By Pastor Stephen Hess –
Numerous studies have shown that church membership and attendance have been declining in the United States for the past several decades. A recent study from the Pew Research Center found that as of 2020, 64% of Americans identify as Christians. Fifty years ago, that number was 90%. If “religious switching” continues at the current rate, the study estimates that less than half of the American population will identify with Christianity by the year 2070.
The decline of Christianity in America has been present for many years, but the COVID pandemic seems to have accelerated the trend. Many Christians became disconnected from their congregations during the pandemic and some of them never returned. A recent study from Lifeway Research found that only a quarter of Christian adults in the U.S. say they are attending church at least weekly, down from a third who say they attended weekly prior to the pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, the percentage of Christians who say they attend church monthly has dropped seven percentage points: 64% to 57%.
How should Christians respond to these statistics? We should avoid both despair and complacency. We should avoid despair because we can remember that the church has survived many periods of history where it was in the minority (including the earliest days of the church). Jesus has promised to build his church and his promises will never fail. However, we should also avoid complacency. Many churches became lazy when it came to evangelism because Christianity has been the cultural majority in the United States for so many years. But these recent studies should serve as a wake-up call that we need to share the gospel with our neighbors.
Over the past summer our elders at Highview spent a lot of time praying about what goals God was calling us to pursue as we entered the fall season. One theme we kept coming back to was outreach and evangelism. We want to increase our efforts to reach those who have never heard the gospel or who have become disconnected from church. We can no longer wait for people to walk through our doors and hear about Jesus. Instead, we need to be intentional about finding ways to reach out to those who need Jesus and take the gospel to them.
As we prayed about this, the Session felt God calling us to make outreach and evangelism a central focus of our ministry this year. One specific goal that we created is to invite 1,000 new people to Highview over the course of this school year. This may sound ambitious but given the fact that we are a church family of about two hundred people, each person would only need to invite five people for us to achieve this goal.
Inviting people to come experience Jesus is a simple but effective way to engage in outreach and this approach is modeled for us in the gospels. When Philip told Nathanael that he had found the Messiah and Nathanael was skeptical, Philip invited him to “Come and see” (Jn. 1:46). After the Samaritan woman had a life-changing encounter with Jesus she immediately invited the townspeople to “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did” (Jn. 4:29). These are just two examples of an invitational approach to evangelism.
This is why we are challenging each person in the Highview family to think of at least five people you can invite to “come and see” over the course of this school year. Invitations can take many forms. Here are a few ideas:
- Invite a neighbor to Sunday worship using one of our invite cards
- Invite a friend to attend a Bible study or fellowship group
- Invite someone to attend the men’s retreat or a women’s event
- Invite a family to attend one of our youth events or programs
- Invite someone to a holiday service at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter
The way God reaches people has never changed: He reaches people through ordinary believers like you and me who are willing to show and share the good news about Jesus. Therefore we challenge you to join us as we invite others to “come and see” what Jesus is all about.