Facts & Trends - Winter 2019 - Future Church

WINTER 2019 // FACTSANDTRENDS.NET

+GENERATION WHY? ENGAGING THE NEXT GENERATION WHO’S AT YOUR LEADERSHIP TABLE?

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Contents WINTER 2019 // FACTSANDTRENDS.NET

12

16

+WHAT YOUNGER AMERICANS BELIEVE ENGAGING THE NEXT GENERATION WHO’S AT YOUR TABLE?

Read more about pastors’ biggest challenges and hopes for the future.

24

COVER STORY 8 Future church Pastors share their biggest challenges—and hopes—for the years ahead. Will their expectations be met? If so, how?

By Timothy C. Morgan

12 Generation why?

Churches worry they can’t reach young adults full of questions.

By Aaron Earls

16 Engaging the next generation What is the future of college ministry?

By Helen Gibson

22 3 non-negotiables for revitalizing a dying church

24 Who’s at your table?

5 practical ways to pursue leadership diversity at your church.

By Aaron Wilson

DEPARTMENTS 2 Inside F&T A look back and toward the future.

By Carol Pipes

4 Insights Beliefs, issues, and trends impacting the church and our world.

28 On Our Radar

JOIN US ONLINE FactsAndTrends.net Visit FactsAndTrends.net for exclusive online content. Read additional pieces from our writers and editors, as well as contributions from other Christian leaders.

Daily Insights Visit FactsAndTrends.net/ DailyInsights to subscribe to our e-newsletter.

FactsAndTrends @FactsAndTrends

Relevant and practical resources for you and your church..

A tale of two churches on the brink of closure.

By Joy Allmond

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 1

VOLUME 65 | NUMBER 1

INSIDE F&T

A look back and toward the future

T

he beginning of a new year is often a time of reflection and a time to cast vision for the future. We take stock of the previous year’s activities–both the highs and the lows—and evaluate what we got right and where we missed the mark.

We also rejoice in God’s grace and mercy as we see His indelible work in our lives. It’s amazing how a little hindsight pulls into focus God’s provision at a certain time and place.

With the past in perspective, we set goals for the future.

The staff at Facts & Trends teamed up with LifeWay Research to perform a similar exercise with church leaders. We asked pastors what the last five years have looked like for their churches and what they expect to see in the future.

Our cover story “Future Church” (page 8) reveals their answers.

We also asked pastors to share their biggest concern for the future of their church. The number one answer was reaching the next generation, chosen by 40 percent of pastors. The second biggest concern was the lack of discipleship in their congregations.

In this issue, we explore what the next generation believes about God, the Bible, and spiritual matters (page 12). And what churches are doing to reach them with the gospel (page 16).

We also sought advice from pastors of once dying, now thriving churches and asked them to share the lessons they learned while revitalizing their churches (page 22).

Our study found a majority of pastors expect to see ethnic diversity among their church leadership to increase in the next five years. But how do churches get there? In “Who’s at Your Table,” you’ll find some practical advice on how to pursue diversity in leadership (page 24).

You’ll also find links to articles on community ministry and cultivating racial diversity.

We’d love to hear how your church is facing these challenges and engaging with people in your community. Share your thoughts and stories with us on Facebook and Twitter. We’d love to hear from you.

Other pastors and leaders on the frontlines of ministry will benefit from your experiences.

We hope this digital edition of Facts & Trends will help you engage the issues that impact your church today and tomorrow. And we pray God will meet you in your ministry with His provision, grace, and mercy.

Our New Years’ resolution at Facts & Trends is to serve you, our readers, as we see what God has in store for His church in the days and years ahead.

Carol Pipes, Editor @CarolPipes | Carol.Pipes@LifeWay.com

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2 • Facts & Trends

WINTER 2019

Facts & Trends is designed to help pastors and other Christian leaders navigate the issues and trends impacting the church by providing information, insights, and resources for effective ministry.

PRODUCTION TEAM Editor Carol Pipes Managing Editor Joy Allmond Online Editor Aaron Earls Associate Editor Aaron Wilson Graphic Designer Steve Beaver // Beaver Design Group

LIFEWAY LEADERSHIP President and Publisher Thom S. Rainer Executive Vice President Brad Waggoner

CONTRIBUTORS Articulate Graphics Eric Foss Helen Gibson Scott McConnell Timothy C. Morgan Casey Oliver

ADVERTISING Send advertising questions/comments to: Facts & Trends Advertising One LifeWay Plaza, MSN 192 Nashville, TN 37234 Email: Joy.Allmond@lifeway.com

PERMISSIONS Facts & Trends grants permission for any original article (not a reprint) to be photocopied for use in a local church or classroom, provided copies are distributed free and indicate Facts & Trends as the source.

CONTACT US Email FactsAndTrends@LifeWay.com Mail Facts & Trends, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-0192 Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers.

Used by permission.

WINTER 2019

“Beautiful Orthodoxy” Book of the Year

StormTossedFamily.com

Cue Indiana Jones

T

he Ark of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments tablets may be resting in a church in Ethiopia, according to investigators at the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration (BASE) Institute.

The Ark allegedly is housed at St. Mary’s of Zion Church in Axum, Ethiopia, where a “Guardian of the Ark” spends his entire life protecting it. No one else is allowed to see it.

While not claiming to have actually found the Ark, the BASE Institute believes the site in Ethiopia has strong potential.

Source: BaseIntstitute.org

Public trust of pastors at all-time low MORE THAN A THIRD of Americans (37 percent) say clergy have high or very high honesty and ethical standards. Forty-three percent say they have average honesty, while 15 percent give clergy “low” or “very low” marks.

While more Americans trust clergy than car salespeople or members of Congress—who carry only 8 percent of high or very high marks for honesty—37 percent is the lowest rating pastors have received in the history of the Gallup survey.

In 1985, 67 percent said clergy had high or very high honesty and ethical standards—the high-water mark for the profession. Since 2002, however, the positive views of clergy’s honesty have dissipated. After briefly stabilizing, Americans’ positive opinions of the ethics of pastors has declined each year since 2012.

Source: Gallup

BY THE NUMBERS: Theological

61%

The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.

beliefs of Americans

60%

4 • Facts & Trends

Religious belief is a matter of personal opinion, not objective truth.

WINTER 2019

INSIGHTS

46%

A record low number of Americans believe “religion can answer all or most of today’s problems,” according to a new Gallup poll. It marked the first time in more than six decades that less than half of Americans responded that way. Meanwhile, 39 percent said religion is “old-fashioned and out of date.” Americans’ perspectives on the issue are divided based on how frequently they attend church.

The survey found 81 percent of people who attend church weekly say religion can answer all or most of today’s problems, while 58 percent of people who attend infrequently call religion old-fashioned.

Still, 72 percent of all Americans say religion is important in their lives, including 51 percent who say it is very important.

Beliefs, issues, and trends impacting our world

Translating the Gospels into sign language

S

ome 160,000 people will be able to experience New Testament stories in their own sign languages for the first time thanks to donations from Passion Conference attendees. The donation of nearly a half-million dollars will go toward translating Gospel stories for the deaf in 16 countries: Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Moldova, Egypt, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, and Russia.

“Today was a win for Deaf people all around the world as we raise awareness for the need for sign language Bibles,” the Deaf Bible Society posted on Facebook.

“Thank you Louie Giglio for shedding light on this movement!”

According to the Deaf Bible Society, just 2 percent of deaf people around the world have access to the Gospels in their sign languages. With an estimated 400 different versions of sign language used around the world, American Sign Language is the only one that has a full New Testament translation.

The $448,000 in donations from Passion attendees will go toward the Deaf Bible Society’s Hope in Every Language translation campaign to provide video resources.

A sign language Bible is a video Bible a Deaf person can watch and see God’s Word in their sign language, according to the society’s website.

Source: ChristianityToday.com

Source: Gallup

Source: LifeWay Research’s “State of Theology 2018”

50%

The Bible is 100% accurate in all that it teaches.

58%

FactsAndTrends.net

Worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending a church.

Facts & Trends • 5

Church dropouts

T

wo out of three young adults (23-30 years old) who were once regular church attenders in their youth say they stopped attending church between the ages of 18 and 22. Of those who stopped attending, only 29 percent said they actually planned to take a break from church. A new study by LifeWay Research and explored in the book Within Reach by Ben Trueblood looks at the differences between those young people who dropped out of church between the ages 18-22 and those who stayed in church.

Shifting priorities “MOST OF THE REASONS young adults leave

the church reflect shifting personal priorities and changes in their own habits,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.

“Even when churches have faithfully communicated their beliefs through words and actions, not every teenager who attends embraces or prioritizes those beliefs.”

29% 71%

s ay they planned on taking a break from church once they graduated high school. s ay leaving church wasn’t an intentional decision.

Source: LifeWay Research

Current church attendance of those who dropped out 39%

Attend once a month or less

37%

Around two-thirds of young adults who went back to church after dropping out said a parent’s or family member’s encouragement contributed to their decision

31%

Attend twice a month or more

29%

Do not currently attend

to start attending again.

Source: LifeWay Research

6 • Facts & Trends

WINTER 2019

INSIGHTS Beliefs, issues, and trends impacting our world

Top 5 reasons young adults stayed in church 56% 54% 43% 39% 39%

hurch was vital part of C relationship with God anted the church to help W guide decisions of everyday life anted to follow a parent or W family member’s example hurch activities were a big C part of their life elt church was helping them F to become a better person

Top 5 reasons church dropouts stopped attending 34% 32% 29% 25% 24%

oved to college and stopped M attending hurch members seemed C hypocritical or judgmental idn’t feel connected to D people at church isagreed with the church’s D stance on political/social issues ork responsibilities W prevented church attendance

Teens and adults.

What are the odds?

L

ifeWay Research’s Church Dropouts Study found having several adults invest in the personal and spiritual life of a teen directly corresponds with a lower likelihood of dropping out of church.

The odds of dropping out are 2.65 times higher among those who had no adults investing in them between the ages of 15 and 18 compared to those with three or more adults investing in them.

And the odds of dropping out are 1.35 times higher among those with only one or two adults investing in them compared to those with three or more adults investing in them.

Source: LifeWay Research

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 7

BY TIMOTHY C. MORGAN

N

early 20 years ago, pastor Brian Moss was called to a church that had dwindled to around 50—on a good day. Today, Moss ministers to around 1,200 members.

And when Keith Weiser felt the nudge to do more to reach the next generation, the result was a church planted on the university campus where he served with his wife in collegiate ministry. Since that time—in a little over a decade—that church has seen more than 850 baptisms and has expanded to 11 sites.

It seems as though a majority of U.S. pastors not only want in on movements like these—they expect to see it in their own congregations.

But will their expectations be met? If so, how?

Protestant pastors are eager to reach

8 • Facts & Trends

the next generation for Christ as well as growing the size, diversity, and level of discipleship within their congregations, according to a new survey of 1,000 pastors

by LifeWay Research.

“Pastors are thinking about reaching the next generation. That becomes a top concern for 4 out of 10,” says Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. “The other sizable thing would be discipleship in the congregation, which in some sense is a passing along of faith as well.”

Growth isn’t easy

Looking forward five years, many pastors anticipate numerical growth of their congregations, increased ethnic diversity, greater leadership roles for women, and more robust community engagement by church members.

The survey found that 79 percent of WINTER 2019

ILLUSTRATION/COVER ILLUSTRATION BY ARTICULATE GRAPHICS

Pastors share their biggest challenges and hopes for the future

COVER SECTION

pastors say weekly worship attendance will increase in the next five years. But looking at the last five years, 36 percent of pastors say worship attendance growth increased, while two-thirds say attendance stayed the same or declined (27 percent decreased, 37 percent stayed the same).

Pastors more likely to say worship attendance grew in the past five years include those from ethnicities other than white or African American (50 percent); those aged 18 to 54 (41 percent); Baptists (41 percent); those leading a congregation of 250 plus in worship (56 percent); and those ministering in a western state (43 percent).

“How many pastors think their churches are going to grow and how few are actually growing?” McConnell asks. “We have one-third with worship attendance growing and 79 percent who say it’s going to grow in the next five years.

“Logically how do you put that together? What’s going to change at the church for that to happen? Pastors are saying, ‘If we reach the next generation, we can do this.’”

Looking five years out, anticipation for growth in worship attendance was strongest among pastors age 45 to 54 (85 percent), evangelicals (85 percent), Pentecostals (94 percent), and pastors with worship attendance of 250 or more (91 percent).

Generational outreach

There are 54 million Americans aged 18-29, representing about 17 percent of the U.S. population, according to 2017 national statistics. This group includes millennials (born 1981 to 1996) and older members of Generation Z (born 1996 to 2012). This group also has the lowest regular church attendance of any other age group, Pew Research found in 2014. Few regularly read the Bible, but most believe in the reality of heaven and hell and the existence of God.

Pastors surveyed by LifeWay Research say it’s critical to their ministry to share the gospel and disciple young adults. But they also realize they have to change in order to engage young adults.

“There are also cultural things that have to change,” McConnell says. “And some systemic things and priorities would need to change within a church to go from seeing the same people every week to suddenly creating an environment where members are sharing the good news so enough people are coming to Christ and wanting to worship with us.”

Top concern about the future of your church (Among Protestant pastors)

40%

Reaching the next generation

5%

Finances of our church

9%

Lack of member commitment

16%

Lack of discipleship Hostility toward Christian beliefs Public distrust of Christian churches

2% 3% 6%

Changing community demographics

11%

Declining interest in matters of faith

7%

None of these Don’t know

1%

The survey asked pastors if attendance by 18- to 29-year-olds in the past five years has increased, decreased, or stayed the same. Almost a third (32 percent) say attendance of young adults increased, while 29 percent say attendance decreased and 39 percent say it stayed the same.

• Pastors age 18-44 (43 percent) were more likely to select “increased” than those 55-64 (27 percent) and 65 and older (25 percent).

• Baptists (40 percent) and Holiness (43 percent) pastors were more likely to

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 9

select “increased” than Lutherans (24 percent), Methodists (16 percent), and Presbyterian/Reformed (28 percent).

• Pastors of churches with attendance of 250 or greater were the most likely to select “increased” (50 percent) followed by 100-249 (36 percent), 50-99 (30 percent), and 0-49 (20 percent).

Pastors also responded to a question on whether in the next five years they Weekly worship attendance in the last 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

36%

Increased

27%

Decreased

37%

Stayed the same

Weekly worship attendance in the next 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

79%

Will increase Will decrease

5% 16%

Will stay the same

Attendance of 18- to 29-year-olds in the last 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

32%

Increased

29%

Decreased

39%

Stayed the same

Attendance of 18- to 29-year-olds in the next 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

72%

Will increase Will decrease Will stay the same

4% 25%

expected increased worship attendance by 18- to 29-year-olds. The pastors most likely to select “will increase” included African American pastors (89 percent) and pastors of churches with worship attendance of 250 and higher (85 percent).

Among all pastors surveyed, 72 percent anticipated increased attendance by 18- to 29-year-olds in the next five years.

“Similar to overall worship attendance, we see more than twice as many pastors thinking they are going to increase worship attendance of young adults than have actually seen that in the last five years.

Again, there is a huge amount of optimism there. And yet, you have to ask what behaviors are changing to actually see that happen?” McConnell says.

“We see optimism across church sizes, but it’s going to take investing in younger leaders and possibly programming changes that larger churches are a bit ahead of the curve on to be able to reach younger folks.”

Diversity: Women and people of color

A major development in Protestant churches is the growth of ethnic diversity and leaders who are women or people of color. This reflects the trend in America and worldwide of more women and ethnic minorities in leadership.

When LifeWay Research asked pastors about women in leadership roles, 42 percent say women in leadership roles will increase, 2 percent say it will decrease, and 56 percent say it will stay the same.

In a similar question about the ethnic diversity of leaders in the next five years, pastors say ethnic diversity will increase (52 percent), decrease (less than 1 percent), or stay the same (48 percent).

In addition, 62 percent say the ethnic diversity of worship attendees will increase in the next 5 years.

NOTE: The survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors took place in the summer of 2018 and has a margin of error of 3.2 percent. Each respondent called was a senior pastor, minister, or priest of an individual congregation. The survey weighted responses regionally to reflect the population.

10 • Facts & Trends

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COVER SECTION

McConnell notes the survey included Protestant churches that allow women to be ordained pastors as well as churches that do not ordain women but do have women in other leadership positions.

“To see that women in leadership of some kind is growing is pretty telling,” he says. “That has to impact the church culturally. For women, the message they’re hearing is about their value and role in kingdom work.

Community ministry

A majority of pastors (64 percent) indicated their church had increased its ministry to the local community the last five years.

And even more (85 percent) say they expect their community involvement to increase in the next five years.

Throughout history, local churches have been community hubs providing a variety of resources and meeting multiple needs, says McConnell.

“Churches are providing all kinds of benevolence ministries in their cities and towns, from food pantries and clothing closets to after-school tutoring and job training,” McConnell says. “God has always cared about the needs of people and the difficulties they’re going through.

More churches seem to be emphasizing this theology by highlighting how Christ followers can live that out.

“The big take-away from this study is that pastors are hopeful about the future.

Diverse leadership will happen. They are not there now, and it will take a lot of effort,” McConnell says. “America is a melting pot of a lot of people groups.

There is a need to reach people where they are. Churches that try to reach out to other people groups, while presenting the truth of the gospel, can be very effective.”

Ethnic diversity of attendees in the last 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

34%

Increased Decreased

4% 62%

Stayed the same

Ethnic diversity of attendees in the next 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

62%

Will increase Will decrease

<1% 37%

Will stay the same

Ethnic diversity of leaders in the last 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

20%

Increased Decreased

3% 77%

Stayed the same

Ethnic diversity of leaders in the next 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

52%

Will increase Will decrease

<1% 48%

Will stay the same

Women in leadership roles in the last 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

47%

Increased Decreased

1% 52%

Stayed the same

Women in leadership roles in the next 5 years (Among Protestant pastors)

42%

Will increase TIMOTHY C. MORGAN (@TMorgan815) is the director of the Journalism Certificate Program at Wheaton College in Illinois.

Will decrease

2%

Will stay the same

FactsAndTrends.net

56%

Facts & Trends • 11

12 â&#x20AC;¢ Facts & Trends

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It’s the most exciting of times; it is the most worrying of times. At least that’s how pastors seem to think about their church reaching the next generation.

BY AARON EARLS

I

n Facts & Trends’ 2019 Future of the Church Study, 72 percent of Protestant pastors told LifeWay Research they expect the attendance of 18- to 29-year-olds at their church to increase in the next five years. Yet the same pastors overwhelmingly said reaching the next generation was their biggest concern.

Four in 10 pastors said they were most concerned about how their church would reach young adults—2.5 times more than the next most frequent response.

Even young pastors are concerned with the prospect of reaching and discipling their fellow millennials and members of Generation Z. Jordan Rice, lead pastor at Renaissance Church in New York City, said he sees that as a significant issue among his fellow young people who have been shaped by smartphones and social media.

He says many older methods of discipleship aren’t as effective today because young adults “have significantly less trust in the authority of Scripture and less firm belief in truth.”

This has caused him and his church to work on what he calls “pre-discipleship”—instilling the idea of truth and authority where many lack even the basic concepts.

He also pointed to the increasing transient nature of young adults who move frequently. “People in our congregation are there for a year or two, and I constant-

ly feel I’m starting over every fall,” Rice says.

For some pastors, it’s a matter of rethinking their own formative years in church. Joe Martin, pastor at The Cross at Clay Baptist Church in Clay, Alabama, says growing up in a small Southern town provided a lot of church events and many people who embraced the Christian label, “but there was no discernable process or passion for making disciples who made disciples.”

Martin is working to change that in his own congregation today.

So how can churches change and reach the next generation? First, they have to know what young Americans actually believe.

The good, the bad, and the same of young Americans’ theology

Whatever picture you have in your mind when you consider the theological beliefs of the typical 18- to 34-year-old American, their actual beliefs may surprise you.

LifeWay Research’s 2018 State of Theology Study found some positives and negatives among the beliefs of younger Americans. They also found some issues that transcend generations.

When pastors speak about the exclusivity of Jesus and the reality of hell, they may find more younger heads nodding in agreement than older ones.

While 73 percent of those 65 and older believe God accepts the worship of all religions, that number falls to 62 percent

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 13

of those 18 to 34.

Young adults are the most likely age group to agree even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation and among the most likely to say hell is a real place where certain people will be punished forever.

Pastors may also find more 18- to 34-year-olds concerned about evangelism.

They are the most likely to say “it’s important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus as their Savior.”

Among all young adults, 58 percent agree with the importance of personal evangelism. Among evangelicals 18 to 34 years old, 89 percent say encouraging others to trust Christ is important to them.

not literally true.

Many young Americans also believe their faith is for personal benefit and church is for their entertainment, while asserting a separation between God and what happens in their life.

More than 4 in 10 say God will always reward true faith with material blessings in this life (43 percent) and churches must provide entertaining worship services if they want to be effective (46 percent).

Close to that many say God is unconcerned with one’s day-to-day decisions (36 percent) and Christians should be silent on issues of politics (38 percent).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger Americans are the most likely to say gender identity is a matter of choice (45 percent) and the Bible’s condemnation of homosexual behavior doesn’t apply today (51 percent).

In many ways, however, they agree with previous generations on significant doctrinal issues— for better or worse.

Like all Americans, 6 in 10 say religious belief is a matter of personal opinion and not objective truth. Yet similar numbers among young Americans and all adults say, “the Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.”

Sixty-two percent of all Americans and sixty-three percent of 18- to 34-year-olds say Jesus’ death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of sin.

As they look at the young adults in their church and what they believe, Rice and Martin say they’re taking intentional steps to reach and disciple them. Other churches looking to prioritize the next generation can do so through some potentially unexpected ways.

4 IN 10 PASTORS SAY REACHING THE NEXT GENERATION IS THEIR BIGGEST CONCERN FOR THE FUTURE OF THEIR CHURCH. In other theological areas, however, church leaders may find hard ground among young adults.

Many are likely to discount what the Bible teaches based on their own personal convictions or what they believe science says.

They are the age group most likely to say the Holy Spirit can tell them to do something that is forbidden in the Bible (30 percent) and most likely to believe modern science disproves the Bible (47 percent).

This may be due to the fact that more than half (52 percent)—more than any other age group—say the Bible contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is 14 • Facts & Trends

WINTER 2019

YOUNG ADULTS HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY LESS TRUST IN THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE AND LESS FIRM BELIEF IN TRUTH.” — JORDAN RICE, RENAISSANCE CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY

4 steps to making a young adult disciple

Evaluating what we know, these four steps can help churches reach young adults in their community and keep them in their congregation.

1. Don’t shy away from hard teaching.

You may think avoiding issues of sin and hell would give you a better hearing with young adults, but the research shows baby boomers are more likely to be turned away by those doctrines—not millennials and Generation Z. Younger Americans also prize authenticity. Attempting to hide what you believe are troublesome doctrines only causes them to doubt you more.

2. Challenge them to read Scripture.

Many believe science disproves the Bible and others think their own personal religious convictions trump what Scripture teaches. That might be because they haven’t taken the time to actually read and study the Bible themselves.

As you are talking to a non-Christian or a new Christian, ask them to go to Scripture with their questions. Read what it has to say before they react off of what they think the Bible says.

LifeWay Research found Bible reading to be the most effective habit at producing

spiritual maturity in the life of a believer.

3. Encourage their evangelistic passion. Once a young adult becomes a Christian, the research indicates more of them will have a drive to share the gospel.

What a great way to reach more young adults: send out their fellow millennials and Gen Zers to share the gospel with then.

4. Give them someone to follow.

Relationships carry significant weight with younger generations. Keep young adults integrated with the entire congregation.

Despite being in church his entire life and as a young pastor now, Joe Martin says, “I can count on one hand the number of spiritual mentors I have in the faith.”

Don’t let another generation go through church without having older believers pouring into their lives and cheering them on as they run the race.

Having an excited younger generation and an invested older generation in your church can make it the best of times for your congregation for a long time.

AARON EARLS (@wardrobedoor) is online editor online editor of Facts & Trends.

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 15

Engaging the Next Generation The Future of College Ministry

Keith Wieser was sitting in the stands at a Washington State University football game in 2005 when he had a “God moment”—an experience he says changed the trajectory of his life. rom where he sat, he remembers seeing almost the entire student body gathered in the stadium that day, cheering and shouting, supporting their team.

In the midst of it all, Wieser says he began to feel God whispering to his soul, asking him a simple yet incredibly powerful question.

What are you going to do to make a significant impact on the lostness of this campus?

At the time, Wieser and his wife were working in a campus ministry at Washington State, but they felt God calling them to do more.

“We began to dream about what it could look like to release the power of the church in the center of campus,” Wieser says.

They went on to plant Resonate Church—a church based on a college campus that has grown significantly since it began with a small group meeting in a local coffee shop in December 2006. Since then, Resonate Church has seen floods of students come to Christ, celebrating 854 baptisms, Wieser says.

Today, Resonate has expanded to 11 sites in eight towns throughout Washington, Idaho, and Oregon, and they’re planning to launch another site in Montana.

The story of their explosive growth on college campuses is just one example of a larger movement—church plants and campus ministries across the nation working to engage college students and young adults with the gospel at a critical moment for the church in North America.

In a recent study by LifeWay Research, 68 percent of Protestant pastors say the 16 • Facts & Trends

WINTER 2019

PHOTOS BY ERIC FOSS

BY HELEN GIBSON

Keith Wieser is part of a movement of evangelical leaders planting churches on college campuses. In 2006 he and a small group of believers began Resonate Church at Washington State University.

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends â&#x20AC;˘ 17

Leaders like Keith Wieser say college students don’t need to be entertained by the church. But they do want to be engaged in the mission and ministry of the church.

attendance of young people—those 18 to 29 years old—has decreased or stayed the same over the past five years. And 4 in 10 pastors say reaching this generation with the gospel is the issue they’re most concerned about when thinking about the future of their churches.

When it comes to making an impact on the next generation, Wieser and other evangelical leaders say college campuses are one of the best places to start.

“We believe the university campus is the key to transforming culture as we look toward the future,” Wieser says. “On the

18 • Facts & Trends

college campus, there are leaders who are going to shape business and politics and social structures and, really, the thoughts for the next generation. The great reality is we can take and have an intersection of the future leaders in a place where they’re most moldable, reachable, and sendable.”

Why college students?

Brian Frye, who serves as the national collegiate strategist for the North American Mission Board, says focusing on college students in these kinds of ways can be incredibly impactful.

WINTER 2019

“If we can engage college freshmen with the gospel, that tends to be the time in life when people are experiencing the highest level of receptivity to the gospel,” Frye says. “It’s that place and space where everybody’s new, all at the same time.

College is the time between families, before you have a manager, before you have money coming in significant ways, before you have a mortgage, your marriage, all that stuff.”

Frye doesn’t deny the fact that college ministry could be difficult or time-consuming, and he admits that some might see college students as being “flaky” and “messy,” but he says ministry to people in this age group has the potential to be incredibly impactful.

“We feel like that’s the quickest way to accelerate the gospel,” Frye says. “And then of course, if you’re sharing the gospel in a university environment, that’s the quickest way to the nations, right? That’s the quickest way to the 10/40 window.

That’s the quickest way to leadership in business, the quickest way to academic leadership, governmental leadership.”

Recognition of this has led to an emerging trend of “collegiate church plants,” or churches planted on or near college campuses. Frye says there were only a handful of collegiate church plants in 1999. Today, however, there are about 100 collegiate church plants across the nation, Frye says.

That includes 19 launched last fall.

Frye says this trend is encouraging—but if Christians really want to reach college students, they’re going to have to take this goal seriously and make some changes at large.

“Very little of their time, very little of our church budgets, are geared toward reaching those who don’t have a relationship with Christ and who are in that age bracket, so we have to change that,” Frye says. “There is a tremendous amount of opportunity.”

WE BEGAN TO DREAM ABOUT WHAT IT COULD LOOK LIKE TO RELEASE THE POWER OF THE CHURCH IN THE CENTER OF CAMPUS.” —KEITH WIESER

Engaging and equipping a unique, emerging generation

As a student at Iowa State University, Kendra Gustafson was heavily involved with the Salt Company, a ministry to college students. When she graduated in 2010, she joined the Salt Company’s staff.

Though she’s only eight years removed from her college years, Gustafson says she’s realized the students she works with today are living in a very different world with its own unique challenges.

“Because the world is changing fast, some of the unique struggles they face, it’s hard for me to relate to,” she says.

One difference she’s noticed is the impact of social media.

“Their whole worldview and the way they view relationships is really mixed and mangled into online, indirect forms of communication,” Gustafson says. This leaves many students craving real, authentic community, even if they don’t necessarily know how to express that desire.

“They long for an authentic relationship,” she says, “and they don’t even know they’re missing that.”

Social media has also left students with shorter attention spans, Wieser notes, which means they’re not as easily entertained as they once were.

“The reality is we just can’t do enough to entertain them anymore,” Wieser says.

“The entertainment value they experience

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 19

THE GREAT REALITY IS WE CAN TAKE AND HAVE AN INTERSECTION OF THE FUTURE LEADERS IN A PLACE WHERE THEY’RE MOST MOLDABLE, REACHABLE, AND SENDABLE.” —KEITH WIESER in their lives is so high that if we try to create more worship services that try to match that, at some point you’re just chasing after your tail, and you’re expending a lot of energy.”

But what college students and young adults aren’t looking for in terms of entertainment, they are looking for in terms of clarity, he says.

“There’s a hunger for clarity,” Wieser says. “There are so many competing ideas that, whether they agree or not, if there’s a clear worldview, that instantly becomes a magnetic draw to their hearts.”

Similarly, Gustafson says she sees a desire for authenticity among many college students and young adults.

“Tell me the truth,” she says, describing what she feels many students are longing for.

“Don’t glitz it up and make it look pretty. I just want to know what’s true. I don’t need to be entertained. I just want truth.”

These college students and young adults don’t want to be merely passive participants in church or a campus ministry.

They want to be involved, Wieser says.

For that reason, he says they should be able to clearly understand—and engage in—the mission of the church or ministry from the beginning.

“Articulate a vision that’s worth their time; articulate a vision that points them

20 • Facts & Trends

to something significant,” Wieser says. “I think the entire generation is looking to be an activist for something—that activism can be pointed to the gospel.”

Frye says college students and young adults should be introduced to the importance of church planting and spreading the gospel as soon as they become believers.

“So, they are inculcated from day one with the idea that when you follow Jesus, part of that is you listen and obey, and then part of that is you are giving your life to becoming a disciple maker,” Frye says.

“And if you’re a disciple maker, you’re willing to leverage your life to see the Kingdom expanded.”

This idea of encouraging students to be proactive in reaching their peers with the gospel is a key part of the Salt Company’s mission, Gustafson says.

“One of our driving principles is that students reach students, so we do our best to get the students to train and equip the students themselves to be evangelists and friends on campus to people,” Gustafson says. “They will have access, just through

DIG DEEPER Within Reach

by Ben Trueblood

WINTER 2019

More than 10 years after Resonate Church was planted, the church is still working to be innovative and relevant to the students they are seeking to serve.

friendship, that a staff person in a full-time role outside of college won’t have access to, especially to non-believers.”

And doing this will help college students and young adults see the purpose and mission from the beginning, which Wieser says is incredibly important.

“Just have high ownership and engagement with that group of people and empower them, release them,” he says.

Going forward

Over 10 years after Resonate Church held its first public services, the church is still working to be innovative, current, and relevant to the lives of the college students it serves.

Wieser says this is something collegiate church plants and ministries must continue to do if they want to reach college students.

Gustafson agrees.

“I think that when we as a church don’t adapt to the actual needs of the people, but

we just ride the wave of what we think is cool or what used to work—what used to be the most appealing thing for the past generation—we’ll lose touch with what’s most important with this generation,” Gustafson says. “Our method of ministry should always adapt although our message should never change.”

While LifeWay Research found a significant portion of Protestant pastors were concerned about reaching the next generation, there are also many who are hopeful about the future. Overall, 72 percent said the church attendance of those 18 to 29 years old will increase over the next five years.

Leaders like Wieser are hopeful, too.

“My hope is that we see college students mobilized to take the gospel into every part of society.”

HELEN GIBSON (@_HelenGibson_) is a freelance writer in Nashville, Tennessee.

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 21

3

Non-Negotiables for Revitalizing a Dying Church

BY JOY ALLMOND

P

astors Bobby Owings and Brian Moss share a penchant for going to places no one else wants to go.

For them, it meant being called to lead dying churches—congregations in steep decline, or even on the brink of shutting down.

When Owings came to Surf City Baptist Church (SCBC), located in a resort town near a military base on the southern coast of North Carolina in 2009, each Sunday service had around 50 people in attendance—on a good day.

Today, Owings preaches

four sermons each Sunday to a total of around 500.

Moss entered the ministry in 1999 after nearly two decades in the information technology industry. His first pastorate—at Oak Ridge Baptist Church in Salisbury, Maryland— brought him to a church that boasted around 30 for a weekend service.

He’s still at Oak Ridge, along with around 1,200 more members than he started with.

Owings and Moss shared a few vital actions churches must take if they want to not only stay alive, but also be effective.

1

Cultivate a hospitable, compassionate congregation

“The biggest one is the simplest one,” says Moss.

“Initially what churches think when they hear me talk about change is they think they need to do rock n’ roll on the platform and install lights and video.”

But it’s not complicated, he explains.

“Most churches would double in size if they simply became friendly,” he says. “I do site visits as a ‘secret shopper’ to

22 • Facts & Trends

churches. The number one observation I make over and over is the churches aren’t friendly. They simply don’t seem like a place where they want people to come back.”

Moss says most churches would be revolutionized “practically overnight” if church members would take this simple step.

“This is really about authenticity and love that flows out of your heart,” he says. “When you love Jesus, you have to love what He loves. And if you don’t love people enough to be welcoming and communicate you want them there, then you don’t love Jesus.”

And when people realize the congregation and leaders genuinely care for them, Moss says, they’re generally open to taking the next step into a relationship with the church.

“The people of today are like the ones we read about in the Bible—the human condition transcends culture,” he says. “A doorway into their lives is often opened through meeting needs compassionately.

The culture around us is not the problem; it’s the culture inside the church that’s preventing growth.”

WINTER 2019

2

Accept— and enact— necessary change

Owings says sometimes an externally visible change is what’s needed to send a welcoming message to those on the outside.

Six months after his pastorate began at SCBC the name of the church was changed to The Gathering.

“People in the community wanted to know if the Baptist church had closed,” Owings quipped. “Legally, we’re still SCBC. But our identity is The Gathering.

We still hold to the Baptist Faith and Message, and still adhere to the same constitution. But most people who come here don’t know it was ever SCBC.” The reason for the change: to communicate the purpose and mission of the congregation.

“When it comes to generations, identity is a big deal,” says Owings. “And to communicate gospel truth to this generation, they have to see past their grandparents’ worship style or identity. “‘The Gathering’ is an identity everybody can relate to—as in, ‘come gather with us.’ This applies to the surfers down the block, the Marines stationed just a few miles away, or the older adults who’ve retired here.”

And sometimes, Owings says, church leadership should change things from time to time, even if just

for a fresh approach.

“If things don’t change from time to time, traditions will take over and ‘shrines’ will be erected,” he says.

Moss agrees.

“The longer a church has been dead, the more courage it’s going to take to revitalize it,” he says.

But it’s worth the effort.

After all, eternity is at stake.

“The United States is one of the largest mission fields in the world. Most of us lose sight of that; we think of missions as something on foreign soil,” Moss says.

“But there are radically lost people here. We have the greatest opportunity for the gospel—an unbelievable opportunity, if we’re willing to change.”

3

Operate in light of your primary mission— making disciples

Most church leaders know their top priority is making disciples—but most aren’t doing much about it.

“I’ve never known a pastor who didn’t understand this,” Moss says.

“But about 90 percent of them have no strategy for how they will do it.”

Strategy is a missing piece of the puzzle for many churches, according to Moss, and he urges church leaders to resist seeing systems as unspiritual. In fact, he explains, just the

opposite is true.

“Think about creation: God created in steps and stages,” he says. “This isn’t a business idea. This isn’t an American idea. God looked into nothingness, and He moved through steps and stages to realize a fully developed creation.”

Just “doing church” from week to week, he says, isn’t fulfilling the Great Commission.

“How can we stand before God and say, ‘I know we’re supposed to do that discipleship thing, but I didn’t know how, so I just did church,” says Moss.

“That excuse isn’t going to hold water when we stand at the judgment and say we just did services.”

DIG DEEPER Becoming a Welcoming Church

by Thom S. Rainer

Hope for dying churches

Regardless of how much a church has declined— whether in attendance or missional zeal, Moss says there’s always hope for dying churches.

“Any church can become more effective,” he says.

“Church members and church leaders hold the cards on how effectively they reach their communities. It really comes down to their passion for the gospel.”

JOY ALLMOND (@joyallmond) is managing editor of Facts & Trends.

FactsAndTrends.net

GET HELP WITH YOUR DISCIPLESHIP STRATEGY WITH LIFEWAY’S LEADERSHIP BLUEPRINT >>

READ MORE ABOUT THE REVITALIZATION JOURNEYS OF THESE CHURCHES: REVITALIZATION REQUIRES A ‘PASSION TO DO CHURCH DIFFERENTLY’ >> FROM NEAR DEATH TO NEW LIFE: HOW ONE DWINDLING COASTAL CONGREGATION WAS REBORN >>

Facts & Trends • 23

5

Who’s at your table?

PRACTICAL WAYS TO PURSUE LEADERSHIP DIVERSITY AT YOUR CHURCH

BY AARON WILSON

M

ost pastors expect their church to grow in leadership diversity in the near future. But if the recent past is any indication, that optimism might come more from wishful thinking than strategy.

In a new study, LifeWay Research found 62 percent of Protestant pastors believe ethnic diversity among their church leaders will increase over the next five years.

But when asked how their church has been trending for the past five years, the majority of pastors (77 percent) reported that ethnic diversity among their leaders has remained unchanged.

Likewise, more than half of pastors (52

24 • Facts & Trends

percent) say the percentage of women in leadership roles at their church hasn’t increased in the last five years.

“This study says pastors are hopeful for growth in leadership diversity,” says Todd Adkins, director of LifeWay Leadership.

“Hope is great, but it isn’t a strategy.”

To achieve the kind of growth pastors expect, churches must be intentional about creating leadership structures that involve multiple voices. This helps equip the church to shepherd members who represent different ethnicities, ages, socioeconomic statuses, and people of both genders.

“The Church is diverse,” says Missie Branch, assistant dean of students at WINTER 2019

HAVING A COLLECTION OF VOICES AND PERSPECTIVES IN LEADERSHIP ALLOWS US TO HAVE A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE OF WHAT THE LORD’S VISION IS FOR THE CHURCH.” —MISSIE BRANCH Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. “When we segregate ourselves to the people who are just like us, we tend to miss out on all the whole body of believers has to offer. Having a collection of voices and perspectives in leadership allows us to have a more complete picture of what the Lord’s vision is for the Church.”

Here are five practical ways churches can help achieve diversity by inviting more voices to the leadership table.

1. Avoid tokenism

“One of the most dangerous things churches can do when seeking to bring diversity to leadership is to practice tokenism,” Adkins says. “Tokenism does a disservice to both the person you’ve brought on and to the organization.”

Tokenism can involve bringing someone into a leadership role, not because of his or her qualifications, but simply to provide a tip of the hat to perceived values and to give the appearance of a change in culture.

“We have to be careful of the language we use,” Branch says. “Don’t say things like, ‘We brought John on because we’re trying to be more diverse.’ No, you brought John on because he can rightly handle the Word of God or because he’s an incredible leader or a great thinker. The fact that John is also not exactly like you is what makes him even more valuable.”

2. Elevate the priesthood of the believer

While the role of a pastor is noble and praiseworthy, it can also be elevated to an unhealthy level that places too much responsibility and authority on the senior pastor or on a few select individuals.

This starves the body of Christ of opportunities to use certain gifts and removes seats from a church’s leadership table that could otherwise be filled with qualified believers with diverse perspectives.

“We need to remember that the priesthood of the believer is a big deal according

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 25

THERE’S NO SILVER BULLET THAT CAUSES LEADERSHIP DIVERSITY TO DEVELOP IN A CHURCH OVER THE COURSE OF TIME. BUT IT’S NOT 20 YEARS WE’RE TALKING ABOUT; IT’S TWO OR THREE YEARS” —TODD ADKINS

to Scripture,” Adkins says. “It’s one thing to say the priesthood of the believer is important and another thing to have it actualized in how the church functions.”

Does your church’s leadership structure represent the priesthood of all believers or does a single person or a very limited group of people call all the shots? If your church resembles the latter, consider ways you can democratize leadership from the standpoints of ethnicity, age, gender, and socioeconomic status to provide a better environment for diversity to flourish.

3. Define biblical womanhood

Often times, it can be difficult for women to understand and embrace leadership opportunities available to them in the local church.

“Pastors need to offer a view of biblical womanhood,” Branch says. “Because many churches aren’t providing that, it’s hard to discern what women are allowed to do or are capable of doing in the church.

It’s up to the leadership of the church to define that by showing what Scripture says on the subject.”

Churches need leaders who can speak 26 • Facts & Trends

to women’s issues. To bring women to the leadership table, pastors need to provide real examples of how women can use their leadership gifts at church.

“One of the ways a pastor can make it clear they value women in leadership in the church is to not give the title of pastor to every position that’s important,” Branch says. “Does the accountant or the person who’s in charge of new members really need to be called a pastor? Probably not.”

By simply changing the position titles of certain roles that aren’t pastoral by nature, churches can help prep their leadership tables for needed diversity that includes women.

4. Steward the stage

In a world where digital influence is always expanding, the physical platform of a stage still plays an important role in setting a precedent for what’s important to a church. As such, a church’s attitude toward leadership diversity is usually driven by what’s said and celebrated from the front of the room.

Is every author who’s quoted from your pulpit a white male? If so, you might unintentionally be communicating that your church doesn’t see leadership potential in women and people of color. Likewise, is almost everyone who’s celebrated on your church stage middle class and married with kids? You may inadvertently be saying these characteristics are traits your church requires for leadership consideration.

“The things we announce and the things we talk about are the things we care about,” Branch says. “If the pastor quotes a male theologian, we know that person is someone the pastor thinks we should pay attention to. But, if there’s no woman the pastor feels is worthy of quoting, then women are forced to decide on their own who will be leaders in their world.”

WINTER 2019

If your church seeks to affirm and equip women, use your public platform to present women as indispensible to ministry.

And if you want your church to reach the nations for Christ, make sure you’re reflecting the value of ethnic diversity in what you say and celebrate from your stage.

5. Show respect for the sacrifice

Christians often show great respect and empathy to missionaries who leave what’s familiar to minister in foreign cultures. But rarely is the same degree of compassion extended to people who intentionally choose to serve at a local church that skews toward a demographic different from their own.

Imagine what it would be like for you to uproot from your current church to serve in one primarily made up of people who have a different skin color from you or who speak English as a second language.

While you’d be powerfully linked to these believers through a union in Christ, it would be naïve to think such a move wouldn’t require a sacrifice to abandon your cultural preferences and familiarity.

“You can’t assume you understand all it takes for a person to work outside of their own context,” Branch says. “In order for me to be in your space, there’s a sacrifice I must be willing to make—something I’m willing to die to.

“Be willing to work through those things with the people you bring onto your leadership teams,” she says. “And avoid pretending like you understand since there’s really no way for you to know exactly what they’re experiencing.”

Setting the table for growth

If churches are to cultivate leadership diversity over the next five years the way most pastors expect, they must develop strategies to achieve that growth. But in

what timetable can churches expect to see fruit from their efforts?

Churches often err in opposite extremes on this point—assuming that diversity growth will either be achieved rapidly or that it will take decades of effort.

But the answer falls between those poles, says Adkins.

“There’s no silver bullet that causes leadership diversity to develop in a church overnight,” Adkins says. “It takes place over the course of time. But it’s not 20 years we’re talking about; it’s two or three years.”

In other words, there’s plenty of time for churches to chase after their five-year expectations when it comes to achieving leadership diversity.

It just requires a willingness to set the leadership table for new members—ones who may not look exactly like you.

AARON WILSON (@AaronBWilson26) is associate editor of Facts & Trends.

IF YOU WANT YOUR CHURCH TO REACH THE NATIONS FOR CHRIST, MAKE SURE YOU’RE REFLECTING THE VALUE OF ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN WHAT YOU SAY AND CELEBRATE FROM YOUR STAGE.”

FactsAndTrends.net

Facts & Trends • 27

Books & Bible Studies

Suffering Is Never for Nothing ELISABETH ELLIOT (B&H)

E

lisabeth Elliot (1926-2015) knew suffering.

She’s widely known as a Christian author and speaker, and as a wife to missionary Jim Elliot, whose life was taken shortly after they moved to an unreached village.

Elliot, having lived through great loss, taught on God’s grace in the midst of hardship, as well as teaching wives and mothers to fulfill the high calling of Titus 2.

In her final book, Elliot describes how it is often through the deepest suffering that God teaches us the deepest lessons. As we trust Him through our trials, we come to a greater assurance of His love and sovereignty—even as He works all things together for the good of those who love Him.

Here and Now: Thriving in the Kingdom of Heaven Today

Leading Small Groups: How to Gather, Launch, Lead, and Multiply Your Small Group

ROBBY GALLATY (B&H)

CHRIST SURRATT (B&H)

T

he Christian life is so much more than just a one-time decision to secure a place in heaven.

What if you could experience heaven on earth today? Not flying angels singing on clouds, but the fulfilled, abundant life Jesus Promised in the Bible—a life that, regardless of your circumstances or your present context, experiences joy, happiness, and peace that’s difficult to encapsulate in human terms.

We’ve been taught that salvation is getting man out of earth to live in heaven. In Here and Now, readers will journey together to uncover the nucleus of Jesus’ messages, which says the opposite; God desires to bring heaven to earth through man.

28 • Facts & Trends

L

eading a small group can literally change the world.

We’ve been commissioned to make disciples who make disciples, and Jesus showed us the best way to carry that out is through small groups of believers. Just like the first-century church, small groups form the foundation to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Regardless of whether you’ve never led a small group or have been leading one for years, all of us want to know how to create environments where spiritual growth takes place and communities are changed. Leading Small Groups walks the reader through the stages of gathering, launching, leading, and multiplying a gospel-centered small group.

WINTER 2019

ON OUR RADAR Practical resources for you and your church

Disciple Her: Using the Word, Work, and Wonder of God to Invest in Women KANDI GALLATY (B&H)

W

hat does true, biblical discipleship look like? How can women, no matter what stage of life they’re in, practice it? How can we find time to invest ourselves into others when it feels like our schedules are already full?

What’s our place in carrying out the Great Commission?

In this practical book, Kandi Gallaty outlines a process for developing an effective disciple-making strategy in your life and in the lives of others.

Disciple Her is filled with personal stories and more than a decade’s worth of discipleship experiences.

Most important, it’s saturated with her love for the Word of God.

Spurgeon’s Sermons for Today: The Love of Christ CHARLES SPURGEON (B&H)

B

y the time of Spurgeon’s death in 1892, his sermons had been translated into more than 40 languages and circulated throughout the world.

But how do we understand Spurgeon’s words today? How do we find the message we need in the thousands of writings he left behind?

The heartbeat of the Spurgeon’s Sermons for Today series is to bring his classic words to modern readers and help them find the message they need to hear.

In the first installment, readers are presented with Spurgeon’s top sermons on the love of Christ, modernized for today’s readers. It’s designed for an easy read, with plenty of room for notes.

FactsAndTrends.net

Gospel-Centered Kids Ministry: How the Gospel Will Transform Your Kids, Your Church, Your Community, and the World BRIAN DEMBOWCZYK (B&H)

T

he story of Jesus interacting with the Emmaus disciples after His resurrection provides an outline for what a gospel-centered kids ministry looks like: teaching that points to Jesus in every session, transformation of a child’s heart and then his or her behavior, and mission where kids join in on the big story of Jesus.

Research shows almost seven out of 10 kids will walk away from church after they turn 18. As leaders, we need to provide kids the one thing that will keep them connected to the church—the gospel.

Facts & Trends • 29

Grab your camera–wild encounters are on the way!

Throw on your camera strap and buckle your seatbelt. This summer’s VBS takes you on a wild adventure—with elephants and egrets, polar bears and penguins, cockatoos and crocodiles.

As you seek out exotic animals, you’ll also find snapshots of real-life encounters with Jesus in Scripture. Kids go from bewildered to believing as they get In the Wild™ at this summer’s VBS.

Preview a free sample at LifeWay.com/VBS

1.800.458.2772 • lifeway.com/vbs • LifeWay Christian Stores