The Local Church: Is What We’re Doing Working?

Last updated on: June 12, 2013 at 11:01 pm by Andy Gill

The Local Church: Is What We’re Doing Working? 2013-06-12T23:01:48-05:00 Andy Gill

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I’ve always wondered and questioned how effective the local American church actually is. Like, is what we’re doing actually working? At times I’ve highly questioned whether or not what the church is doing is producing more harm than it is good.

It seems I’m not the only one who has this question, Researchers and Markets “Barna Group” looked at it a little more closely, what they found might come surprising to some, or sadly, not so surprising to others:

“Out of 77 million church attending, ‘Born Again’ Christians who have, ‘confessed their sins, asked God for forgiveness, accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, are confident of their salvation solely because of the grace extended to them by God, and regularly participate in the life of a Christian congregation…’”

Only one out of every four believers will allocate time to serving others. While most churched Christians admit to having seen homeless or hurting people in their community or travels in the past year; a very small percentage says they interacted with any of those disadvantaged people.
“Only one out of every four churched believers says that when they worship God, they expect Him to be the primary beneficiary.” Meaning, worship is more about them than it is God.
The typical churched believer will die without leading a single person to a lifesaving knowledge of and relationship with Jesus Christ.
Only 9% of all “born-again” adults have a biblical worldview. Churched Christians give away an average of about 3 percent of their income in a typical year
Churched Christians give away an average of about 3 percent of their income in a typical year

These statistics force one to step back and ask, does the Church even believe what they hear preached Sunday morning themselves, and if they do, do they even care?

I’m honestly not shocked. I’m saddened. But not shocked.

What’re your thoughts?

What should we do?

Is the local church needing to change, or should it remain the same?

If so what should they change to become more effective?

(The above quote is an excerpt from George Barna’s book “Revolution“)

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