Lead Worship

Essential Church – Introduction

Posted on June 18th, 2009 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Essential Church.

“More than two-thirds of young churchgoing adults in America drop out of church between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two!”

Top Ten reasons Church Dropouts Steopped Attending Church

1. *Simply wanted a break from church
2. Church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical
3. *Moved to college and stopped attending church
4. *Work responsibilities prevented me from attending
5. *Moved too far away from the church to continue attending
6. *Became too busy though still wanted to attend
7. *Didn’t feel connected to the people in my church
8. Disagreed with the church’s stance on political or social issues
9. *Chose to spend more time with friends outside the church
10. *Was only going to church to please others

*Didn’t find church attendance to be essential

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Stemming the Tide

“Imagine a scenario where every church in America more than doubled its worship attendance in one week. And imagin that the increase was sustained with an influx of regenerate, dedicated members.

“We estimate that, on a given Sunday, about 85 million people in America attend a Protestant church. What would the spritual impact on our nation look like if that number suddenly increased to more than 150 million?

“That is the exciting scenario we would witness if our churches could stem the tide of exodus of young adults from our churches. And though we are not so naive as to believe there is a formulaic approach toward this reality, we do believe that some biblical realities could curb this massive exodus” (page 5).

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“The essential church has four major components”

1. Simplify
2. The church moves its members to deepen their knowledge of God’s Word and His truths. These congregtions have resisted the temptation to “dumb down” bilbical teachings in an attenpt to draw a crowd or to avoid tough issues.
3. High expectations
4. Multiply members spritually

“Despite the growth of the nation, the SBC is baptizing no more people today than it did in 1950.

“Worse yet, the church is losing influence in cultutre. Local churches are having trouble relating to their local community and the younger generation. While some peg this irrelevance as the major underlying factor of declining churches, we believe that it is merely symptomatic of a much greater issue: the church is no longer essential to peole’s lives” (page 8).

“Charles Spurgeon, famed pastor of London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle in the late 1800’s, wrote the following in his book The Soul Winner

In the next place, we do not consider soul-winning to be accomplished by hurriedly inscribing more names upon our church-roll, in order to show a good increase at the end of the year. This is easily done, an there are brethren who use great pains, not to say arts, to effect it; but if it be regarded as the Alpha and Omega of a minister’s efforts, the result will be deplorable (page 10).

“Any traveler to Western Europe will marvel at two aspects of the local churches: how intricately and monstrously beautiful they are as well as how empty they are of parishioners” (page 11).

“Believers in the United States should not make the assumption that we are free and clear from this dilemma. In fact, we are just a little further behind on the road of irrelevancy” (page 11).

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Seven Sins of Dying Churches

Stagnation equates to dying. Your church may look the same week in and week out, but if you are not winning the next generation for Christ, then you are losing the battle.

1. Doctrine Dilution – Watering down Scripture is not the answer to reaching a younger generation for Christ. They do not want to be mollycoddled with tough doctrinal truths. Diluting the truth to cater to eighteen to twenty-two-year-olds may work for a time, but low-dose Christianity stings the church much worse in the long run.
2. Loss of Evangelistic Passion – Dying churches have little evangelistic passion
3. Failure to Be Relevant – Churches taht do not find ways to become relevant in their respective communites will eventually falter. Churches that keep their internal culture unchanged for fifty years while the world around them goes through continual periods of metamorphosis typically die with that old culture
4. Few Outwardly Focused Ministries – As crucial as Bible studies and fellowship are, dying churches gorge themselves on closed study groups and churchwide fellowship events while neglecting outreach in the community
5. Conflict over Personal Preferences – When the power of personal preference overcomes the calling of the Great Commission, major myopia spreads among the congregation. They do not see the imperative to win people for Christ due to the blurriness of their won selfishness.
6. The Priority of Comfort – Dying churches are comfortable with their ministries. But ‘The way we’ve always done it’ will not pass muster if the American church is to thrive.
7. Biblical Illiteracy – One of the major sins of a dying church is the neglect of theological teaching. If a church member does not understand the basics of Scripture, then they are hampered in their witness.

Simplify – The church develops a clear structure and process for making disciples.
Deepen – The church provides a strong biblical teaching and preaching.
Expect – The church has an attitude that communicates to its members that they must be committed to the local congregation.
Multiply – The church has an outward focus, drivng to reach people for Christ and starting new churches (page 16-21) .

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