Almost 50 years ago, when I was called into the ministry to preach the Gospel, it was normal to hear messages on a routine basis about God’s vocational call to ministry, preaching, or missionary service. It was a part of the work of the church to issue the call and pray for the Spirit to call His servants into full-time Christian service. Especially the call to preaching and teaching.
This may still be taking place in some churches, but candidly, I don’t hear those messages much, or at all.
It’s catching up to us.
We are told there are currently somewhere between 360,000 and 400,000 churches in America.
Academic research suggests there will be an average of between 3,850 to 7,700 church closures per year over the next decade (possibly totaling 77,000 closures) equating to roughly 75 to 150 closures per week.
Some consultants and news reports anticipate a significantly higher number of closures, potentially around 15,000 in 2025. Another 15,000 U.S. churches will move from “full-time” to “part-time” pastors.
Estimates that 100,000+ U.S. churches across denominations will close in the next 25 years. That would amount to roughly a quarter of the nation’s church presence.
80% to 85% of all churches in the United States have either stopped growing or are in decline.
We are told there are 3,000 – 4,000 new churches opening every year. To keep up with population growth and to replace closures, it is estimated that the number of church plants would need to be much higher than we are currently witnessing. At minimum, between 8,000 and 11,000 churches per year need to be planted to combat the attrition rates. Sadly, we are running a deficit.
Adding to these trends, 1500 pastors leave the ministry monthly. Those preachers are not being replaced much less growing.
Consider the following statistics in North America alone.
In 1900, there were 28 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 1950, there were 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 2000 there were 12 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
In 2020, the latest year available, there were at best, 7 churches for every 10,000 Americans.
If the local church is God’s plan A in the earth for evangelism and discipleship, then we need to immediately consider the plan to address these trends…
In my humble opinion, I would suggest the following:
- Pray, Pray, Pray that the Lord of the Harvest would call forth laborers for the harvest, in particular preachers of the Word.
- Pastors, please consider preaching to your congregations routinely about God’s call to ministerial service. You might be surprised who He arrests for His ministry.
- Develop a discipleship, training, and mentoring process for those who respond to the call.
- Your church needs a plan to plant a church or partner with another church to plant a church.
- If you belong to a denomination or a nondenominational fellowship of churches, your network needs to intentionally and open-handedly start new churches.
- If you are sensing a call to preach and pastor, give your local church and pastor a chance to facilitate and mentor that call. If you were called in that ministry, it is likely God intended that church to play a part in that journey.
- There are multiple training paths for pastoral ministry. Find one that the Lord is leading you to and complete it. Do not circumvent credible training and endorsement thinking you don’t need it. Believe me, if you go through the training process it will pay dividends in your ministry.
The hour is late, but not too late. I’m praying now for an army of fresh ministerial recruits to respond to His call and saturate this nation with the Gospel and a church on every corner.
By God’s Grace, we can do this.
No Comments