CHURCH IS JUST TOO DARNED IRRELEVANT

While I was visiting a couple of churches down south last summer, Gill and I spent a Sunday evening at a recent phenomenon in South Carolina, New Spring Church, which has grown from nothing to several thousand in little more than six years.

Thriving churches are always criticized and New Spring's Pastor, Perry Noble has been getting quite a bit of that lately and I guess he has had enough because he fired back at his critics on his blog today.

I'm reproducing some of it here because it encapsulates what I have conveyed to some of CM's critics -


We live in a culture DOMINATED by entertainment. Like it or not THAT is THE way it is. If a movie is good then people will go…and if it isn’t then people will stay away. If a television show is good then people will watch…and if it isn’t then it will be canceled. And…IF church is good then people will go…and if not then people will stay away!!!

Now…I am a firm believer that numbers do not lie…and the numbers say that over 90% of the churches in America are either stagnant OR declining. (I actually read in one report that an average of six churches per day in America are closing their doors!!!)

Combine this with the FACT that the population in America is EXPLODING. There are currently over 300 million people living in the US…and stats show that we will reach over 400 million people by the year 2040.

Question–does ANYONE see a problem here? Church attendance is DECREASING. The population is INCREASING. In my opinion it is time to wake up and smell the flippin’ coffee.

So here is another question to add to that…WHY IS CHURCH ATTENDANCE DECREASING? Is it because God just isn’t that big anymore? Nope! Or maybe it has to do with the Bible–does the Bible lack the power to bring practical teaching and transformation? I would say a big fat NO to this question as well!

Then what is it? Why are churches shutting down when there are more people in this country than EVER before?

MAYBE it is because people find absolutely NO value in going to church! MAYBE there is nothing in the church that seems to hold their attention! MAYBE church just ISN’T GOOD anymore. And people–you can SCREAM at people for embracing this mindset–but the people who are embracing it ARE LOST!!! AND…if we are not willing to do what it takes to reach them then they are going to go to HELL!!! This means that WHEN they walk in the doors of our church that there SHOULD be something there that catches their attention…there had better be…or they are not coming back.

The church is called to grow–to reach people–to change…NOT to compromise the Gospel. We teach about Jesus here at NewSpring…I teach FROM Scripture…heck, I even talk about SIN and REPENTANCE…but when we do it–we do so in a way that people can understand...that they can apply, and MAYBE…just MAYBE that is A reason people ARE being reached…and lives ARE being changed.

Couldn't have said it better myself!!!