Thom Rainer, from Church Answers, in conjunction with a new Lifeway Survey, has issued what I believe to be some profound research in an article entitled, “The New very Large Church”.
It blew me away….
I have previously posted the percentage breakdown of church size here on Facebook. It has been fairly standardized over the last 30 years. The numbers and percentages have changed importantly in the last couple of years.
What is a Large Church?
If you are reading this post, I don’t have to write the lengthy list of leadership names that have been disqualified in this recent season. IHOP Kansas City and Forerunner Church are navigating such a time according to social media news. We can debate the appropriateness of analysis I suppose, but in a day of insta-news and social media celebrity, it seems naive to expect some kind of self-imposed mutism from the masses. My discernment is that there are probably more failures yet to be revealed, which is why we need to hear what God is saying to us and understand what He is doing in His Church and with His people.
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead [b]at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
2 Timothy 4:1-2 NKJV
I have preached God’s Word for over 45 years now. I started at 19 years old and through an amazing string of events, doors were opened to me that only God could open. That said, those early sermons were raw, unpolished, and admittedly less than stellar biblical expositions. Those messages would be rightly evaluated as simple, superficial, and shallow. I plead guilty. God truly manifested I Corinthians 1:27-29, by using the epitome of a foolish, weak, and simple young man…
And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.”
I Samuel 15:27-28
The fifteenth chapter of I Samuel needs to be carefully read and absorbed by every leader. It is basically the unraveling of King Saul.
The chapter is too detailed to explore every lesson one might extract from these verses, but the synopsis might be labeled, “Everybody is replaceable…including kings”.
