When I first heard the word "missions" I thought immediately of remote tribes in the Amazon forests of South America; or, I thought of grass huts in the savanna's of Africa. I thought of remote villages in the interior of China. I thought of proclaiming Christ in hostile areas of the world. I thought of foreign languages, tribal tongues, and translating the Bible. I didn't think of rural America. Is there really a need?
Aren't we the most "Christian nation" in the world? Isn't it here that we have ready access to all the teaching of the Bible? Is rural America a viable mission field? Should the Church in America put our valuable resources into planting more churches in rural North America? They are all valid questions...but when one looks at the statistics, the answers become clear.
More unchurched Americans calls for more churches.
The number of unchurched Americans has almost doubled from 1991 to 2001. There are an estimated 360,000 churches in the United States, with an average attendance of about 75 persons per church. Yet if every church in America doubled its attendance, there would still be 190 million people not in church to hear the gospel on an average Sunday. Even in most small towns, there would not be enough seats in existing churches if even half of the people decided to go to church on a given Lord’s Day. There are 300 million people in the US. Lost people matter to God and should to us.
The US and Canada are the third largest mission field.
The combined populations of the United States and Canada comprise the third largest mission field of unsaved persons in the world. Only China and India have more non-Christians. The U.S. is the largest mission field in the Western hemisphere.
Church plants are not keeping up with population.
In 1900 our nation had 27 churches for every 10,000 Americans. By 1950, this ratio had dropped to 17 churches for every 10,000 people. Since 1950, we actually have 30 percent fewer churches to reach the growing number of unchurched people in our land!
Church planting is still the best form of evangelism.
Most new churches come into existence and prosper primarily by reaching unsaved people. Most existing churches grow through transfer growth--church hopping. About half of all U.S. churches did not add one new person through conversion growth last year.
3,500-4,000 churches close their doors every year.
The spiritual deadness of our North American culture is showing up in many churches. Eighty to 85% of U.S. churches are on the downside of their life cycle – many of them Bible-believing congregations. They have little or no evangelistic impact in their community. Three times as many churches in America are closing as are opening. It is estimated that between 3,500 and 4,000 churches dissolve every year in our nation. Yet at best only about 1,300 new churches are being planted annually. The net result is that there are fewer opportunities for people to hear the gospel than before. We need to be much more aggressive in intentionally starting new works just to take the place of those that are closing their doors.
59 million people still live in rural America.
It's a valid case. It's a worthy field. Who will go?
Two comments. First, historically, rural churches have provided a more consistent supply of parishioners for their big city cousins than the urban churches have provided for themselves.
ReplyDeleteSecond, poverty in our world is moving quickly to rural areas as cities amass resources formerly available to rural areas as well.
You will find more thoughts at http://www.karlevans.org