How does your church feel about the need for new churches? Sometimes statistics can help out our feelings. Consider these simple statistics briefly:
- The population of the United States, the third most populous nation in the world, is about 316,700,000.
- The population of the United States is growing by 0.9% per year.
- This means we are adding a net of about 2,800,000 people per year (rounding down to the nearest 100,000). That only includes documented increases. (source: World Factbook)
Conclusion: If we only wanted to plant one church for every increase in, say, 10,000 people, Gospel-preaching churches need to plant 280 churches per year to keep up with the population growth rate alone. I think we would all agree to the need for new churches even without the growth in population, but with it, the stewardship of the gospel becomes all the more important.
May God burden us with the need and help us take the steps to meet the need for new churches!
