the chances for new members to join the church. The majority of people that follows a specific religion learned about that religion in early childhood. Students of human behavior believe that “The most significant borrowing occurs in early childhood. Family is thus an important factor…” (Wuthnow 106). If the number of the unchurched segment continues to grow at this pace, in the next few decades, this will continue to be a major concern for church leaders across the Americas. It is a lot harder to try to reach those people that have never attended church or don’t come from a religious background than try to reach those that belong to a church or have been brought up in the faith.

Pastor Fred Dyess had retired after serving as pastor for thirty years and Director of Missions for the Baptist Association of Greater New Orleans for fourteen years. The Lord called him out of retirement to start a new church. Bro. Fred checked with the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association Director of Missions, David Brown, to learn what areas the association had targeted for a new church and what was needed. He was told that the Louisiana Baptist Convention required a new church to have a sponsoring church. Dr. Roger Dunlap and Macedonia Baptist Church gladly voted to be our sponsoring church. The Louisiana Baptist Convention and the Eastern Louisiana Baptist Association each gave Victory a budget supplement of $500 per month decreasing

While the majority of Americans (almost 80%) identify themselves as Christians, religion in the United States is characterized by both a large diversity of believers and variable attendance and adherence levels (Eck, 2002). However, an August 2010 poll showed that almost 70% of Americans believed that religion was losing influence in everyday life, yet most feel that is a negative thing even though politicians continue to discuss religion while campaigning (Religion Losing, 2012). In light of these statistics, many religious scholars have turned to more quantitative methods to establish ways to both improve service attendance, solidify the financial health of churches, and establish a faith-based understanding of current psychographic trends. One of the predominant ways this is happening is through people like George Barna.

Talking of the number of the “unchurched” people in Northern America alone, there has been an increase of compared to the 15 percent increase in the general population. Large churches which used to be filled with multitudes of followers in the 1950s currently have a small fraction of their initial capacity.

In 1865, a Methodist Minister, William Booth begin a movement, known today as the “Salvation Army”. Booth’s vision incorporated the church views and belief systems with philanthropic work. Growing up less fortunate, Booth was able to relate to the struggling society, which in turn sparked a passion for helping the poor. Unfortunately, in that era, the less fortunate were viewed as “unacceptable” by the church (Diniejko, 2013). In the early 1800’s the congregational church was financially supported by those in the community, obligated to pay church taxes. The only members granted access inside the church, were those who were able to pay the pew rentals. Henceforth, those who couldn’t afford the pew seat were hindered from receiving the word of God (“Offering Was Not Always Apart of Worship”,

After two decades of ministry with and to college students, I know Chi Alpha and the Assemblies of God to be on the cutting edge of engaging emerging generations. Despite my enthusiasm, we still face a sobering reality that some researchers have described as a “dropout” phenomenon. True to form, interpretations of the data range from those prognosticating the end of the modern church to those wanting to dismiss the data as a natural product of spiritual maturation, but scripture teaches that the wise find a balanced perspective (Ecclesiastes 7:18). So, what experience and expertise can we draw from others (Proverbs 15:22) to empower Chi Alpha and the North Texas District in a coordinated effort to proactively engage current young adult adherents

Over the last forty or fifty years, the church in the United States has gone through a rather large transformation. In many ways, it probably reflects the cultural changes that have taken place and the church’s ability to effectively reach it, and in Who Stole My Church? Gordon MacDonald writes a fictional biography where, as a local pastor of a conservative, evangelical, and Anglo church in New England, he seeks to help the congregation cope and flourish with this change.

More and more people are identifying as nonreligious, but the majority of America still aligns with some religion (1). It is theorized that switching of religion is to blame, in that many people that are raised in a religion are changing to become unaffiliated as they get older (1). While the nonreligious population is growing, “roughly seven-in-ten [Americans] continue to identify with some part of the Christian faith,” something that is lacking in the Brave New World society (1). Religion is a still a strong influence in modern day America, with the presence of God affecting our politics, our everyday conduct, even minute things such as the Pledge of Allegiance, with the line “one nation, under God.” However, as the nonreligious population is generally young, with a 20% decline of Christianity in Millenials who are now unaffiliated, it could come to change as the older generation begins to die (“Religion” 1). For now, though, regarding religion, we are not living in a brave new

Yet; now, some argue the institution, whether without walls, storefront, or mega church, has become ambiguous in its purpose. Various people question the relevancy of the church and its current contributions to a contemporary community where poverty remains high, homelessness continues to grow, ignorance persists, and educational pursuits are problematic. Some even suggest ill-moral behavior is rampant. While others, even suggest the church only serves as a tool to put money in a few manipulative peoples' pockets.

Poverty status in the United States is assigned to people that do not meet a certain threshold level set by the Department of Health and Human Services.” How can the church effectively help those who fall in the classification of poverty? That is where

The Church Refused to Look Like the Community. Dying churches are concerned with self-preservation. The way of doing church is fare more important to these churches, than adapting to reach the demographics of where God has divinely placed them.

Much of the decline of mainline Protestant denominations, such as the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches, has been speculated to be largely due to widespread rejection of organized religion by young adults (Sides, 2016). While young adults are the most likely to claim religious non-affiliation, Americans of all ages have been trending downward since the late 90s and early 2000s (Wormald, 2015). As older more religious generations die, there are fewer younger generation members taking their places in Protestant congregations, leading to the declines being seen. Likewise, while Protestant denominations have been on the decline, nondenominational church memberships have risen since 2007. While Millennials coming

The pragmatism of America has lead to a larger acceptance of atheism and rejection of direct church attendance. Hence, while churches have been growing over the last two decades they come at the expense of smaller churches and overall church attendance is down. This trend was countered by christians to be more relevant, or at least what is thought of as

This chapter is Jim Lynn’s call to the church to WAKE UP! He uses an organization of a factitious church complied by his many years of observation and personal experience (p. 221). The church is dying from the inside but a change is about to take place. In the beginning, the church was full of excitement, as with any new local body of believers. A building was built, a pastor was called, and attendance grew steadily. The church became a “rock” in the community offering many different programs. “As time went on, the church begin to lose its flavor. What started out with the freshness of new beginnings begin to fade, and the church began to decline in membership.” (p. 223) A number of the congregation became sick with many different diseases,

According to Bill Hull, “While certain pockets of evangelicalism have grown, overall, the church is in a decline. Many congregations can attest to Hull’s assessment, in that, churches in America are indeed experiencing sharp declines in its numbers of baptisms and church attendance. Over