Solved.By.Discipleship
65% of +60 year olds claim to follow Christ
35% of 45-59 year olds claim to follow Christ
15% of 25-44 year olds claim to follow Christ
4% of 18-24 year olds claim to follow Christ
85% - 96% of Christian churches in America are in plateau or decline.
80% -90% of high school students never get plugged into a church as they go off to college
YET! 90% of youth today claims to want to know more about spirituality!
90%!!!!
I am so tired of hearing about the issues with today’s “Emerging Church”. I am so sick of all the books being written and fingers being pointed. Over the years the church has seen amazing growth in crossing cultural walls. Crossing ethnic walls. Life style walls. Even economic walls. But the one wall that remains standing and we do a terrible job at breaking is the generational wall. This is why we have entire denominations of our church literally dying off as we speak. This is why we see the statistic that 85% - 96% of Christian churches in America are in plateau or decline. We see these churches that spend 20, 30, 40 years gaining wisdom and life experience. Studying the scriptures and pouring out into the communities literally dying off because of this generational wall.
Jesus says in Matthew 28:18
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
A pretty familiar piece of scripture for a lot of us. It’s Jesus’ Great Commission. It’s pretty much the one and only thing he leaves us with as he returns to his father. And I strongly believe if we grasp at the heart of what he is saying here it would solve the problem of the generation wall we are experiencing in our churches today.
He has said to go and make disciples and we have gone and made converts. He leaves us with the Great Commission and we have turned it into the Great Conversion. Jesus says to his disciples to “Come follow me” and we have said, “Come and fill our seats”.
Jesus’ disciples literally left everything they had to be his disciple. They left their family, career, personal possessions, relationships, and friends to follow after him whole heartily. So why then does today’s discipleship look any different? We make all the excuses under the sun to get away from this reality but at the end of the day it’s still a reality.
Did you know that no matter what you are going through in life? No matter what your background may look like. No matter what moral or ethical convictions you may have these days that there is a church or organization out there willing to support your stance right where your at?
And we wonder why we have this emergent church of free thinkers rising up. I encourage the church to stop ranting and start discipling. I encourage the church to stop pointing fingers and start investing those years of knowledge into the emergent congregation that is sitting right in front of you. I encourage the church to stop The Great Conversion and start The Great Commission. The issue of the emerging church doesn’t get solved with a few books and an argument. It gets Solved.By.Discipleship
-Billy
