Category: Affiliations

While our First Amendment rights were being violated with the forced closing of our churches, church attendance increased 43%!

 

This IgniteAmerica Certified Statistic is based on the following research:

Percentage of American adults who attend a Sunday morning worship service:

22%    Gallup, 2018

23%    General Social Surveys, 2018

24%    Pew Research Center, 2018

23% (Average) of American adults (pre-COVID) normally attended a Sunday morning worship service.

Starting with COVID, the percentage of American adults who viewed a Sunday morning worship service online (a largely new phenomenon):

31%    Pew Research Center, March 19-24, 2020

33%    Gallup, April 14-28, 2020

35%    American Enterprise Institute, March 26-30, 2020

33% (average) of American adults viewed a Sunday morning worship service online during COVID with most churches shut down . . . a 43% increase in church attendance!

 

Cultural Context:

As was the case with 9-11 and the crash of 2008, fear is a great motivator for people to come to God. Even better, not just the newbies but all church attenders have been more intently listening to their pastors, wanting to grow closer to God and His protection.

And this is not an American phenomenon. With every country in the world experiencing the same pandemic, online church attendance has exploded globally, especially in the Middle East. In countries like Iran, nothing short of Revival is taking place. The Church always flourishes when persecuted, and now we’ve had a taste of that in our own country. Godless politicians are taking full advantage of this moment to shut us down and yet we’ve multiplied. Praise God!

It’s important to note that God’s view of good is not the same as ours. While we want peace and safety and comfort, the cornerstones of complacency, God’s focus stays fixed on what will get the most people possible into Heaven. And right now, while we’re all complaining, the Angels are rejoicing over all the people who are accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

It’s time to stop complaining and start taking advantage of this historic opportunity. This could be the last Great Awakening before the Rapture takes us and our unsaved friends and loved ones are left behind. This is where it gets personal!

It’s never been easier to share your faith because everyone has questions, that only God can answer, and the fun begins when you’re asked a question you can’t answer. Just admit you don’t have the answer and ask for a couple of days to seek God for the answer. That’s when your prayer life and Bible Study takes off and your faith explodes when He leads you to the exact answer you need. Now that’s fun!

The fields are white for harvest! And the worse things get, the easier it’s going to be to lead people to Jesus. This is not a time to complain. This is the time to take full advantage of every opportunity to lead everyone, every day, closer to Jesus!

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Scriptures:

I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born, I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah 1:5

You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe in me . . .
Isaiah 43:10

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Matthew 28:19

Jesus said to His Disciples, The Harvest is great, but the workers are few. So, pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask Him to send more workers into His Fields.
Matthew 9:37-38

Do not say, there are still 4 months and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are white for harvest!
John 9:35

Almost 4 out of 10 Millennials (37%) are “nones” with no religious faith at all.

 

This IgniteAmerica Certified Statistic is based on the following research:

Percentage of Millennials that have no religious faith at all:

35%    Religious News Service, 2018

39%    Public Religion Research Institute, 2017

38%    Statista, 2017

35%    Pew Research Center, 2014

 

Cultural Context:

By the end of next year, Millennials will surpass Baby Boomers as America’s largest living adult generation. Between the ages of 23-38, and numbering 75 million adults, Millennials are going to reshape American culture and with it, America’s religious landscape going forward.

Here’s the challenge: Millennials are less interested in faith than all previous generations. Almost two-thirds of Millennials are not sure that God exists and rarely, if ever, attend church. Even Millennials that grow up in church are leaving the Church by age 23, at this rate.

The central theological theme of Millennials is “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” which focuses on being happy, feeling good, and believing good people go to Heaven. This kind of faith asks little, delivers less, and has no holding power. No wonder the majority of young people leaving the Church believe that church and faith are irrelevant.

While the Church views Millennials as spoiled and shallow, Millennials view the Church as intolerant, judgmental, hypocritical, and hopelessly out of touch, and while both views have their elements of truth, neither one is responsible for turning the largest living adult generation in America away from God.

Millennials want authenticity! They don’t care if the Church is cool or the pastor wears jeans. They’ve had it with slick programs, worship with strobe lights, shallow preaching, and Christians they can’t trust. They’re searching for authentic friendships and community, with people they can trust and respect, who will listen to them and mentor them to make a difference in the world.

But they’re searching for authenticity in all the wrong places . . . outside the walls of the Church, where nothing is authentic. They have no idea that Jesus Christ is the only one who is authentic . . . the only thing in the universe that never changes! He is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He loves them as much as He’s ever loved anyone, paid the sacrifice for their sins through His death on the cross, is offering them His gift of Eternal Life, and has had a plan for their life, since He placed them in their mother’s womb that will blow their minds!

Millennials are not the problem! The problem is Christians failing to represent the authenticity of Jesus Christ. When you’re a Christian and your actions don’t match your words, you cause everyone watching you, including Millennials, to believe that church and faith are irrelevant. This is why God so opposes “Lukewarm Christians.”

It starts in the home and apples rarely fall far from the tree! Half of our population says they’re Christian, while seldom, if ever, going to church. Half of those who attend church regularly are not saved, and half of those who go to church never discuss God in their home. And we wonder why their children feel that church and God are irrelevant?

This explains why most Millennials have given up on God . . . and how authentic Christians can win them back!

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Scriptures:

God’s Judgment On Those Responsible
I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other. But since you are lukewarm water, neither hot or cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:15-16

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened to his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:6

Beware of Those Calling Themselves Christians Who Are Not Christians!
Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.
Matthew 7:15

And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.
Acts 20:30

For certain people have crept in unnoticed . . . ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:4

Spiritual Blindness
Satan, who is the god of this world, blinds the minds of those who don’t believe.
II Corinthians 4:4

If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit.
Matthew 15:14

Being Good Doesn’t Get You Into Heaven
There is a way that seems right unto man but the end thereof is death.
Proverbs 14:12

God saved you by His Grace . . . You can’t take credit for this.  It is a Gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Ephesians 2:8-9

All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.
Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin are death, but the Gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33

Parental Advice
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

Ultimate Authenticity!
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8

But what the LORD has planned will stand forever. His thoughts never change.
Psalm 33:11

Forever, O Lord, Your Word is firmly fixed in the Heavens.
Psalm 119:89

For God’s Gifts and His Call are irrevocable.
Romans 11:29

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His Mercies never come to an end.
Lamentations 3:22

Ultimate Peace
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
II Corinthians 5:17

I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So, don’t be troubled or afraid.
John 14:27

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.
Psalm 62:5-6

And be sure of this; I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:20