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There
is a problem in the Church of Jesus Christ in the United States of America.
Scientific pollster George Gallup stated that “North America is the only
continent where Christianity is not growing.”[1]
John and Sylvia Ronsvalle discovered clear trends from 1968-1993 in giving and
membership data in twenty-nine mainline denominations; if nothing changes,
giving will entirely cease by 2032 and church membership “will fall to zero
percent of the U.S. population in less than one hundred years.”[2]
United Methodist church growth expert George Hunter, III, considered America in
1998 to be the fourth largest mission field in the world.[3]
There is no county within the United States where the percentage of church
attendance is higher than ten years ago.[4]
Some growth in American churches is deceptive, as between 70-90% of new members
are received from other churches. This is not church growth, but the
accelerated decline of other churches to the benefit of the receptor church.[5]
The basic problem facing the United Methodist Church today, as well as many
historically influential denominations, is a failure of the majority of
churches to thrive; a systemic homeostasis of not making disciples has become
normative within the traditional church.[6]
Chapter 1 will examine the ministry context of the Illinois Great Rivers
Conference and thoroughly identify four systemic problems in historical and
contemporary context.
[1]Mission Spokane, “Why We Need to Plant New Churches . . . Nationwide,” Mission Spokane, http://www.missionspokane.org/needplant.html (accessed June 12, 2007). Cf. Gene Wood, Leading Turnaround Churches (St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2001), 34.
[2]Merton P. Strommen, The Innovative Church: Seven Steps to Positive Change in Your Congregation (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1997), 80. For more information on research by the Ronsvalles, see empty tomb, inc., http://www.emptytomb.org/ (accessed June 12, 2007).
[3]George Hunter, quoted in David J. Gyertson, “Ministry in the New Millennium,” Ministry Magazine, (September 1998).
[4]David Garrison, Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World (Midlothian, VA: WIGTake Resources, 2004), 160.
[5]Carl F. George, The Coming Church Revolution: Empowering Leaders for the Future (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1994), 37-38.
[6]Cf. Steven J. Goodwin, Catching the Next Wave: Leadership Strategies for Turn-Around Congregations (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1999), 17-31.