by Brad Montsion
I want to make it clear that I am definitely one who believes in planting. I found it interesting to know that all of the FCA elders in Canada planted a church. There is no doubt that it is in the DNA of the FCA worldwide. We need to continue this emphasis but not allow ourselves to deny another very important aspect if we wish to change the recent trends.In choosing the title for this post I knew that it would raise a few eyebrows. I’m sure most of us have heard that the key to church growth is church planting. I would say the best way to come to the right conclusion is by truly look at the facts that confront us. Any one of us can evaluate the disheartening statistical findings.
Recent National Statistics
More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favour of another religion – or no religion at all. The population of our earth exceeded 7 billion people in March of 2012. So according to a 2013 figure, the United States has more than 316 million people while Canada comes in a close second (just kidding) at almost 35 million in 2012.
So by using these figures we would be saying that 88,480,000 people living in the United States today have left their faith or have no religion at all. I understand that some of these figures may include people who are left from a non-Christian faith to a Christian one as well as those were raised Roman Catholic who are now Protestant. But let’s not be too quick to be unheeded by these recent trends.
Our Experience
Our church began in 1992 in Cornwall Ontario in Canada. It is a location that has had a strong Roman Catholic influence for centuries. There are no evangelical churches, no matter how long they’ve been in this city, who can honestly say that they have an average attendance of 400 people per Sunday. Most are actually less than 100 even though they have served this city for more than 100 years. I only wish I had better account on those who once attended our congregation and who now have moved on. But I do have a Fountaingate Archive List which presently shows 167 families who no longer attend. Some of these “families” are made up of just one person. But the same thing applies for our present Fountaingate List which shows 75 families attending regularly.
So in our case we could be substantially larger if we just could have retained those who once attended. Yes, I understand that some have passed away and a number of them have moved out of the area. But as a pastor I have noticed that there is an increasing trend that is troubling me. I do believe there is a key that not only improves attendance but also improves the health of our churches. This key is reconciliation.
The Key – Reconciliation from Differences
I have pastored almost 30 years and have noticed that when people do not follow the principles of God’s Word that they soon stopped attending instead of clearing up their differences. These same people would argue that they do believe and follow God’s Word. Unfortunately, they have failed to sit down face-to-face and resolve the issues that they have allowed to develop. We as their pastor are shown to be the problem because we can’t fix the problem. They (or should I say we) have failed to abide by the clear direction that God has given us (Matthew 5:22-26; 7:1–5; 18:15-17; Galatians 6:1-5; I Corinthians 3:1–3). There is no way around it, we’ve got to stop running from our problems if we expect our churches to grow.
The Key – Reconciliation from Sinful Habits
The church at Corinth had a problem of incest which would tear at the roots of any good church. They were guided by the apostle Paul to deal with the problem. In this case the individual was excommunicated from the church until he chose to humble himself and repent. Once that repentance took place, the church was called to be a place of restoration (cf. I Corinthians 5:1-5 with II Corinthians 2:5-11).
Closing the Back Door
One final concern that I have is the fact that most of the people who attend our churches once attended another church. So we are like many other churches that are gaining in attendance perhaps by those who have become hurt or frustrated from another church. Most of the churches in America today are NOT growing because of our evangelistic efforts. It is simply transfer growth!
We’ve all heard it said that we need to close the back door. I tend to believe that that is the greatest way of having an explosion of church growth. It is also the way of returning to a healthy church – the kind that Jesus is expecting us to become.
“And to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish,
but holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:27
Brad Montsion is pastor of Fountaingate Christian Assembly in Cornwall, Ontario and also serves as and Elder & Secretary-Treasurer of FCA Canada.
