From Visions to Transformation

(Excerpts from Discoverying Your City)

Many writers and researchers who have explored America’s church have all come to an astonishing conclusion. Mike Regele (co-founder and president of Percept Group, Inc.), writing in The Death of the Church , states, “In the face of the current wave of change, the church in America has two options. Either it will go about its business as usual--and be swallowed up by obsolescence and die by default. Or the church will choose to die--and thus find life.” George Barna, founder and president of Barna Research Group, says "I've concluded that within the next few years America will experience one of two outcomes: either massive spiritual revival or total moral anarchy."

W. Charles Arn of Church Growth, Inc. observes that in all of the 3141 counties of this country there is not a single county in which the church growth exceeded the general population growth during the entire decade of the eighties. People are just moving around between churches that are becoming less relevant to their life. George Barna reports a startling 68% of born again Christians no longer believe in absolute truth. Not only has America's churched population been decreasing, but the effectiveness of the Church is brought into serious question.

How Things Are

Dr. Bill Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education, says that during those years (1960 - 1990) when the population increased just 41%, there has been:

A 500% increase in violent crimes
More than 400% increase in illegitimate births
A 400% increase in divorce
A 300% increase in children living in single parent homes
More than 200% increase in teen suicide rates

Projecting from this, Bennett says that by the year 2000, 40% of all U.S. births and 80% of all minority births will occur out of wedlock.

The Church in America has been, at least seemingly, increasingly ineffective as a transformation agent. It has not held its own in the face of the onslaught of secularism and materialism that has swept this country over the past half century. The task of the Church has not changed. From Genesis we see that God is continually creating and redeeming lost man to Himself. With the Great Commission, we are challenged by the risen Christ to take this Gospel to every person of every nation [ ethnos, or people groups] and to make them disciples. There is little doubt that a major re-visioning of the Church’s methods and strategies is necessary. The task remains in America for the Church to take and model the living gospel to each person.

With some very notable exceptions, most of the activities involved in by the Body of Christ do not produce new converts to authentic Christianity. In the United States there are more seminars on more subjects than ever. There are more united prayer efforts in more cities than ever (this is good.) Although a good percentage of the evangelical churches around the nation are enjoying some measure of growth, much of it is not through conversions.

There seems to be widespread recognition the Church is facing many problems. However, there does not seem to be in motion very many fruitful remedies to these problems. The changes that have occurred in society and in the Church over the past three or four decades that have negatively impacted the growth of the Church have either been so subtle as to not have been recognized, or they have been recognized, but the Church has had an ongoing case of paralysis--often wanting to change but unable.

George Barna, George Gallup, and several others have been pointing out an increasing cultural distance between the Church and three generations. The assimilation of the Boomers, Busters, and Generation "X" into gatherings of believers is noticably slow and spotty all across the nation . Any real effective revival in evangelism is so rare, when it does happen it stands out as a rare phenomenon. In an age where 68% of Americans believe there is no such thing as absolute truth, traditional evangelism strategies of using biblical references are no longer as effective. In fact, Barna says his research has shown only 10-15% of today's churches are effective in the area of evangelism.. The Church must listen, hear, and understand the voices of current generations.

It is obvious some changes are needed in leadership either through new perspectives and functions, via replacement or perhaps spiritual renewal. New apostles and apostolic teams, anointed visionaries that are laying foundations for a variety of new movements, are emerging, and are needed in greater number and distribution to challenge, equip, and lead the Body in evangelism and church multiplication, especially across social and cultural barriers. These apostles (visionary foundation-laying mobilizers) can help initiate Body-wide, city-wide initiatives of evangelism and church planting. Mobilizing movements such as DAWN, CitiReach7, and AD2000 and Beyond utilize, even require, the apostolic gifting for effective mobilization of the Body.

The Body needs to be challenged to face and remedy its lethargy. Pastors should not limit their vision to their own churches, or limit their meetings with other pastors and leaders to only prayer and fellowship. They should be considering and determining how, collectively and symbiotically, they can impact the city or area.

Toward a New Paradigm for the Church

You can be a part of the transformation that is needed in yourself, your church, your neighborhood, and your city. The basic steps have already been defined by Christian Leaders who have studied over two dozen cities that have already been transformed spiritually, socially, economically, and politically. It can be done! The basic steps, as defined by these leaders, include:

Unified prayer for a visitation of the Holy Spirit
Persistent and Committed Leadership
Diagnostic Research

This is not a linear process. In fact, in the story of Nehemiah, research was the initiating factor and gave Nehemiah a vision and passion. A starting point, however, is trying to understand God's vision for your city and why the current conditions are there.

Here are a few tips if you are a committed Christian to this transformation process:

Commit yourself to prayer and a renewed intimacy with God.
Find God's vision for your life, your church, neighborhood, and region.
Commit yourself to this vision, even if you seem alone in it (many city movements have started with only one or two committed leaders)
Begin research on how things got the way they are.
Identify and partner with others in your area who share your vision.
Learn how to use strategic information to mobilize the whole Body of Christ.
Set goals and develop a sense of urgency toward these goals.
Learn from those who are already providing leadership in this direction...........

Learn from Others

For the first time in history, we now have tools to measure quantitively where the church is and how is is growing, as well as the harvest field (its demographics and needs). Learn from others that are successfuly using these tools in the transformation process.

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