I'm still trying to figure out how, if there were 3892 churches in 1999 and there are 3988 churches in 2010, that this can be considered a decrease.
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What we make of the Bible will never be as great a thing as what the Bible will - if we let it - make of us.~Rich Mullins
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.~Galileo Galilei
However, to get a true sample, I would like to know the growth or decline of other organizations and compare. Maybe in retrospect, the UPC grew more in a sense because the other denominations (RCC, Southern Baptist, AoG, etc) shrank more drastically percentage-wise.
In 11 years, they ONLY GREW 96 churches. As Hoovie stated above, how are the other denom's rates over the last 10-11 years? That would give us a "realistic" number.
One of my uncle pastors who has been in the UPCI for over 40+ years in the S. Texas district was very sad reading the Forward about a year ago. He made the very canny observation that if you closely looked at the ministers leaving it was mostly 100+ member churches and the new church plants were not strong enough to financially offset the loss of giving power that these seasoned churches had which affected missionaries most hard.
Seriously, I know about 15+ young ministers who have started churches, usually against the wishes of the entrenched churches in the area who left the UPCI. There is still a strong territory system, even in major metros of 1+ million souls. As a young minister... WHY would I want to join the org just to get attacked for being too liberal for having a church full of new believers who didnt look, act, play the part. If I were a young church planter I would just go to the events I wanted to go to, maybe send my youth to the camp anyhow, and be neutral at best... which is what many churches are doing.
One of my uncle pastors who has been in the UPCI for over 40+ years in the S. Texas district was very sad reading the Forward about a year ago. He made the very canny observation that if you closely looked at the ministers leaving it was mostly 100+ member churches and the new church plants were not strong enough to financially offset the loss of giving power that these seasoned churches had which affected missionaries most hard.
Seriously, I know about 15+ young ministers who have started churches, usually against the wishes of the entrenched churches in the area who left the UPCI. There is still a strong territory system, even in major metros of 1+ million souls. As a young minister... WHY would I want to join the org just to get attacked for being too liberal for having a church full of new believers who didnt look, act, play the part. If I were a young church planter I would just go to the events I wanted to go to, maybe send my youth to the camp anyhow, and be neutral at best... which is what many churches are doing.
Being neutral doesn't solve the problem sometimes. If you are in the middle then at times both side grow away from you and you are left alone. That is almost the fact with a church here. It is seen as the most liberal church in the area/state by some. We will fellowship with the cons and libs too. We had a youth revival a few years back and it was fairly popular in our area. Some of the other churches came to it and when the music started and the lighs got going so did some of our "brothers and sisters" they got up and left. Which really it was ok because it left room for the visitors that came in.
If you are Lib you are another persons Con and if you are a Con you are another persons Lib.
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"If we don't learn to live together we're gonna die alone"
Jack Shephard.
This doesn't exactly respond to the original question, but here is a link showing what is happening in the "spirit filled" movement world wide. The Pew research center has come up with the term "renewalist" to describe the combination between Pentecostals and charismatics. I was in Kenya which is over 50% renewalist this summer and their is a spirit-filled church on every corner. It is clear that there is still an amazing move of the Holy Spirit happening globally from this research. My prayer is that "while on others Thou art falling, do not pass us by"
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