Thom Rainer: An Open Letter to My Denomination: Have We Lost Our First Love?

I could be writing to a broader audience. Perhaps I should be. And I know many outside our denomination will read this brief letter. I hope those readers will bear with me as I have a “family discussion.”

Please hear me clearly. I am not writing out of any sense of superiority. Indeed, many of you could put me to shame. But my heart is breaking with what I perceive to be a loss of passion for those who do not know Christ. Many of you have seen the numbers. We are reaching fewer people for the gospel today than we did decades ago when we were a much smaller group. Keep reading

As Thom Rainer states at the beginning of his article, he could have written to a broader audience. Many churches in other denominations have lost their passion for those who do not know Christ. Many have never had any passion for lost people in the first place. There is a real need for revival and spiritual awakening in North America in churches of every denomination.

The Episcopal Church and I parted company in 2002. Since that time I have been involved in the planting and pioneering of new congregations in number of denominations. In 2013 the church with which I have been sojourning launched a second campus in a community about a 19 mile drive from the first campus. The second campus was not a success. The congregation at the second campus did not see the kind of growth that the congregation at the first campus has enjoyed.

A number of factors may have contributed to the second campus’ failure. Among these factors is that the cultures and demographics of the two communities are different. The church planting model that worked in the first community did not work in the second.

Planting a new congregation in the second community also required a greater effort at building bridges between the new congregation and the community and establishing relationships with the young unchurched adults in the community that were the new congregation’s ministry target group.

The nucleus of the congregation at the first campus was largely made up of young adults who had relationship networks that include substantial numbers of the unchurched university students and the other young unchurched adults in its ministry target group. This core group was also passionate about reaching their peers who did not know Jesus Christ.

The worship gatherings at the second campus would attract older, church-going members of the community. This group would prove a hindrance to the second campus’ efforts to reaching its ministry target group. They did not evidence the passion for lost people that the nucleus of the congregation at the first campus had evidenced. They did not have many young unchurched adults in their relationship networks. They also did not evidence the level of willingness and ability to form relationships with lost people that is essential to engaging and reaching them.