So I’m reading my blog feeds today and came across Ed Stetzer’s latest post announcing the latest research that Lifeway has done on evangelism. It really is a fascinating piece that I think I will print and frame as to the reason why church planting is so vital to the advancement of God’s kingdom. Here are some excerpts that I would like to interact with:

“This will compel us to embrace a go and tell – or incarnational – approach,” he said. “Should we invite our friends to church? Sure. But should we be, do, and tell the Gospel to people in culture? You bet. It is not only biblical, but it is even more essential today as our culture grows increasingly resistant to the church.”

I have heard this phrased before as seeing in the Old Testament a “come and see religion” but in the New Testament we have embodied for us a “go and tell religion”. I’ll throw this in there. If we are to go and tell, then you really can’t say “But only go certain places”. All of our community is wide open for us to go to. No limits imposed.

The situation is compounded by the fact that more than half the 1,402 respondents in a 2007 study of unchurched adults said they never wonder whether they would go to heaven if they died, McConnell said.

Don’t you love the name Eternity? It has a nice ring to it eh?

“Our evangelistic efforts must acknowledge that we no longer live in a culture in which people are simply putting off coming to the church to find truth,” McConnell explained. “Many people today either don’t believe truth exists or that the church is the place to find it.”

Have you read Tim Keller’s book “The Reason For God”? Do you plan to? Maybe you could listen to the sermon series “Why Christianity Is So Hard To Believe” over at the nomad page at Eternity.

While unchurched people are open to relationships, few church members are intentionally investing time developing relationships with non-Christians. A soon-to-be published 2007 survey of more than 2,500 adult church members found only 25 percent agreed they “spend time building friendships with non-Christians for the purpose of sharing Christ with them.” A full 38 percent actually disagreed with the statement and 36 percent were noncommittal about it.

And people say we don’t need more churches. Actually they’re right, we need the churches who don’t believe in developing relationships with non-Christians to close because they’ve missed the point. What we do need more of is good solid church plants who recognize that the U.S. is the 3rd largest mission field in the world.

“The 2008 study revealed that 25 percent of unchurched adults would use a church Website or an Internet search tool to find a congregation to visit,” he said. “For one out of four unchurched people, the first visit to your church may be on the Internet. Churches need a Website that favorably represents who they are and, more importantly, who Jesus Christ is.”

That’s why Sarah, Chris, and George are the bomb for putting Eternity’s site together!

“We have tried that approach for decades – many church buildings/services are looking great. They have new looks, new music and new strategies,” he added. “We have gone to great length to fix up the barn, but the wheat is still not harvesting itself. I believe we must move from attractional ‘come and see’ ministry to incarnational ‘go and tell’ and join Jesus in the harvest fields all around us.”

And all God’s people said: AMEN!