WHY START A CHURCH?

CHALLENGES FACING AMERICAN FAMILIES

Imagine all the people and families that will come to know Christ at LifeShare Church! All the marriages healed! All the fatherless connected to a loving Heavenly Father! All the hurting healed! All the new healthy marriages and families started!

NEW CHURCHES ARE EFFECTIVE AT REACHING UNCHURCHED PEOPLE

  • "The single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches." - C. Peter Wagner

  • "After a church is three years old it is half as effective in reaching people for Christ as it was in the early years of its existence. Once a church is fifteen years old it becomes one third as effective." - Christianity Today

  • "One American denomination recently found that 80% of its converts came to Christ in churches less than 2 years old." - Ralph Moore

  • "The simple truth is, new churches reach more new people, and established churches reach more established people. The larger and older a church is, the less likely it is to evangelize." - Ron Sylvia

Jesus has called us to start LifeShare Church to reach unchurched people near Helotes - a suburb of San Antonio, Texas. 

NO COUNTY IN AMERICA IS OVER-CHURCHED

  • "There are 195 million unchurched people in America."

  • "America is the third largest unchurched nation in the world."

  • "In the last decade the combined membership of all Protestant denominations has declined by 9.5%, while the national population has increased by 11.4%." - Ron Sylvia

  • In 1900, there were 27 churches for every 10,000 Americans.

  • In 1950, there were 17 churches for every 10,000 Americans.

  • In 1996, there were 11 churches for every 10,000 Americans. - George Gallup

  • "We are losing ground with every passing year. We have an evangelistic deficit growing in America." - Ron Sylvia

Jesus has given us a mission, vision, and strategy for LifeShare Church that will be evangelistic and inviting to the unchurched.

NEW CHURCHES GROW FASTER THAN ESTABLISHED CHURCHES

  • "In 1988, 80-85% of the churches in America have plateaued or are declining." - Win Arn

  • "Of the 15% that are growing, 14% are growing as a result of transfer rather than conversion growth." - Aubrey Malphurs

  • "Since 1965 most mainline denominations are in decline. Each year 3,500 to 4,000 churches close their doors for the last time, and only 1,100 to 1,500 are started each year. In the average year, half of all churches do not add one new member through conversion growth." - Ron Sylvia

  • "Healthy new churches often experience exponential growth." - Ron Sylvia

  • "Perhaps the simplest explanation of this pattern is that new congregations are organized around evangelism and reaching people...By contrast, powerful internal institutional pressures tend to encourage long established churches to allocate most of their resources to the care of members." - Lyle Schaller

Jesus has given us a heart at LifeShare Church that will propel us to be "fishers of men, not swappers of fish from aquarium to aquarium." - Ron Sylvia

PEOPLE ARE MORE OPEN TO CHANGE IN NEW CHURCHES

  • "New congregations carry less institutional baggage, meaning they are more likely to respond to a changing culture than established churches." - Ron Sylvia

  • "New churches attract and are led by pioneers and trail blazers." - Ron Sylvia

  • "Change is built into the DNA of most new churches. The phrase 'we've never done it that way before' is irrelevant. Everything is new!" - Ron Sylvia

  • "Healthy change brings growth in our lives and churches." - Ron Sylvia

  • "Decisions emerge quickly in new congregations; the process moves more and more slowly as a church grows older." - Ralph Moore

  • "New churches speak the language of the next generation." - Ron Sylvia

  • "New churches are often led by younger pastors who know the subtleties of the culture. What they lack in experience, they make up for by pioneering spirits that effectively reach a new generation." - Ron Sylvia

  • "We need to build alliances between seasoned veterans and our young church leaders. We need to partner experience with youth to reach the next generation." - Ron Sylvia

Jesus has given the leadership of LifeShare Church relationships with seasoned pastors and a pioneering spirit to reach new people. Imagine all the new leaders that will be raised up in the home, the church, and the marketplace!
 

(The content for Why Start A Church? was adapted from Ron Sylvia's book, "Starting High Definition Churches")