Faithful Churches

We can be reminded about the glory of the Church, through which the love and truth of God can be expressed, knit together by His Spirit, and functioning in His unity. Acts 20 says:
28 Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
29 For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.

The Church is a glorious entity, established and maintained by God - and Jesus declared the gates of Hell itself would not prevail against it.  But, there are pressures on the Church, internal and external.  From within, there will be attempts to divide, which accomplishes Satan's purpose: he wants to keep us separated and at odds with one another. And from without, there would be those who have an agenda to minimize, marginalize, and even destroy the witness of the Church; we have to be careful to cling to the Head, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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God has incredible purposes He wishes to accomplish through the Church, His body, of which Christ
is the head. He wants to bring us together and operate as one body. Hebrews 10 states:
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

One of the things I like to do is track how God is moving in His Church.  And, I want to play off a new survey that has been released; according to Christianity Today:

A new study from Exponential by LifeWay Research found 6 in 10 Protestant churches are plateaued or declining in attendance and more than half saw fewer than 10 people become new Christians in the past 12 months.

Even amidst that, as I mentioned in a previous commentary, there is quite a bit of optimism about the future of churches.  But, the trends are certainly concerning, but not life-threatening.  Because I believe that God will always have His people, those who are faithful to Him.

Breaking down that "6 in 10" statistic:

Twenty-eight percent of Protestant pastors say their church has seen worship service attendance shrink by 6 percent or more compared to three years ago.

Another 33 percent say their church has remained within 5 percent, while 39 percent say their congregation has grown by at least 6 percent since the first quarter of 2016.

So, put another way, you could say that over 7 out of 10 churches have plateaued or grown in worship attendance during that time period.

Churches come in all shapes and sizes, and appeal to various age, ethnic, and theological groups.  Thankfully, local churches are not one-size-fits-all.  Sadly, though there are churches that have departed from Biblical standards.  One thing that really stuck in my mind is related to this statistic: Among Protestant churches, "Most have fewer than 100 people attending services each Sunday (57%), including 21 percent who average fewer than 50. Around 1 in 10 churches (11%) average 250 or more for their worship services."

But there are risks for smaller churches, according to outgoing head of LifeWay Christian Resources Thom Rainer.  Writing for The Christian Post, he says:

• Smaller churches are at severe risk. Among those churches with an average worship attendance under 50, only 20% are growing. That is the lowest of any of the categories of churches and is an indicator that these churches are at the greatest risk of dying.
• Larger churches have a much lower risk of dying. Among the churches with an average worship attendance of 250 and more, 42% are growing. That is, by far, the largest number of growing churches in any category.

But, as CT points out, about half of pastors said their giving stayed about the same in 2018 vs. 2017.  The number of staff members has either stayed the same or declined for 90% of churches studied.

As the survey indicates, "Evangelical churches are more likely to be growing (42 percent) than their mainline counterparts (34 percent)."

And, there is a crisis of conversions.  The survey summary in Christianity Today says:

When evaluating churches based on the number of conversions per 100 attendees, 67 percent had fewer than 10 per 100 people attending their church. Around a third (35%) had fewer than five new commitments for every 100 people attending their worship services.

This survey contains helpful information about the state of the Church today and specifically the local church.  I think it indicates the types of pressure that congregations and their shepherds are encountering.   But, we can admire the scores of churches all across our land who are demonstrating faithfulness.  Faithfulness to the Word of God, faithfulness to serving the people of God, and carrying out the mission of God.  While large churches sometimes get the bulk of attention, there are incredible churches in communities all across our Faith Radio coverage area who are demonstrating Christ to the people around them.

We can be mindful that there is so much strength among the congregations that are smaller; that may have 50 or less members, and maybe face more risk than others, according to Rainer's analysis.  But, there are churches that have members under 100, under 250, under 500 - some may be declining, but the measure of a church, ultimately is obedience.  I think concern over conversions is warranted, because a key to a healthy church has to do with the injection of new blood, new disciples, who can be transformed into mighty men and women of God.  So, the Church can be challenged to pray for souls and to pray for and develop a greater degree of passion to see people come to know Him.

The Church is under pressure, no doubt.  There are simply other things to do on a Sunday for many people; church attendance, once the lifeblood of a community, especially smaller cities, might not be as large of a priority.  But, churches can be challenged to develop new, Spirit-inspired strategies to reach their communities for Christ.  And, we can communicate the message to those around us that God's love is strong and His way is best.