Will you still be attending a midweek service in 5 years?

Inevitably, people leave their church, not to go to another church or serve somewhere else, they leave church and their faith for good. The reason for this is quite simple, but complex all the same. It is sin, the pleasures of this world, the falling into temptation, and the entanglements of Satan's wiles. As pastors, missionaries, deacons, church leaders, it is our ministry to go after these lost sheep as best as we can and try to see them return to the fold of God. Some do and some do not. While our churches go thru this, we continue to reach the lost and saving them from the fire. I have found that more people seem turned off by religion, especially Christianity. I'm sure this is not true everywhere and it is certainly not an excuse to quit evangelizing, but it is a reality that we all face in our ministries. What do we do at these times? We are stedfast. We continue abounding in the work of the Lord. Our labor is not in vain in the Lord. The devil does not stop from battling and neither should we stop battling for lost souls and wayward believers.

The question still remains. Will you still be attending a midweek service in 5 years? Will you as a pastor stop the midweek service because of lack of attendance? Or will you continue to fight the good fight? I would like to share with your some statistics that I came across today. I cannot account for their accuracy, nor do I agree with much that they have posted, but if they are accurate, it is a scary reality for us, Christians.

The percentage of American adults who identify themselves as Christians dropped from 86% in 1990 to 77% in 2001. This is an unprecedented drop of almost 1 percentage point per year.

The percentage of American adults who identify themselves as Protestants dropped below 50% about the year 2005.

Confidence in religious institutions has hit an all-time low.

There appears to be a major increase in interest in spirituality among North Americans. However, this has not translated into greater church involvement.

Mainline denominations have been losing membership for decades in the U.S.; conservative denominations have been growing.

At the present rates of change, Islam will become the dominant religion in the world before 2050 BC.

At the present rate of change, most Americans would identify themselves as non-religious or non-Christian by the year 2035 BC.

The numbers of "unchurched" people has increased rapidly in the U.S. These are individuals who have not attended church in recent months.

Agnosticis, Atheists, secularists. and NOTAs (none of the above) are growing rapidly.

Interest in new religious movements (e.g. New Age, Neopaganism) is growing rapidly. In particular, Wiccans are doubling in numbers about every 30 months.

The influence of the central, program-based congregation is diminishing as more cell churches are being created.

Many Christians have left congregations and formed house churches - small groups meeting in each other's homes.

No doubt some of these trends are not at all positive for Christianity. For a moment think of what we have tried over the past couple decades to bring folks into church, Christian contemporary music, dramas, Christian movies, less focus on the Bible and more opinions, home services, power point presentations, etc. These things have not helped the cause of Christ like they were intended to help. No matter how good the intentions, they have not helped Christianity as a whole, but they have only made Christians more like the world, so the people are looking for something different. Isalm. Wiccan. They are different and people are be drawn to them because of that. I believe we ought to good back to "the old paths". Back to basics if you will. The disciples turned the world upside down and they didn't have music, dramas, movies, etc. They had the Word of God and it is more than powerful to change the sinner. Let us heed the Lords call and not say, "We will not walk therein."

Jeremiah 6:16
"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein."