Why Do We Need Another Church?

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

People ask me all the time that we are targeting at Embrace.  First of all we are targeting people who are burned out on organized religion and if you want to know what I mean by that check us out☺ The second are people who do not know Jesus Christ.  People have gotten offended that we would dare to plant another church in Lexington and when I say people I mean other well-intentioned Christians.  The fact of the matter is we need to plant new churches because many of the ones we have are not getting it done as Missiologist Winn Arn states “… of the approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of the five are either plateaued or declining.” “80-85% of the churches in America are on the down-side of the growth cycle.  Further, of the 15 percent that are growing, 14 percent are growing as the result of transfer rather than conversion growth.”  If American churches continue on this downward spiral, we will have more churches closing their doors. The key is to reach new people with the Gospel and plant new churches:
•    Church Planting responds to Jesus’ Great Commission:  An intentional pursuit of lost people and evangelism are two major components.
•    Far too many American churches have missed their mission because people are not accepting Christ.  It was disheartening to be at Annual Conference and hear that many of our UM churches didn’t not have a profession of faith or new people come to their churches.
•    New churches grow faster than older established.  63% of all UM churches in Kentucky are under 50 persons in membership and have an average attendance of 25.
•    New churches evangelize better than established churches
•    People are more open to change in new churches

The third population we are targeting are people who are virtually nonexistence in the church, people between the ages of 18-35, especially men.  I think the Church has a challenge ahead of itself to show this population why it is relevant to not only “go” to church but to live a life of “worship.”  We have the privilege of being in the center of Lexington and Embrace can be a city within the city of Lexington.  We can influence our culture and show that the Christian life can have real meaning in our universities and work environments.