Don’t give up hope

January 2, 2007

By Gary Rogers

I ran across some disturbing statistics concerning the state of the church in America. According to one study, on any given Sunday only 18.7 percent of the U.S. population is in a church. This means more than 81 percent of Americans potentially view church as unimportant, irrelevant, outdated, unnecessary, wasted time, out of touch, useless, wrong, or as having an invalid message.

Churches in America are shutting their doors, and many are being sold to casinos, restaurants and bars. It is sad, but the fastest-growing religion in the world is Islam.

Statistics tell us the percentage of Bible-based believers has declined in each generation. About 65 of the U.S. population claimed to believe the Bible during World War II. That dropped to 35 percent with Baby Boomers, to 16 percent with Generation X, and only 4 percent with the under-20 Millennials.

I realize different statistical studies bring up different numbers, but across the board the numbers still speak of spiritual decline. The church is dying in America. We are a post-Christian society. We can no longer say the greatest percentage of Americans is Christian. Without a revival, things can only get worse.

But I believe in revival. I only have to look at how God is working in our church to be reminded that He is also at work in so many other churches across this country. And He is able to do so much more if we will seek Him.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14, NIV).

God has been doing a stirring work in our church. Like never before people are seeking the Lord in our altars; people are coming together with the common desire of pursuing Jesus and His will. We are seeing a move of God. We are hungry for more. We want to be relevant. We want to touch lives for Jesus. We understand that if we don’t remain faithful to God’s calling then we too will be shutting our doors.

Today is the day of revival. Today is the day for an alive, vibrant church to begin to see things turn around for the building of the kingdom of God.

Gary Rogers is senior pastor of First Assembly of God in Coweta, Okla.