From today’s THE TENNESSEAN:
Too many old people. Not enough babies.
That’s what almost every major Christian denomination in the United States has in common — from Southern Baptists to Missouri Synod Lutherans.
In fact, 21 of the 25 largest groups in the United States reported a decline or flat line in membership last yea,, according to the 2009 edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches. In most cases, the so-called birth dearth is the reason. read the rest here
My comment. Uh, DUH! Told you that was coming.
Jesus says;
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:37-38
The early church asked and begged for children, seeing them as a blessing. Today’s church does their best to prevent them, sometimes even going so far as murder. Why? We have become self centered.
Who will be the workers of God’s Harvest Field tomorrow? While the Christian families in America decline in size, the Muslim families are increasing in size.
Kathi says
Not to mention… how many people within reach of these churches are going to hell ❓ ❗
Kathis last blog post..Multimedia message
Pat Anderson says
“Who will be the workers?” That’s why it is our mandate to expand the kingdom for God. We are here to occupy, not be defeated, right? There are so many people who do not know Jesus and when they get mobilized in our army for God our army size will be tremendous!
Great post. Very inspirational! (Saw your post on Twitter)
Pat Anderson
who’s church is growing but they honor the little ones and the young people! (Great point you made!!!)
Pat Andersons last blog post..7 Ways to Find Time To “Do It All”
Anne-Marie says
The church I grew up in basically died off. When the last pastor retired, the denomination HQ just decided it wasn’t worth keeping open and sold the building.
The church my husband and I attended for 10 yrs experienced a lot of growth and has big children’s and teen’s groups, but they were ugly about crying babies in the service. They even asked a woman with her several disabled son to leave the service because he made too much noise. Can you get anymore offensive to those you are trying to reach?
We’re now attending a church that loves children. The kids worship with the adults, then go to their own groups. And crying babies don’t make the pastors groan, but rather they say, “Oh, we love babies.”
Penny says
we love babies too and welcome children in the service, gets a little un-traditional sometimes but the Lord doesn’t seem to mind and we aren’t real traditional anyway
Cindy says
Personally, I don’t think a lack of births is the main reason these churches are losing members. I think a lack of life-giving Word coming across the pulpit could be to blame instead. People’s souls are hungry, and dry, stale bread simply cannot satisfy.
At any rate, we’ve got so many babies being born at my church that I do a quick headcount at most services to make sure we adults still outnumber the kiddos. We’ve got them beat by 1 or 2 most services, but we’ve been tied a few times. Lol.
Cindys last blog post..Review: Bible Story Songs CD