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Christianity Today released an article this month titled,
Willow Creek's 'Huge Shift'. Since a friend asked what I thought about this, I thought I'd share it with you, my faithful readers and random visitors with hope that you will further sharpen my thinking. Or (gasp!) correct me. This is
my big-picture view — and not necessarily the right one, at that — So, enjoy! (Then comment!)
The study by Willow Creek was been years in the making but only splashed across the blogosphere with its sensational headlines late last year. (Read: "Mind-Blowing!" - "Painful!" - "Revolutionary!") I'm not sure why CT is still doing stories on it at this late date except that their publishing schedule is generally 3-6 months out. (I first heard about the Reveal study in
Tomorrow, the 52nd biennial business-meeting for the General Council of the Assemblies of God begins. On Thursday, our next General Superintendent will be selected. Here are my thoughts on matters over which I have no input or influence, and which are probably inappropriate for me to publicly opine over. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop me from writing! If you read this and think I'm an idiot for writing it, just remember: you read it!
[Skip all the blather and just see my pick for the vote, if that's what you're after!]
The Generational Exchange … Happens Now
Stop now. Before you go any further, before you cast your nominating vote, before you accept your nomination (as if anybody reads this), go listen to
The 100 or so largest churches in the Assemblies of God
I wanted to see where the largest A/G churches were, and to find out what constituted a "large" church in the Assemblies of God. A quick search turned up the 2004 Statistical Report for the Assemblies of God. I quickly whipped together this list, not thinking to look for the latest 2005 report. :: sigh :: So, I went back and added the latest numbers from the '05 data and added about 14 churches. I didn't drop any from the '04 report, assuming that two years wouldn't have made a dramatic difference.
I now supply the list for you to browse and explore. I have added links to the church homepage, media page (if any) and weblog (almost none). Enjoy!
- #1: Phoenix First Assembly of God —
These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.
(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. 
)
Back at the first of the year, on January 3, I wrote a post wherein I teased out some trends from the most recent official A/G statistical report published in 2004. I concluded that:
Not only are the new believers outstripping the net change in adherents, they seem to have no impact on the growth trend at all. If the data are accurate, we may be bringing folks to Christ in the A/G, but we’re not keeping them.
—"Examining Assemblies of God statistics on growth"
And I illustrated my conclusion with data, specifically, with this chart:
Note the numbers:
472,704: Conversions
49,533: Net Change in Adherents
10.5%: Percentage of Net Change in Adherents
These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.
(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )
The editors of Leadership journal have posted another incisive commentary on the state of the Church today in their Out of Ur weblog. It’s about how we (in the Western church) have turned the gospel into a pimping enterprise. There’s nothing really new here, it’s the same complaint Bonhoeffer had about “cheap grace.” But the language is, well, provocative. From church planter Jonathan Yarboro:
Blogging from the heartland, Sean MacNair calls it like he sees it. In a brief post he concisely serves up highlights from 100 years of American church renewal (See: "The Pardoner's Tale: My best (stolen) idea so far this year"). He buzzes over Pentecostalism, the Charismatic renewal, healing revivals, Billy Graham, the Charismatic Catholic renewal, the Jesus Movement, the megachurch-cum-denomination trend, worship innovations, and the Emergent Conversation. His point: Renewal threatens the status quo but ultimately gets institutionalized, fades into oblivion, or is assimilated into the mainstream.
Buried in his post is a subtle criticism of the movement that spawned them all, and the institution that formed as a result: Pentecostalism and the Assemblies of God.
Travis Johnson, over at The Edge Church Think Tank, posted an article bemoaning the incredible shrinking church: “The Great Shrinking Church. What Gives?!?!” First, he cites some statistics from The American Church:
18.7%: Americans in church in 2000 18.0%: Americans in church in 2003 11.7%: Americans projected to be in church by 2050 4,600: New churches from 1990–2000 38,802: How many new churches there should have been in order to keep pace with American population.
That America is becoming an increasingly secular nation is no surprise. That traditional church style seems increasingly irrelevant in the “naughties” and that church numbers are in decline—again—no surprise.
So, taking an unflinching look at the numbers (there was more cited), Travis concludes:
“In my mind, those statistics absolutely prove that we MUST move every single priority to the side burner. Establishing new churches and transitioning declining churches needs to be
An excerpt from from a Lincoln Journal Star article, “ Conservative churches grow while mainline churches struggle,” b y Bob Reeves, regarding recent explosive A/G growth:
Successful evangelism is also a major reason for the phenomenal growth of the Assemblies of God, especially outside the United States, said Bob Friesen, director of research for that denomination's headquarters in Springfield, Mo. Missionaries work with indigenous leaders in countries worldwide to build local churches that will grow and multiply, he said. The biggest growth is in Africa. "Revival is happening there and people are turning toward the Lord" in record numbers, he said.
As of 2004 there were approximately 30 million adherents of Assemblies of God worldwide, nearly double the number in 1990.
In the United States, the growth has leveled off in recent years, said Dave Argue, pastor of Lincoln's Christ Place Church, an Assembly of God congregation. The worldwide growth is "part
From Flickr.com.
Uploaded on March 6, 2005 by D LeRoyAn item from the March 21 issue of Newsweek popped up on my radar: “The Battle For Latino Souls.” Subitled, “Pentecostal churches are using savvy marketing to attract traditionally Catholic Hispanics. A holy struggle in Chicago”.
I found this quote interesting:
Latinos remain the Catholic church's fastest-growing ethnic bloc, but they are also one of the fastest-growing segments among Mormons, Methodists and most other denominations. The result: all faiths are courting Hispanics with a marketing savvy more often associated with corporate America. These churches “have plans to grow, and they're aggressive,” says Edwin Hernandez of the University of Notre Dame. “The competition is rampant.”
The dark-side of evangelistic economics? Or language from a skewed perspective? The picture’s a little clearer as we begin the next
This is a long one. Apologies in advance.
The General Council of the Assemblies of God—the US A/G fellowship I belong to—met last week (August 2–5) in it’s biennial (every other year) business meeting at Denver, Colorado.
As I mentioned previously, I believe the US version of the Assemblies of God will soon be facing a challenge to its sense of global centricity due to the growth of the Evangelical church in the global South. (It’s not the international headquarters in Springfield, MO, by the way, just the US headquarters—there is no international authority for the A/G.)
I saw a news item on Google today that brought that home. It led to further exploration at the AG.org website detailing news and reports from last week’s meeting, and it was a very interesting tour. Allow me to take you through it.
First off,
Seems the old meme that the Mormon faith (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is the fastest growing faith in the world has become officially dated. KIDK TV news, out of Idaho Falls is reporting:
"...Since 1990, Seventh Day Adventists, Assemblies of God and Pentecostal groups have grown much faster and in more places around the globe. The number of new converts to the LDS church, as well as the number of missionaries have dropped in the last 2 years."
Now, you'd be right to think this spells trouble for the Mormon church. But buried in that graf is the hint of trouble for the rest of the Western church world as well. Well … if not exactly trouble, at least the winds of change.
The leadership roles long enjoyed by the European and North American church strongholds
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