The Road We Travel

“70% of Southern Baptist churches are plateaued or declining, but that statistic is deceiving, because another 19% are gaining members from transfers from other churches. 89% of our churches are not impacting the world's lostness in any way.”

“Most of our churches are facing a crisis of facing reality.”

“The peak of growth for Southern Baptists was 1954. When population growth is factored in, we have been in decline ever since. If the 1950’s ever come back, Southern Baptists are ready to go.”

“Churches that were most successful in the past era of church growth, will be the least effective and most difficult to change in the next.”

"Comeback churches are not parasitic, but are an invaluable blessing to their community. The measure of a missional church is how the community would miss it if it were gone."

“The 'norma'l in missional churches is every member obedient to the life and mission of Christ.”

“Given the choice, most churches will choose their traditions over their children every time. The result is that over time children leave the church, creating a crisis later of how to get the younger generation back.”

"I don’t think God is honored by multiple generations all worshipping in separate churches. Imagine how impactful it would be if a church would dare to believe God for what He wants to do in the community so that they set aside their agendas and selfish preferences and instead asked, 'it doesn’t matter what I want, what methods will most effectively engage this community with the gospel?'”

“Something major has shifted in the past 20 years, and yet the church tends to be change averse. Successful churches will naturally change over time but what must never change is the need to proclaim the gospel.”

“Change only takes place when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change.”

“Demographics are not the answer. We need to decipher the individual communities to which God has sent us. The Church should be defined by the mission field, not by programs or tradition.”

"John Knox said, 'Give me Scotland or I will die!' Are we willing to say, “Give me Oklahoma City or I will die?'”

“The church of the future must move from attractional to incarnational”

"In the past, the church focused on only one conversion. In the future, unbelievers you are leading to Christianity will need to go through three different conversions in sequence:

Conversion to you,
Conversion to community,
Conversion to Christ."

“The church of the future that is incarnational is interested more in the harvest than in the barn.”

“We are a harvest denomination in an unseeded field.”

“Today, people are realizing that God is using many different kinds of methods and models to reach different kinds of people.”

“The answer is not for all of our churches to look alike, but the answer is everyone seeking the same thing: to glorify God by being incarnational in the community they are in.”

“The modern church is moving from professional to passionate. In the past, ministry was the realm of the seminary- trained. Not so any more- ministry is not the realm of the professional, it is in the realm of the passionate.”

“There must be a transition from seating to sending. The impact of kingdom growth is more important as a measure. Missional churches give themselves away rather than serve their own needs.”