Why Plant New Churches? #2

April 26, 2007 | Filed Under church planting |

seed-planting.jpgI shared in an earlier post that when I discuss the topic of church planting people will inevitably ask if there is a real need for more churches. I usually respond with a list of reasons why we need to be involved in planting new churches. Here is reason number two:

Reason 2: The Decline of the American Church

The decline of the church can be observed both numerically and in regards to influence. The church-to-population ratio based on statistics from the U.S. Census for the past century are as follows:

In 1900, there were 28 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 1950, there were 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 2000, there were 12 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 2004, the latest year available, there are 11 churches for every 10,000 Americans.

Of the approximately 340,000 churches in America, 80-85% are either plateaued or declining. Of the 15% that are growing, 14% are growing as the result of transfer rather than conversion growth. Moreover, Win Arn reports thirty-five hundred to four thousand churches close each year. New churches need to be started to reach those who are obviously not being reached by existing churches.

In regards to influence, Warren Bird and Tom Clegg in “Lost in America” present these sombering statistics. Before you wake up tomorrow, thousands of lives will be changed forever. In a typical day in the United States there will be:

6,148 marriages and 3,110 divorces.

3,246 women will have an abortion.

3,445 unmarried women will give birth.

84 people will commit suicide.

45 people with the AIDS virus will die.

43 people will die from alcohol-related car accidents.

4,630 fifteen-year-old girls will have sex for the first time.

1,312 students will drop out of high school.

28,206 people will be arrested,

4,274 of them for drug abuse violations.

3,396 households will declare bankruptcy.

Despite its Christian heritage, the United States leads every other nation in the industrialized world in the percentage of single-parent families, abortion rate, sexually transmitted diseases, teenage birth rate, use of illegal drugs by students, and the size of the prison population. Where is the church’s positive impact on individuals and society? At stake is the deadly assumption that business as usual is just fine. It’s even more deadly when churches aren’t even aware that they’ve made such an assumption. We impact one life here and another one there, and we wrongly assume that as other churches do likewise, we’re making forward progress. The exact opposite is true. (Tom Clegg, “Lost in America”)

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