Recently I preached a sermon dealing with the “growth of the church.“ As we see churches all around us exploding in numbers, a very disturbing statistic comes to light. In the year 1980 32% of Americans professed to be born again. Today 32% of Americans profess to be born again. Can we say there has been church growth in America?
What we see is a lot of church swapping. God’s plan for growth is not about becoming more entertaining as a church body so we can attract people from other churches. God’s plan is that we grow through new births! Unfortunately we live in a society that no longer even uses the term “soul winning.”
My fear is that we have taken the world’s view that we should be “tolerant” and not share our personal beliefs for fear that we might offend. We are content to pass the “ball around the perimeter” and never “penetrate” with the Gospel!
The letter to the Colossians warns of being taken in by worldly philosophies that do not keep Christ and the Gospel at the center. The letter was also sent for the church at Laodicea. The book of Revelation tells us what happens to a church that doesn’t heed the warning. The Laodicean church became “luke warm.” Can it be that that is a good description of our “growing” American church?
Let’s be a “team that penetrates the lane with the ball!”
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16)
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