Our Churches aren’t growing (Part 1 of a series)
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 20 years or so, you know that most Churches, even most evangelical Churches, are not growing. Those that are growing usually do so through “transfer growth”, those who move to a new community or want a new Church experience rather than “organic growth”, i.e. adding new members by winning the Lost to Christ. Evangelicals need to reexamine the process of attracting new growth and more clearly distinguish between those “outside the Church” a reference to believer transfers and those “outside of Christ” or “organic growth”.
Was it really Christ’s vision to grow His Body on Earth by “shuffling Christians around” or to reach those who do not yet know Him? The question is therefore, how can we help the Lost in our Communities AND around the world to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and use online technology as part of the solution?
At The aXiom Network, we believe the Church is overlooking the most obvious tool available. Our observations suggest less than 5% of Churches, even “evangelical, Bible preaching, Gospel believing, Great Commission fulfilling” Churches include the Gospel on their websites.
And, frankly, we don’t quite understand why. When asked why they don’t include the Gospel on their website the pastor’s typical answer is, “we’ve never thought of the internet as an effective tool for attracting the lost” or “the only way we can know of someone’s new faith directly is if they walk in our Church doors”.
The question for today and the future will be:
“Is your Church website a resource for the Holy Spirit to use to fulfill The Great Commission? Could He lead a lost soul to your site knowing they’ll come face to face with their need for the Savior and His promises of Eternal Life?”
If not this, how? If not now, when? If not you, who?
Despite our optimism about a marriage of the Gospel, the local Church and the Web we have no illusions that the lost throngs will queue up to the heavenly throne someday because a Church or 100,000 Churches (our goal) had the Gospel on their website. However, we do believe there will be some, perhaps many who will. And, they will be eternally grateful to the Church that made it possible for them to be there.
I’ll be discussing these ideas in much more detail in the near future as a call to encourage local Churches to add the Gospel to their Websites.
Rev. Don Walley, Director
The aXiom Network
www.theaxiomnetwork.com
Rev. Don Walley is Director of The aXiom Network, an effort of, by and for U.S. Churches to call 100,000 U.S. Churches to offer the Gospel on their websites and networking them with nearly 150,000 U.S. Churches at affiliate sites.
The aXiom Network provides The 3 Keys to Effective Online Evangelism for the local Church and offers Road Swap Gospel Templates as its principle tool for engaging the Online Seeker.
For what he calls the “OnGen” (the generation that’s always Online) Don believes this and future generations will first go online to discover salvation before they enter a church’s doors. The aXiom Network is committed to helping Churches optimize their online presence so the world may hear the Good News of Jesus Christ: this generation and beyond.
Don’s passions include family, computers and helping Churches use online technology to grow through leadership development, small group ministry, online evangelism initiatives and discipleship training.
His ThM in Theology and years of ministry prepared him for his time as Pastor in New England, experiences with Campus Crusade, BGEA, Church Consultant with T-Net and associate staff with Navigators/CDM.
He is ordainted and is a Master Instructor in website design, database development, networking and desktop applications (MS Certified). For the last several years he has engaged the Church in becoming more effective in its online ministry.
With the advent of the Web, Don, and others developed several online tools to grow the U.S. Church including the world’s largest directory of U.S. Churches designed initially to help U.S. Navy Chaplains locate Churches for transferring sailors and families.
8 Comments
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Great post. Serving is a part of winning folks to Christ but it is not the end of it. Unless we actually share the bad news of sin, guilt, shame and pain as well as the good news of new life, forgiveness, new identity and healing people might not even know how to receive Jesus. It must be a real priority. As a young man I attended an evangelism seminar at church. After it we decided to star a visitation program to those who visited on Sunday and the only night we could go out was Wednesday. The Pastor said, "No way! You can't miss Prayer Meeting." Winning people to Christ was NOT a real priority.
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Thanx for your insights Gary.
A few weeks ago I told a pastor that after I recover from some health issues, my wife and I were thinking about testing an outreach format by skipping every 3rd Sunday worship in order to host an "evangelistic Bible study" for (unbelieving) people my wife and I meet throughout the month. No pressure, no Christians, no invitation, no wrangling, etc. Just take a passage and use a very simple format like: "What is this passage saying?" , "How can we use the wisdom here to apply to our daily lives?" etc. The goal is simply to get people into the Word and have them see for themselves that there is much to be gained and, hopefully, eventually get the deeper meanings (John 3:16).
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We would provide a "brunch" (fruit, bagles, etc) type of atmosphere. These acquantances usually have Sunday a.m. free anyway and then they could go to their yard sales, etc. It would be VERY low-key and nonthreatening.
I thought the guy would go apoplectic! He couldn't believe I would miss a Sunday worship at my Church. I know he meant well but I'm thinking God won't miss me in the pew one Sunday a month. He'll still have His eyes on me to keep me out of too much trouble and perhaps bless our attempts to serve.
We're talking about moving forward with it anyway. BTW, this pastor STILL doesn't have the Gospel on his Church's website. Another "LOST" opportunity…
Who's discovering Eternal Life? See The Great Commission "LIVE" athttp://www.roadswaps.com
Hello my to my Bro. in Christ, I very happy to see that you are sharing the faith. Salvation through Jesus Christ. I will like to take a moment to say that this is why I started my own Website here with OCC in 2007 To offer free info; and to lead the lost to Christ. My name is E Morales, and I also go by the name faith evangelist, this way I give Christ all the glory. I pray that the Lord uses this ministry and yours in a very special way.
I agree 100%. I need to make sure OUR church does this!!
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