Trends in Reaching Our Mission Field

Below is the handout held on Sunday evening July 16th.

Trends in Reaching Our Mission Field

Southern Baptists

Southern Baptist lost 200,000 members in 2015, and had 300,000 fewer baptisms for the first time in 68 years.[1]

Losses of 204,409 in 2015 followed 236,467 of 2014. The population of the United States grew 321.4MIlliion in 2015 and 318.9 in 2014. Thus, in 2015 there were 15,294,764 Southern Baptists. That is one Southern Baptist per 21 people in the USA.

The Ekron Mission Field

Meade County is only 11% churched with a 16.9% poverty level.

What is Being Said

Sam Eaton wrote an article entitled “From the depths of my heart, I want to love church.”[2]

A few insights;

Church impressions of Millennials is the lowest in recent history (22-35 year olds)
For under 30 y/o, only 20% , 2 in 10 believe church attendance is worthwhile. (All time low)
59% of these raised in church no longer attend.
Millennials are the least likely group to attend church.

Millennials believe that no one cares what they think.

Lack of interest in opinions
Lack of invitation to serve as leadership

Care more about love than missions statements.

Desire action and service
Stick with the heart of the gospel

Churches lack a compassion for the poor

“If our lives do not reflect radical compassion for the poor, there is reason to wonder if Christ is in us at all.” David Platt
Become active in the community to help people in need.
Have the church serve others regularly.

Stop Blaming the Culture

Explicitly teach how our lives should be different than the culture.

The You Can’t Sit With Us Effect.

Churches that feel cliquey, like high school.
Be radically kind and compassionate.
Serve together.
Train people to help others connect.
Do not blame others for not being connected. Some are shy, have anxiety, are struggle. Bridge the gap.

Millennials do not trust institutions

Millennials want to be mentored. They crave relationships.

Urgently strive to create relationship opportunities
Develop mentors and provide ongoing encouragements

Millennials want to feel valued.

Have a genuine love interest in them.
Show appreciation.
Do not major on failures.

Millennials want to talk about controversial issues.

Have an environment to do so.
Create a program for youth to transition into adult life
Intentionally train youth to live a godly life.

Public Perception

Make your church present felt at public events.

Stop talking about US

Respect their generation
Don’t fail to deliver. Under promise and deliver in abundance

Churches are failing to adapt.

Data clearly shows that churches are not connecting with Millennials.

Who is Growing

Some are growing, but with a twist on reading the data. [3]

The top 100 fastest growing churches tend to be larger churches in metropolitan areas.[4]

Conservative churches tend to grow while liberal churches are in decline. [5][6]

“For example, 93 percent of growing-church pastors said they agreed with the statement “Jesus rose from the dead with a real, flesh-and-blood body leaving behind an empty tomb,” compared with 56 percent of declining-church pastors, according to the summary.

And 71 percent of pastors at growing churches said they read their Bibles daily, compared with 19 percent of pastors at declining churches.”

5 Trends learned from the top 100 growing churches[7]

1 Non-Denominational Dominates

2 Biblical Truth Builds Churches

3 Millennials aren’t the problem

4 Transparency is Critical

5 Technology is Changing the Mission Field

[1] Baptist News Freefall continues in SBC Membership Bob Allen June 8, 2016

[2] http://faithit.com/12-reasons-millennials-over-church-sam-eaton/

[3] https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-are-all-christian-denominations-in-decline

[4] http://www.outreachmagazine.com/outreach-100-fastest-growing-churches-2016.html

[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/04/liberal-churches-are-dying-but-conservative-churches-are-thriving/?utm_term=.76107e7d0f19