Churches learn to '‘close the back door,’ keeping new members involved

Throughout the New Testament, those who were saved became active members of an existing local church, or local churches were formed and they became active in them.
- Elmer L. Towns

Choose a typical Sunday morning in the United States. And on this typical Sunday, let us take a hypothetical visit to a church selected at random. The church is a Christian church; it may be independent, or it may belong to a denomination. Let us stretch our imagination a bit and make ourselves visitors from first-century Jerusalem, where the first Christian church is experiencing explosive growth.

While w are amazed at the world 2,000 years later and marvel at all of the technological advances, we are visiting for another purpose. Our brief journey into 20 centuries of future is made to see how the church is doing after two millennia. We have chosen a church in a relatively new nation called the United States.

Before entering into the church building for worship services, we are told that the church as 500 members. We are pleased that a typical American church has such a healthy numerical membership. Our pleasure, however, is quickly turned to despair when we enter the sanctuary. Our quick count of those present tells us that only slightly above 200 members are worshiping together on this typical Sunday. Where, we exclaim, are the nearly 300 who are absent? Read the complete article by Dr. Thom Rainer.