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The Shrinking Church: Three Reasons Why
July 13, 2021
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23:55
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This ain’t your parent’s Sunday School class.
We have got nothing personally against Sunday School. Our main host, Dr. Bill Senyard was a Lead Pastor for over 25 years. It's just that churches serve a declining number people—each loved by God. Did you know that 2/3rds of young adults have left churches. One researcher has predicted that 20% of churches shutter their doors in the next 18 months. In 1990, only 7% of Americans reported having no religion. Thirty years later, in 2020, the percentage claiming to be nonreligious had quadrupled, with almost 3 in 10 Americans having no religion. There are now more nonreligious Americans than affiliates of any one single religious tradition, including the two largest: Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism.
We are a single generation from becoming a post-Christian nation.
Why? You may not like these reasons or you may get defensive but here they are.
1) Churches are seen as largely irrelevant
2) Churches are considered unsafe places
3) Churches are just irrelevant, as uncivil as every other institution.
Time to change. Whether you agree or not, the Gospel Rant is meant to be a unique mind-clearing elixir—not everybody’s cup of tea for sure. Our main goal is to educate, challenge the status quo, admit our many errors and ultimately to wake Christians up. We may even pick a fight or two along the way, just to get people's attention. Honestly, wouldn’t you admit that you’ve been bored with the standard talking-head fare for a while?
Us too. Welcome to the Gospel Rant.
We have got nothing personally against Sunday School. Our main host, Dr. Bill Senyard was a Lead Pastor for over 25 years. It's just that churches serve a declining number people—each loved by God. Did you know that 2/3rds of young adults have left churches. One researcher has predicted that 20% of churches shutter their doors in the next 18 months. In 1990, only 7% of Americans reported having no religion. Thirty years later, in 2020, the percentage claiming to be nonreligious had quadrupled, with almost 3 in 10 Americans having no religion. There are now more nonreligious Americans than affiliates of any one single religious tradition, including the two largest: Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism.
We are a single generation from becoming a post-Christian nation.
Why? You may not like these reasons or you may get defensive but here they are.
1) Churches are seen as largely irrelevant
2) Churches are considered unsafe places
3) Churches are just irrelevant, as uncivil as every other institution.
Time to change. Whether you agree or not, the Gospel Rant is meant to be a unique mind-clearing elixir—not everybody’s cup of tea for sure. Our main goal is to educate, challenge the status quo, admit our many errors and ultimately to wake Christians up. We may even pick a fight or two along the way, just to get people's attention. Honestly, wouldn’t you admit that you’ve been bored with the standard talking-head fare for a while?
Us too. Welcome to the Gospel Rant.
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Meet Your Host
Dr. Bill Senyard is a husband, father, pastor, church revitalization consultant, biblical scholar, author of over 14 books, and creator of three online gospel immersion journeys. His primary gift is asking good questions and not being always satisfied with the usual pat answers. The gospel is more powerful than we expect. It's time we start believing that. Want to go deeper? You are at the right place.
