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    Rescuing the Church
    Rescuing the Church
    Rescuing the Church
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    Rescuing the Church

    By D. Scott Smith

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    When looking at polls and surveys of the overall church in America today we cannot help but realize it is slowly sinking.   Eighty percent of the churches today are stagnant or in decline with people leaving and church doors closing at an alarming rate.   What must we do?   We seem to have all the modern-day technology to help fuel church growth; television, internet, podcast, live streaming, text messaging, emailing, digital bible studies, and the endless list goes on but still the church declines.  We have nice buildings, coffee shops, padded chairs, life groups, a long list of children, youth and adult programs, but still, the church declines.  What must we do?  "Rescuing the Church" uncovers what we must do to get the church back on the right path!   This is a short easy read but its message is for the church in America right now!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScott Smith
    Release dateApr 9, 2019
    ISBN9781386509158
    Rescuing the Church
    Author

    D. Scott Smith

     D. Scott Smith, a husband, father, grandfather, writer, speaker, twenty years a church pastor. Contact info:  dscott.ss27@gmail.com  

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      Book preview

      Rescuing the Church - D. Scott Smith

      Rescuing the Church

      Part 1 – His Presence

      Chapter 1 – Perfection

      Chapter 2 – Lost

      Chapter 3 – The Holy Spirit 

      Chapter 4 – The Word of God

      Chapter 5 – Fire

      Chapter 6 – Separated

      Chapter 7 – He Exists

      Chapter 8 – The Birth of the Church

      Chapter 9 – Prayer

      Chapter 10 – He Speaks

      Chapter 11 – All You Can Eat

      Part 2 – Biblical Pattern of Ministry

      Chapter 12 – Man

      Chapter 13 – Jesus’ Pattern of Ministry

      Chapter 14 – This Pattern of Ministry Throughout Scripture

      Chapter 15 – This Pattern of Ministry Taught in Scripture

      Chapter 16 – The Power of Influence

      Chapter 17 – Father Effect

      Chapter 18 – Rescuing a Nation

      Part 3 - Vision

      Chapter 19 – Vision Problems

      Chapter 20 – Chosen, Special and Called Out

      Chapter 21 – Who Am I?

      Chapter 22 – My Role

      Chapter 23 – We Are Perishing

      *Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.

      Rescuing the Church

      Introduction:  The Sad Truth

      My purpose for writing Rescuing the Church is to highlight the steady decline of the church for at least the last ten years and offer biblical remedies for changing this deadly direction. Various polls and church statistics lend credence to the fact that the church as we know it today is certainly in need of being rescued.

      Below are several excerpts from a sampling of articles written about this decline over the last decade. The first one is from the article Why Are We Losing So Many Churches in the United States? by Jack Wellman, October 26, 2013, viewed on patheos.com by Christian Crier:

      The Decline of the American Church

      You might not be surprised that Brazil is the number one receiving nation of foreign missionaries in the world, but you would be surprised by the 2nd most missionary receiving nation in the world. It is the U.S. Why? In a recent sermon, Pastor James McDonald from Walking in the Word Ministries revealed these shocking numbers about Christianity in America:

      Of the 250,000 Protestant churches in America, 200,000 are either stagnant (with no growth) or declining. That is 80% of the churches in America and maybe the one you attend, if you attend at all.

      4,000 churches close their doors every single year.

      There is less than half of the number of churches today than there were only 100 years ago.

      3,500 people leave the church every single day.

      Since 1950, there are one third fewer churches in the U.S.

      As mentioned above, the U.S. is the number two receiving nation of foreign missionaries; perhaps these numbers help you see why. Churches in America are declining and may be following the trend that began in Europe long before this last decade. Why? What can be done about this? I believe the root cause of so many disappearing churches in the U.S. is the proliferation of seeker-sensitive churches.

      This next excerpt is from Statistics and Reasons for Church Decline by Dr. Richard J. Krejcir, published by ChurchLeadership.org.

      What Is Going on with the Church in America?

      The United States Census Bureau Records give some startling statistics, backed up by denominational reports and the Assemblies of God U.S. Missions:

      · Every year more than 4,000 churches close their doors compared to just over 1,000 new church starts!

      · There were about 4,500 new churches started between 1990 and 2000, with a twenty-year average of nearly 1,000 a year.

      · Every year, 2.7 million church members fall into inactivity. This translates into the realization that people are leaving the church. From our research, we have found that they are leaving as hurting and wounded victims of some kind of abuse, disillusionment, or just plain neglect!

      · From 1990 to 2000, the combined membership of all Protestant denominations in the USA declined by almost 5 million members (9.5 percent), while the US population increased by 24 million (11 percent).

      · At the turn of the last century (1900), there was a ratio of 27 churches per 10,000 people, as compared to the close of this century (2000) where we have 11 churches per 10,000 people in America! What has happened?

      · Given the declining numbers and closures of Churches as compared to new church starts, there should have been over 38,000 new churches commissioned to keep up with the population growth.

      · The United States now ranks third (3rd) following China and India in the number of people who are not professing Christians; in other words, the U.S. is becoming an ever increasing un-reached people group.

      · Half of all churches in the U.S. did not add any new members to their ranks in the last two years.

      · So, why do they leave—besides because of death? Why are they not coming?

      More Startling Data

      Between 1992 and 2002, 77% to 87% (160 million in 1992) of Americans identified themselves as Christians in most studies. However, what constitutes a Christian or a churchgoer is the question. One study that I did between 1992 and 2002 had surprising results. I found that church attendance may be half what those survey results stated. Many polls have indicated that the percentage of people who regularly attend a church service in the United States is around 40% to 50%, 20% in Canada, and 8% or less in Europe. But, when we started to count people from denominational reports and compare to census data and university research data, the numbers that were originally declared dropped by half!

      · 22% of Americans frequently attended church in 1992, including Orthodox, Evangelical, or Protestant. (The reason why the other research is variant is due to how they ask the questions. I sought frequency over just attending. I deem frequency as at least 2 times a month as opposed to two to three times a year indicated by other statistical research.)

      20.5% of Americans frequently attended church in 1995

      19% of Americans frequently attended church in 1999

      18.0% of Americans frequently attended in church in 2002

      Now, by extrapolating the data and doing some statistical evaluation and adding some hope for revival, we can see the figures drop to 15% of Americans in attendance at a church by 2025, and a further drop to 11% or 12 % in 2050. Soon, we can catch up with Europe, which is currently enjoying two to four percent of its population in regular church attendance. By the time these predictions come to pass, Europe may have no significant church presence at all."

      2007 (research from 1998 to 2006) R. J. Krejcir Ph.D., Francis A. Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development

      The following excerpt is from an article in Christianity Today by Ed Stetzer in September of 2016.

      The State of the Church in America: When Numbers Point to a New Reality

      The polls are in and the news is bad for the Church in America. Christianity is on the decline, Americans have given up on God, and the Nones—those who have no religious ties—are on the rise. It is indeed true that parts of the Christian Church in America are struggling, while a growing number of Americans are far from God.

      So what do the numbers tell us about the Church in America? Overall, the

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