Monday, April 4, 2011

It Doesn't Have To Be This Way.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, the WPA District hosted a special guest, Rev. Phil Struckmeyer, for a couple days of training and equipping. Over twenty pastors, local church leaders, and district personnel were present on Tuesday for ENGAGE, where they were given opportunity to discover the next-steps to take in their own ministry environments.

One of the most powerful elements of ENGAGE was the reality-check of the state of the Church in North America (these bullet points can be found in the video linked here):
  • Only 18% of Americans attend church on any given Sunday
  • There are over 200,000,000 non-churched people in America
  • America is one of the top three largest unreached nations in the world
  • North America is the only continent where Christianity is not growing
  • Not a single county in America has a greater churched population than it did ten years ago
  • 4/5 of all churches in America are plateaued or declining in growth
But it doesn't have to be this way, and we don't have to be okay with these facts. The reality is each local church has the call and the resources to engage their community in a powerful way that sees people entering into the hope of life in Jesus. Those in attendance at ENGAGE were sent out encouraged, impassioned, and with the Scriptural mandate to take next steps in changing the above realities in their communities & spheres of influence.

If you'd like to learn more about how you can take your next steps in the movement, contact Shawn Cossin (click on the link to send an e-mail) to find out where you can discover tools and resources available to you.

Thanks to those of you who attended; we invite your feedback on  the event and would love to hear how you're taking next steps to engage in the mission! Send your thoughts to Jeremiah Gomez (click on the link to send an e-mail).