Most of us joined the COG before we knew whether it was growing or not. We loved what we heard and felt - joyous, spontaneous worship that blessed the soul.
And indeed, we began to hear that the COG is the fastest-growing church in the world, but in reality, religious stats for all groups are almost completely bogus.
The people who are reporting the growth of various religious groups, only have stats from those groups to go on. In most groups, few if any names of the deceased, or people who have tranferred to other churches, are removed from the church rolls.
A friend went to pastor a Baptist church in Virginia that had 850 people on the church Roll. However, even with a conserted effort, he could only locate alive, about 120. In actuality, about 80 attended church each Sunday morning.
Listen, I'm not calling for a wholesale removal of names from the church Roll. But it sure would be more honest if we had an "active" and an "inactive" Roll of membership.
If we counted money in our bank account like we count church membership, every dollar we had ever deposited for as long as we had been a customer of the bank, would show up on the monthly statement.
Money we had spent or deducted, would not show on the account.
I do understand the importance of numbers. After pastoring for years, I totally get it why Pastors do not want to remove names from the church Roll. I actually think it is wise NOT to remove them. By keeping the names on the Roll, even after a person is desceased, could help stay in contact with their family members. This was the church where their Mama attended.
NOT VERY WISE (in my opinion) to send out a notice that their Mom or Dad has been removed from the church Roll. Instead, have a "Day of Rememberance" for their Mother and try to get as many of her family to come to church for the remembrance.
Possibly few in the church now are familiar with those who kept the church open and functioning years ago. Many sacrificed to help organize and build a church in that location. Help people there now become familiar with them AND at the same time, attempt to build a bond of familiarity and trust with the departed member's family.
Seek out the contact information for as many of the departed member's family as possible. Send them a personal invitation to attend the Day of Rememberance.
Anyway, if COG growth stats are that good, with us supposidly being the "Fastest Growiing Church in the World," possibly the EC will release the statistics from the past four years.
How is our church doing growth wise? Are we growing or not? If so, what are we doing that could help other Bible-believing organizations grow?
If we are not growing, we should know that so we can pray and work to help turn that around. I believe our world needs Christ-centered, Bible-believing, Spirit-filled churches to grow.
Sadly, I think to be honest, very few organizations are showing much increase at this time. If news broke in our COG circles that the COG is not growing, I would not appreciate the COG less. If I learned that it is indeed growing fast, I would not appreciate it more.
Doyle
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The largest room in the world is the room for improvement. |
Acts-celerate Owner
Posts: 6957
12/26/16 3:12 pm
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The COG is the fastest-growing church in the world? Really?
