Study: U.S. Unchurched Population Nears 100 Million

Study: U.S. Unchurched Population Nears 100 Million

Over the past decade, the unchurched population has remained stable at one third of the American population, the latest Barna Group survey showed.

By Audrey Barrick
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Mar. 20, 2007 Posted: 13:45:51 PM EST

Over the past decade, the unchurched population has remained stable at one third of the American population, the latest Barna Group survey showed.The Barna study found that 33 percent of adults are classified as unchurched – people who have not attended a religious service of any type during the past six months. The statistic has remained relatively the same since 1994 when 36 percent were reported to be unchurched.Still, the unchurched population in numbers is staggering. An estimated 73 million adults are presently unchurched. The number nears 100 million when teens and children are added to the population segment. That also includes an estimated 13 to 15 million born-again adults and children. On its own, the unchurched population of the United States would be the eleventh most-populated nation on earth, the Barna Group noted.Some people groups are notorious church avoiders, the study found. Political liberals were more than twice as likely to be unchurched (47 percent) than political conservatives (19 percent). Single adults were also more likely to avoid religious services (37 percent) than married adults (29 percent).Those least likely to be unchurched are residents in the South (26 percent) while residents in the West (42 percent) and Northeast (39 percent) remain the most church resistant.

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Beloved,

This study is just more convicting evidence showing that we must be on the frontlines proclaiming the very same Gospel that Jesus preached and commands His disciples to preach to the world, the very same Gospel that saved our souls from the power of sin and death.

Hell Is Burning While The American Church Sleeps,

Des

The Great Commission

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ~ Matthew 28:16-20, ESV

For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ~ 1 Corinthians 9:16, ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” ~ Romans 1:16-17, ESV

"Once more, he who really has this high estimate of Jesus will think much of him, and as the thoughts are sure to run over at the mouth, he will talk much of him. Do we so? If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself; you will be whispering it into your child's ear; you will be telling it to your husband; you will be earnestly imparting it to your friend; without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent; your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of his sweet love. Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about him. Of course I do not mean by that, that those who use the pen are silent: they are not. And those who help others to use the tongue, or spread that which others have written, are doing their part well: but that man who says, "I believe in Jesus," but does not think enough of Jesus ever to tell another about him, by mouth, or pen, or tract, is an impostor. You are either doing good, or you are not good yourself. If thou knowest Christ, thou art as one that has found honey; thou wilt call others to taste of it; thou art like the lepers who found the food which the Syrians had cast away: thou wilt go to Samaria and tell the hungry crowd that thou hast found Jesus, and art anxious that they should find him too. Be wise in your generation, and speak of him in fitting ways and at fitting times, and so in every place proclaim the fact that Jesus is most precious to your soul." ~ A Sermon and a Reminiscence by Charles Spurgeon, From the March 1873 Sword and Trowel

DON'T TELL THEM JESUS LOVES THEM
Words by Steve Camp and Rob Frazier
Music by Steve Camp, CD: "JUSTICE" (1988)

Oh, the suffering souls
Cryin' out for love in a world that seldom cares
See the hungry hearts
Longing to be filled, with much more than our prayers
And a young girl sells herself on Seventh Avenue
And you hear her cryin' out for help
My God! What will we do?

Chorus

Don't tell them Jesus loves them
Till your ready to love them too!
Till your heart breaks from their sorrow
And the pain they're going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don't tell them Jesus loves them,
Till you're ready to love them too!

All the desperate men
Are we reaching for the souls
That are sinking down in sand?
Oh, cry for the churchWe've lost our passion for the lost
And there are billions left to win
And another 40,000 children starved to death today
Would we risk all we have
To see one of them saved!?!

Chorus

Don't tell them Jesus loves them
Till your ready to love them too!
Till your heart breaks from their sorrow
And the pain they're going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don't tell them Jesus loves them,
Till you're ready to love them too!

Why have we waited so long
Oh to show them Jesus lives
To share salvation's song!
Why have our hearts become so proud
That we fail to see
To love them is to love God

And a young girl sells herself on Seventh Avenue
Hear her crying out for help
What will we do?

Chorus

Don't tell them Jesus loves them
Till your ready to love them too!
Till your heart breaks from their sorrow
And the pain they're going through
With a life full of compassion
May we do what we must do
Don't tell them Jesus loves them,
Till you're ready to love them too!

EVENING

Charles Spurgeon's Morning & Evening

Friday, February 9, 2007

EVENING:

"Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil [or, the evil one]." ~ Luke 11:4

What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue or avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoid temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience, that we may never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter the thicket in search of the lion. Dearly might we pay for such presumption. This lion may cross our path or leap upon us from the thicket, but we have nothing to do with hunting him. He that meeteth with him, even though he winneth the day, will find it a stern struggle. Let the Christian pray that he may be spared the encounter. Our Saviour, who had experience of what temptation meant, thus earnestly admonished His disciples—"Pray that ye enter not into temptation."

But let us do as we will, we shall be tempted; hence the prayer "deliver us from evil." God had one Son without sin; but He has no son without temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, and the Christian man is born to temptation just as certainly. We must be always on our watch against Satan, because, like a thief, he gives no intimation of his approach. Believers who have had experience of the ways of Satan, know that there are certain seasons when he will most probably make an attack, just as at certain seasons bleak winds may be expected; thus the Christian is put on a double guard by fear of danger, and the danger is averted by preparing to meet it. Prevention is better than cure: it is better to be so well armed that the devil will not attack you, than to endure the perils of the fight, even though you come off a conqueror. Pray this evening first that you may not be tempted, and next that if temptation be permitted, you may be delivered from the evil one.

Blessing in the City

Tuesday February 6, 2007

Faith's Checkbook by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Blessing in the City

If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, blessed shalt thou be in the city. ~ Deuteronomy 28:2-3)

The city is full of care, and he who has to go there from day to day finds it to be a place of great wear and tear. It is full of noise, and stir, and bustle, and sore travail; many are its temptations, losses, and worries. But to go there with the divine blessing takes off the edge of its difficulty; to remain there with that blessing is to find pleasure in its duties and strength equal to its demands.

A blessing in the city may not make us great, but it will keep us good; it may not make us rich, but it will preserve us honest. Whether we are porters, or clerks, or managers, or merchants, or magistrates, the city will afford us opportunities for usefulness. It is good fishing where there are shoals of fish, and it is hopeful to work for our Lord amid the thronging crowds. We might prefer the quiet of a country life; but if called to town, we may certainly prefer it because there is room for our energies.

Today let us expect good things because of this promise, and let our care be to have an open ear to the voice of the Lord and a ready hand to execute His bidding. Obedience brings the blessing. "In keeping his commandments there is great reward."