Three statistics worth reviewing on the state of the mission of Jesus include:
Globally, the percentage of the world’s population that have become Christian remains about the same
Most churches stall-out after the first generation
Few churches plant churches
A natural question to ask is “why?” – “Why do disciplemaking + church planting movements stall out?” Here are 10 markers that you might have observed:
Convoluted understanding of what is going on in the world – this goes beyond “vision”, it has more to do with a relevant approach to making disciples that results in disciples making disciples + new churches planting churches.
Stories from the good ‘ol days – recent stories of disciplemaking + church planting are non-existent.
Church decline – the current models of disciplemaking + church planting have attracted the low lying fruit and it is no longer an issue of “working harder & smarter!”
Financial mismanagement – more and more money is going to “church consumer-like” expenditures in exchange for disciplemaking + church planting efforts.
Relational disengagement – apprentices of Jesus have stopped gathering in small groups or the groups they are meeting in have lost a missional focus.
Theological apathy – an underlying theological bias that over-shadows or dismisses the need for a Savior-Redeemer.
Ego-driven leadership – more attention is garnered by the personality of the leader than the pursuit of genuine Kingdom fruit.
Celebrations cease – achievements are celebrated that have little to do with the Gospel of Jesus and the making of disciples.
Faulty missiology – such as:
an “either-or” orientation to mission e.g. local OR global mission
an “either-or” orientation to growth e.g. church growth (quantitative) OR church health (qualitative)
an “either-or” orientation to outreach e.g. attractional OR missional
Apostate teaching – Gospel-centric focus has been lost in the cultural distractions of secular thinking
This is certainly not meant to be an exhaustive list. But it does capture some of the essential reason that stall-out disciplemaking + church planting movements, from my experience. You probably have others that you would include in the list…
I’d love to read some of your views.
Does this match-up with your experience?
What’s missing?
Please continue the conversation below and feel free to share this with you friends.
Following are three observations “from the trenches” that are worth paying attention to if you have any interest, or concern over disciple-making movements. This is real data extracted from reliable resources. My goal is to clearly state the problem.
I hope you find the information helpful as we continue the mission of Jesus to make disciples…
Globally, the percentage of the world’s population that have become Christian is about the same today as it was 100 years ago
Approximately 32% of the global population was Christian in 1910 vs. 35% in 2010. The research also shows there has been a shift regionally, which is interesting to note; lower percentage of Christians in Europe and the Americas vs. an increase in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Pacific, while the Middle East-North Africa has remained about the same – see Global Christianity – A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian by The Pew Research Center.
Most churches stall-out after the first generation
80% of the churches in the US have plateaued or are in decline.
Most disconcerting is that of the new churches planted in 2012; only 22% had started at least one daughter church within 5 years of existence – see Multiplication Today, Movements Tomorrow by Ed Stetzer & Daniel Im (p.14).
The 5-year window has been the “best practice” for a healthy church to plant a daughter church – see Multiplication Today, Movements Tomorrow by Ed Stetzer & Daniel Im (p.4).
Mac Lake suggest that only 4% of churches ever reproduce
Hirsch and Catchim tell us that the church in the US spends over $70 billion every decade on church plants and resources; but even so “we are experiencing decline in adherence and membership at an unprecedented rate” – see Beyond the Local Church by Sam Metcalf (p. 159).
This raises an important question: “With the heightened awareness of church planting as the most fruitful, God-given strategy to reach people far from Him, in combination with the resources (conferences, books and service) available; why aren’t churches able to make the shift missionally?” See Multiplication Today, Movements Tomorrow by Ed Stetzer & Daniel Im.
Here is my attempt to state the problem of the church in the US today:
The current way we make disciples, do church & plant churches has attracted the low-lying fruit therefore,
we must introduce new ways to make disciples, do church & plant churches.
In the upcoming blogs I will reflect a bit more on these three statistics and identify the signs that lead to Movement Drift.. If it were easy, I believe we would have already figured it out with out human ingenuity. I believe the solution lies not in our capacity to think through the solution but in our reliance on the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit first and foremost.
Please join me on the journey and participate in the conversation.
As my kids return home later this week from their summer internships and get ready for the fall quarter at university, I’m super excited to see them and de-brief their experiences. We’ll have three weeks together to enjoy some camping, hiking, swimming, beach days, and maybe a fire-pit or two. Both of our kids had amazing summers and I love to hear how God used them in their respective areas of focus before they go back to the grind of their studies.
I trust you are finishing your summer on a “high” note and preparing for the fall.
As you’re making your plans for the fall, I wanted to remind you about our two Collectives. Registration ends September 3rd, so if you’ve been waiting to apply, now is the time.
Here are the three easy steps that make-up the Collective:
ACTIVATE your vision through individualized coaching.
ASSESS your process to cultivate leaders using a coach approach.
APPLY principles in your context.
Click here to read more and apply for the Developing Coaching Excellence Collective
Click here to read more and apply for the Church Planting Coach Collective
Group discounts of two or more people are available upon request.
If you have any questions, we’re here for you. You can reply to this email or give us a call at (951) 473-4481.
If you’ve missed my last emails on our Collectives, here’s a quick recap:
They are comprised of small groups limited to 15 for an optimal learning experience
You’ll receive 4 group sessions (60-minutes each) of group coaching plus 6 hours of customized, individual coach mentoring to help you fine-tune your coaching skills.
You’ll gain a community of close friends and mentors in ministry that will be there to support you as you grow your coaching effectiveness.
Now for the best part….I have a group discount for you:
Teams of two or more that come together from the same organization, will receive a group discount.
Have questions on group discounts? Simply click here or call (951) 473.4481.
Ready to apply?
Click here to apply for the Developing Coaching Excellence Collective.
Click here to apply for the Church Planting Coaching Collective.
Feel free to forward this email along to any church planters, leaders who coach disciplemakers and church planting/multiplication leaders and entrepreneurs who use a coach approach that should know about this so that they can get the discount code.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
