Have we Lost??

I was confronted with something tonight. Something that was shocking, although it probably shouldn’t  have been considering all I have seen of and heard about the American church in recent years.  Maybe what I encountered was common in Third World Countries, the dark jungles of  Africa,  or behind the old Soviet Iron Curtain, but not here, not in my community.  There was no way this was happening,  not tonight, not so close to home…..

According to a 2004 Barna Group study, since 1991 the number of the unchurched in the United States has nearly doubled, from 39 million to 75 million, while the population has only grown by nearly 15%.  Men are the most unchurched at 55% and the average unchurched person’s median age is younger than that of the rest of Americans.  The church is getting older while the youth are abandoning the faith of their parents.

Numbers from a more recent Barna study show some improvement by including the organic church movement ( home churches, cyber churches, etc ) in with the conventional church going numbers.

1.  The unattached- those with no church affiliation come in at 23%
2.  The Intermittent- the under-churched.  These are people who have participated in either a conventional church or an organic church within the last year 15%
3.  Homebodies- People who have attended a home church 3%
4.  Blenders- adults who attended a conventional service and a home church 3%

Have we grown so fat and complacent spiritually that we can no longer be bothered to compel them to come in? 

The Great Commission ( Matthew 20:19 ) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. ( Acts 1:8 )

We have forgotten both of theses commands.  There is no other conclusion that can be drawn from the numbers available to us.  We cannot make disciples in far away lands while our neighbors are lost and without hope.  What are we to do when nearly 25% of Americans are completely unchurched?  Do we recklessly say that this is God’s will and leave them to their fate?  To have compassion for the lost does not diminish God’s sovereignty in the salvation of sinners and it is time for the true church to take a stand, get active, and follow our Lord’s commands.

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?


Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.  Faith is impossible without the hearing of the precious Word of God, the Gospel, which is the Good News of Jesus Christ.  It was not a request that we witness in the power of the Holy Spirit and consequently make disciples, it was and is a command.  It was and is an imperative of the faith. There is no lee-way or wiggle room to escape those words.  We cannot run far or long enough ( Ask Jonah ) to remove these words from our hearing: Be my witnesses in Jerusalem ( our community ), Judea ( our county ), Samaria ( neighboring regions of even those you dislike ), and to the uttermost parts of the Earth ( self-explanatory ).  The making of disciples ( followers of Christ ) is a sign of a healthy, vibrant, and growing church community being obedient to their faith.

……” I don’t know anything about God, don’t, ummm… haven’t been to church much, “ mumbled the five year old blonde haired and blue eyed boy in our Wednesday night class.  Here it was, the heartbreaking and unconscionable fact that here was a child who lives within minutes of my church who had never heard of God before.

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

….but how could he ever believe without hearing? I felt as if the millstone was already hung about my neck and the long slow decent into the depths of the sea had begun.  How may others like him are out there?  How many are we missing while safely tucked away behind our four walls?  Is an entire generation lost?  Have they been abandoned by us in favor of programs and glitz?  Let me reiterate:  God is Sovereign in the affairs of man  but He has ordained us, as wretched as we  are, to preach the Gospel to a lost, sinful, and dying world.  What a great privilege and responsibility it is to minister the Word of God to those around us.  What a honor it is that God has made us fellow laborers with Him in His grand plan to redeem and reconcile lost humanity unto Himself.

Can we reach the next generation?  Has the church lost its relevance and ability to correctly convey its message?

We are a light on a hill, how can it be hidden?