With 300,000 Christian churches – supported by massive amounts of Christian media – church attendance must be surging, right?
Not according to analysts who have begun describing America as one of the world’s largest mission fields.
“While there is abundant access to Christian information, many unchurched persons in North America are amazingly untouched by the evangelical subculture because the Christian subculture is largely incapable of providing a culturally relevant gospel witness,” says researcher Ed Stetzer.
In short, the numbers are daunting.
It is estimated that 100 million children, teens and adults do not attend church in the U.S. Some believe the number may be twice that. This is a challenging moment in history for the American Church.
A challenging moment for the 1st century church
In John 6, we’re given the account of another challenging moment in history for a small group of new believers.
Five thousand men, plus their families, had followed Jesus up the hillside looking for a word of hope in what seemed to be a hopeless world. It is the lunch hour. Jesus looks out on the sea of people and recognizes that they are hungry.
To the disciples this looks like a huge problem.
Philip runs the numbers and concludes that feeding the 5,000 isn’t in the budget. Andrew gets creative and runs a campaign to solicit help. The idea results in a single gift of two small fish and five small barley loves. One little boy makes a meager contribution, a drop in the bucket compared to the need. The conclusion is, it can’t be done.
“Oh yes it can,” Jesus says, “just give me what you have.” Jesus takes the boy’s small gift, gives thanks for it and, “All ate as much as they wanted.”
Story still preaches
Listening to a sermon recently on this amazing story, it occurred to me that some of us probably share the frustrations of the disciples when we look at the result of our efforts.
We see there is still an incredibly urgent need for more outreach in our communities but…
Our budgets are stretched to the max and just won’t support the funding of more people or outreach tools.
We’re running campaigns, organizing evangelistic projects, and trying some new media things, yet acknolwedge that the results are less than remarkable.
Unwilling to retreat, we draw strength from this miraculous story of multiplication. For churches and ministries using technology and media, there are four applications.
The people realized that God was at work among them in what Jesus had just done. John 6:14
First, Jesus can do a lot with a little. No matter how small your IT team is, or how limited your technology infrastructure, Jesus can multiply your resources. Will you trust Jesus to take whatever tools you have and add to them in ways that you can’t imagine right now?
Second, Jesus constantly challenges us to do things we’ve never attempted. Make a list of all the ways you know that technology is being used to connect with others outside the ministry. Develop a plan and experiment with one or more of these strategies or tools in the next three to six months. Will you trust Jesus to stretch you beyond your technological comfort zone?
Third, Jesus wants us to operate as one. Be open to working with other churches and organizations to create new partnerships and technology driven outreach platforms. Will you trust Jesus to tear down barriers and create common ground?
Fourth, Jesus wants us to get the gospel to every person in every way. The people seated right in front of us are a priority. A Pew Internet report revealed that nearly two-thirds of online Americans use the Internet for faith-related reasons. And another report showed that that 93% of teens ages 12‐17 go online, as do 93% of young adults ages 18‐29.
Will you ask Jesus to give you the eyes of the little boy on the hillside? Will you step forward in faith to engage the unsaved and unchurched online in your community?
Will you watch for a mighty work that only God can do?