Hope Still Shines Through, Even For Dying Churches

Mark Clifton: When you work, as I do, with churches on the verge of dying, it can sometimes seem like things are growing very dark. In fact, that’s a bit of how I felt when Lifeway Research recently reported a loss of 1,200 Southern Baptist churches from 2021 to 2022.

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Photo From Baptist Church. When First Southern Baptist Church of Russell closed in 2020, it eventually re-launched as a campus of Crosspoint, a church with campuses in several locations throughout Kansas. Photo provided by Crosspoint Russell.

This is an excellent message! Many Churches in America are struggling to keep their doors open! The reasons are many. I see many of these reasons as Sharon and I travel. It is a very serious problem in America. There is hope! The hope is in JESUS!

Over the years I have been called by the Southern Baptist Convention here in New Mexico to help Churches that were dying here in New Mexico. Two are still going! Glory! God has gifted me with His discernment to see the failure and what He wants His Churches to be. Its not easy work at all.

Is your Church made up of the following?  Babies, children, teenagers, young adults’, old people like me! Ha! Children’s Sunday school, Adult Sunday School, Youth programs, Senior programs, Out reach into your community, better known as The Great Commission,  Weekly baptisims??????? If not, why not?

If your Church ceased to exist, would it be missed? George Barna: “People have become more selfish, churches have become less influential, pastors have become less Bible-centric”

Lifeway Research: More than 1 in 5 churchgoers left a congregation because they couldn’t agree with some of its teachings or positions on issues or politics.

Baptist Press

By Mark Clifton, posted July 31, 2024 in Churches and MinistrySBC News

If you lived somewhere in the path of the total eclipse on April 8, you’ll likely never forget it. Gradually, our world grew darker and darker until eventually the moon blocked the sun completely. For a few minutes, darkness ruled the daytime.

Mark Clifton preached at the 2022 SBC Pastors’ Conference in Anaheim, Calif. Photo by Karen McCutcheon

When you work, as I do, with churches on the verge of dying, it can sometimes seem like things are growing very dark. In fact, that’s a bit of how I felt when Lifeway Research recently reported a loss of 1,200 Southern Baptist churches from 2021 to 2022.

While some of those churches simply disaffiliated from the convention, the vast majority closed their doors. According to the article, 2 percent of the convention’s 50,423 churches in 2021 closed their doors in 2022, and 0.5 percent disaffiliated with the convention. More Here

Florida church and Christian school partner to ‘pray and obey, love Christ well, share God’s love’

The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released new findings from its 2024 American Worldview Inventory Tuesday. Based on responses from 2,000 adults surveyed in January 2024, the data compared views on moral behaviors across groups of American adults sorted by generation.

“Millennials and Gen Z have largely dismissed Christianity as an irrelevant faith,” George Barna, a prominent Evangelical pollster and director of the Cultural Research Center, said in a statement. More Here

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