Why the American church will
never reach the world for Christ.
First, let’s get the disclaimers
out of the way. The absolute term
‘never’ is understood with the caveat of “as it currently exists and without
meaningful change.” Before the American
church will be able to reach the world, it will have to under go radical
changes in a number of areas, but for the moment, I want to focus on just
one: Giving to foreign missions.
According to Dr. Pam Arlund, “nationally,
less than 1% of total funds collected by US churches are used for ‘foreign
missions’. Less than 1% of those funds
earmarked for ‘foreign missions” is targeted toward ‘unreached people groups’
(cultures with no Christian witness or presence).” Dr. Arlund is referring to findings from the
Joshua Project.
In other words, if a church had
collections of $100,000 in a given year, on average $1,000 would be given to
foreign missions. Of that $1,000 about
$10 dollars would be directed toward efforts to reach people who have no
Christian contact at all. I tried to put
this in a pie graph but the slice of the pie for unreached people groups was so
small it could not be seen. If the
letters in this article were dollars, the amount dedicated to unreached people
would be equal to one letter i. We are
talking in wide generalizations. I know
of some churches that give 10%, 20%, 50% or more to missions. But as a whole, unreached people have not
been a spending priority for the U.S. church.
As a nation, the United States
has possessed a level of wealth that is without compare in history. While being only 6% of the world’s population,
we have come to possess almost half of the world’s good things. The church has for many years enjoyed
significant influence regarding that wealth.
That is not to say the church has possessed all that wealth, but for
generations America was a nation with a Christian world-view. The priorities of the church were to a
greater or lesser extent the priorities of the individuals, families, and
nation. And of late, the priorities of
the church were not reaching the unreached.
Many years ago I asked, “Has God
made the American church so rich so that we could fund, support, and share with
our impoverished fellow Christians around the world?” As an idealistic ministry student in
undergrad studies, I was met with patronizing and condescending comments that I
would understand how church budgets worked when I was older.
Well, I am older know. When asked my hair color, I have to answer
gray. I have arthritis in my fingers,
ringing in my ears and can see squat without my glasses. I have pastored churches, overseen budgets,
worked in the private sector and watched, what I believe is, the decline of the
American church. I believe the answer
to the question that youngster ask all those years ago is, “Yes, God has given
us much so we can share with our underprivileged brothers and sisters.”
But we have not. You may have heard of the mega church
preacher that asked every one in his church to give $300 so he could buy a
Gulfstream G650 private jet. But it is
not mega churches that pull these stunts.
I recently heard of a church of a couple of hundred attendees that spent
$60,000 to create a Starbucks like coffee area in their fellowship hall, used
only for church folks at church events. This
was in addition to the brand new kitchen in their new building. Another church, at the direction of the
senior egoist (I mean pastor) spent $40,000 on a state of the art lighting
system for their stage area. This was a
congregation of a couple hundred; it has since decline dramatically. May new lighting was not what the church
really needed.
Jesus told this story about a
rich man who gave three of his servants’ significant sums of money. Two of the three used the money wisely and
produced results that pleased their master.
The third hid the money. It
appears that he was hoping that something would happen to the master and he
could keep the money as his own and use it as he wished. The master brought swift, sure, and wrathful
judgment on this selfish scoundrel.
Are we seeing our master’s
judgment on the American church?
Maybe. It would explain an awful
lot. Most churches (both congregation
and denominations/fellowships) are in decline.
The influence of evil within and upon the church is growing. The default rate of churches on their
mortgages was recently at an all time high.
Conversion growth is near a stand
still and what growth is occurring is, by and large, membership transfer
growth.
I don’t believe we can placate
God by throwing dollars at any special project.
More than anything else our giving and spending patterns reflect our
heart and convictions. But I do believe
it is time for all of us, individually and then collectively, to answer some
questions about our spending patterns and priorities. Perhaps we could take up this chant, “One
more people group before one more coffee center.”
Side Bar: It is Easter week 2015
and we are only about half done in telling the world that good news of the
Resurrected Lord. Imagine, if you can,
not having the hope and joy of the resurrection. What would it be like to live not knowing the
victory of the ever-living Christ? According
to the Joshua Project there are about 3 billion people who are part of some
4,000 people groups who are without hope.
This represents about 41% of all the people groups on earth. I was very interested to learn that are 77
unreached people groups here in the U.S.
These groups range in population from 500, for Sherpa, to the 5 million
Jewish people, of whom less that 2% are evangelical Christians. I highly recommend you explore www.joshuaproject.net,
and let it be a motivation to pray.
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