IT TAKES A CHURCH TO RAISE A CHRISTIAN!
 
church (chûrch) n. 1. A building for public, especially Christian worship. a. The company of all Christians regarded as a mystic spiritual body. b. A specified Christian denomination: c. A congregation. 3. Public divine worship in a church; a
religious service:
 
HEB. 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for  He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider (To take into account; bear in mind) one another in order to stir up (To provoke deliberately) love and good works, 25 not forsaking (To give up (something formerly held dear); renounce: 2. To leave altogether; abandon) the assembling of ourselves together, as is the  manner of some, but exhorting one another (To urge by strong, often stirring argument, admonition, advice, or appeal), and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
 
ROMANS 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
(Faith comes to men when they hear preaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, which is based, of course, on the written word of God.)
 
43% OF AMERICAN ADULTS ATTENDED CHURCH IN A TYPICAL WEEKEND! (2002)
 
40% of adults nationwide have attended a church service, not including a special event such as a wedding or a funeral, in the past seven days. (2000)
 
22% of women compared to 14% of men attend Sunday school in a typical week. (2000)
 
33% of born again Christians and 60% of evangelicals attend Sunday school in a typical week. (2000)
 
Married individuals are more likely than are single adults to attend a Sunday school class in a typical week (22% to 15% respectively). (2000)

Adult Sunday school classes ranked in the middle ground of those things that influenced their decision of whether or not to return to a church they had visited. Only 26% ranked it as extremely important, while 23% listed it as pretty important and 30% listed it as somewhat important. It ranked 9th out of the list of 22 factors. (1999)
 
Discipleship

Of the 16% of churched adults involved in discipleship, 69% rely upon small groups for their growth.(2000)
 
Of the 16% of churched adults involved in discipleship, one-fifth (20%) rely upon Sunday school and 11% attend other classes to grow spiritually. (2000)
 
5 Generations:
  1. Mosaics - those born between 1984 and 2002
  2. Buster - those born between 1965 and 1983
  3. Boomer - those born between 1946 and 1964
  4. Builders - those born between 1927 and 1945
  5. Senior - those born in 1926 and earlier
            
    Definition

    Unchurched adult  -  an adult (18 or older) who has not attended a Christian church service within the past six months, not including a holiday service (such as Easter or Christmas) or a special event at a church (such as a wedding or funeral).
     
    How Many?

    One out of three adults (33%) is unchurched. A proportion that represents 65-70 million adults in America. (2000)
     
    It is surprising to find that roughly 10 million born again Christian adults are unchurched. (2000)
    Spiritual Commitment

    Two out of three (67%) unchurched adults call themselves Christian. (2000)
    ONLY One-third (35%) claim they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today. (2000)

     
    Beliefs

    64% of the unchurched say that Satan is not a living being but is a symbol of evil. (2000)
     
    Rev 12:7-9 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
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    64% of unchurched adults state that a good person can earn his or her way into Heaven. (2000)
     
    Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
     
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    44% of the unchurched define God as an entity other than the perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe who continues to rule His creation today. (2000)
     
    1. GOD IS PRESENT EVERYWHERE:  PSALMS 139:7-12 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. 
    2. HE IS ALL KNOWING: Ps 147:5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite (NO LIMIT).
     
    * Heb 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
     
    Luke 12:6-7 "Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.  7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." 
     
    3. GOD IS ALL POWERFUL: Heb 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
     
    NOTE: THE MOMENT GOD SPEAKS, THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE IS SUBJECT TO HIS WILL AND COME INTO CONFORMITY!
     
    4. GOD IS UNCHANGING: Mal 3:6 "I the LORD do not change.
     
    * Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
     
    GOD CONDEMNS OUR SINS, BUT HE DOES NOT REJECT US!
     
    WE HAVE TURNED AWAY FROM GOD, BUT HE HAS NEVER TURNED AWAY FROM US!
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    48% of the unchurched assert that when Jesus Christ lived on earth, He committed sins. (2000)
     
    1 Peter 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth";  
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    22% of the unchurched firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches. (2000)
     
    THE BIBLE IS 100% ACCURATE 100% OF THE TIME! (WITH A TIME
    SPAN OF OVER 1500 YEARS AND BEING WRITTEN BY 40 DIFFERENT
    AUTHORS, ONE THING IS FOR SURE, IT’S OBVIOUS THAT THERE IS
    ONLY ONE ARCHITECT WHO PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
     
    The elements of their church experience which people find most satisfying are:
     
    (1) the friendliness of the people in the congregation (46% said this is "excellent");
     
    (2) the care and concern demonstrated by the church staff (45%);
     
    (3) the preaching (44%);
     
    (4) the music in the worship service (44%);
     
    (5) the buildings and physical facilities of the church (43%). (1991)
     
    The aspects of church ministry which received the lowest ratings were the quality of teaching in church classes and the programs for young people. (1991)
     
    Baby Busters are least likely to attend church in a typical weekend (only 36%) versus Baby Boomers (44%), and Elders (Builders and Elders) 52%. (2002)
     
    Lasting Impact of Attending Church as a Child

    Adults who attended church regularly as a child are nearly three times as likely to be attending a church today as are their peers who avoided the church during childhood (61% to 22%, respectively). (2001)
     
    63% of those who were churched as children take their own children to a church, which is double the proportion among adults who were not churched and who now take their own kids to church (33%). (2001)
     
    adults who attended church as a child are nearly 50% more likely to pray to God during a typical week than are those who did not attend church as children. (2001)
    Prov 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
     

    Conversion

      
    Most of the people who accept Jesus Christ as their savior do so at a young age. The median is age 16. In total, six out of ten people say they made their decision to accept Christ before age 18. At the other end of the age spectrum, only 8% of those 50 years or older claim to have made a decision to embrace Christ as their savior after their 50th birthday. (1994)
     
    From age 20 to 29, most individuals face many life-shaping decisions: whether to finish college; what career to pursue; where to live; whether or not to get married; who to marry; if and when to have children – among many other crucial choices. In our culture of hyper-individualism, those decisions are being increasingly shaped by people’s desire to determine their own personal fulfillment and purpose in life. For many twentysomethings, allegiance to Christian churches is a casualty of their efforts to “create their own version of fulfillment.”
     
    Church-Going Softens
     
    Perhaps the most striking reality of twentysomething’s faith is their relative absence from Christian churches. Only 3 out of 10 twentysomethings (31%) attend church in a typical week, compared to 4 out of 10 of those in their 30s (42%) and nearly half of all adults age 40 and older (49%).
     
    That means that from high school graduation to age 25 there is a 42% drop in weekly church attendance and a 58% decline from age 18 to age 29. That represents about 8,000,000 twentysomethings alive today who were active church-goers as teenagers but who will no longer be active in a church by their 30th birthday.
     
    Two other religious activities take significant hits during the young adult years: (1) donating to churches and (2) Bible reading.
     
    Only 3 out of 10 twentysomethings donated to a church in the past year, which is half the proportion of older adults (30% to 61%). (While twentysomethings generally have smaller income levels than their older counterparts, this measure has nothing to do with how much the person donates, but whether they contribute financially at all to churches.) This reluctance to commit financially suggests that churches attracting an exclusively young adult audience will be especially hard-pressed to raise sufficient funds for ministry.
     
    Likewise, Bible reading levels are about 33% less among twentysomethings than among older adults. Overall, only 30% of twentysomethings have read the Bible in the past week, compared to 37% of those in their 30s; 44% of fortysomethings; 47% of adults in their 50s; and 55% of those age 60 and above. David Kinnaman,
     
    Aside from religious activities, the research points out that young adults are also re-thinking the depth of their commitment to Christianity.
     
    Just one-third of twentysomethings (34%) claims to be absolutely committed to Christianity. That compares to more than half – 54% – of all older adults who claim such absolute devotion, including more than 6 out of 10 adults who are age 50 and older.
     
    Matt 22:37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'   38 This is the first and great commandment.  39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'   40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." 
     
    47% say their parents have the greatest influence on their spiritual development; 16% listed their church; 8% named peers; 4% said relatives (1998)
     
    HOW IMPORTANT IS CHURCH? ----------------------------------
     
    Luke 14:16-24 "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many,  17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.'  18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.'  19 And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.' 
    20 Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'  21 So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.'  22 And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.'  23 Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.  24 For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'"