{"id":109,"date":"2007-11-19T08:04:38","date_gmt":"2007-11-19T16:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=109"},"modified":"2017-06-11T17:57:03","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T00:57:03","slug":"wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting &#8211; Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8014\" style=\"border-width: 0px;\" title=\"church planting\" src=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/church-planting-2.jpg\" alt=\"church planting\" width=\"329\" height=\"153\" srcset=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/church-planting-2.jpg 329w, https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/church-planting-2-200x93.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 329px) 100vw, 329px\" \/><a title=\"Wanted Free Grace Church Planting\" href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting\/\">The previous post<\/a> talked about how there are lots of church planting networks, but many of them are opposed to Free Grace Theology.<\/p>\n<p>The question could be asked why we even need new churches.<\/p>\n<h2>Why we Need New Churches<\/h2>\n<p>Many believe that there are already too many churches and it is better to revitalize and support existing churches rather than plant new ones.<\/p>\n<p>Here are one way of explaining it (I pulled this from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thinkchristian.net\/index.php\/2007\/11\/16\/reasons-to-plant\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">ThinkChristian.net<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>1. There are 195 million non-churched people in America, making America one of the top four largest \u201cunchurched\u201d nations in the world.<br \/>\n2. In spite of the rise of mega-churches, no county in America has a greater church population than it did ten years ago.<br \/>\n3. During the last ten years, combined communicant membership of all Protestant denominations declined by 9.5 percent (4,498,242), while the national population increased by 11.4 percent (24,153,000).<br \/>\n4. Each year 3,500 to 4,000 churches close their doors forever; yet only as many as 1,500 new churches are started.<br \/>\n5. There are now nearly 60 percent fewer churches per 10,000 persons than in 1920.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 1920 27 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.<\/li>\n<li>In 1950 17 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.<\/li>\n<li>In 1996 11 churches existed for every 10,000 Americans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6. Today, of the approximately 350,000 churches in America, four out of five are either plateaued or declining.<br \/>\n7. American denomination recently found that 80% of its converts came to Christ in churches less than two years old.<br \/>\n8. Hence the claim of many leaders: \u201cThe single most effective evangelistic methodology under heaven is planting new churches\u201d (Peter Wagner).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Just for fun, I found a quick map that gives a generalized picture of religious adherents in the US from 2000:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-8013\" title=\"Religious Adherents\" src=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents-570x413.gif\" alt=\"Religious Adherents\" width=\"570\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents-570x413.gif 570w, https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents-200x145.gif 200w, https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents-860x624.gif 860w, https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif 886w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The map is from a page on Valparaiso University\u2019s web site called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/geomet\/geo\/courses\/geo200\/religion.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">American Ethnic Geography.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Population Growth is Outpacing Church Growth<\/h2>\n<p>There may be lots of churches today, but there are LOTS more people, and the number of churches per person is decreasing. Some might argue that this is because small churches are closing and the people are going to mega-churches, which is true. But it is becoming increasingly obvious that many mega-churches are not doing a better job than smaller churches of making disciples of the people who attend.<\/p>\n<p>Most importantly, is that new church plants tend to be much more effective and efficient at reaching out to unbelievers. For this reason alone, we need to get involved in and excited about church planting.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One reason we need new church plants is because church growth is not keeping up with population growth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2234],"tags":[1234,19,1247],"class_list":{"0":"post-109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-redeeming-church","8":"tag-church-planting","9":"tag-discipleship","10":"tag-free-grace","11":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting - Part 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One reason we need new church plants is because church growth is not keeping up with population growth.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting - Part 2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One reason we need new church plants is because church growth is not keeping up with population growth.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Redeeming God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-19T16:04:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-06-12T00:57:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"886\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"643\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"headline\":\"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting &#8211; Part 2\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-19T16:04:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-12T00:57:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":393,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif\",\"keywords\":[\"Church planting\",\"Discipleship\",\"free grace\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Redeeming Church\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/\",\"name\":\"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting - Part 2\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-19T16:04:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-12T00:57:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"One reason we need new church plants is because church growth is not keeping up with population growth.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif\",\"width\":\"886\",\"height\":\"643\",\"caption\":\"Religious Adherents\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting &#8211; Part 2\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\",\"name\":\"Redeeming God\",\"description\":\"Liberating you from bad ideas about God\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\",\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeremy Myers\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. He is a popular author and blogger and often gives away free eBooks to his blog subscribers.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/redeeminggod\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting - Part 2","description":"One reason we need new church plants is because church growth is not keeping up with population growth.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting - Part 2","og_description":"One reason we need new church plants is because church growth is not keeping up with population growth.","og_url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/","og_site_name":"Redeeming God","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","article_published_time":"2007-11-19T16:04:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-06-12T00:57:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":886,"height":643,"url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif","type":"image\/gif"}],"author":"Jeremy Myers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@redeeminggod","twitter_site":"@redeeminggod","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Myers","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Myers","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"headline":"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting &#8211; Part 2","datePublished":"2007-11-19T16:04:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-06-12T00:57:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/"},"wordCount":393,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif","keywords":["Church planting","Discipleship","free grace"],"articleSection":["Redeeming Church"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/","name":"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting - Part 2","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif","datePublished":"2007-11-19T16:04:38+00:00","dateModified":"2017-06-12T00:57:03+00:00","description":"One reason we need new church plants is because church growth is not keeping up with population growth.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/adherents.gif","width":"886","height":"643","caption":"Religious Adherents"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wanted-free-grace-church-planting-part-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wanted: Free Grace Church Planting &#8211; Part 2"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/","name":"Redeeming God","description":"Liberating you from bad ideas about God","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c","name":"Jeremy Myers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeremy Myers"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. He is a popular author and blogger and often gives away free eBooks to his blog subscribers.","sameAs":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","https:\/\/x.com\/redeeminggod"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}