Who’s In Church These Days?
What percentage of people in the Y- generation would you guess currently attend church on a weekly basis in the U.S.?
Per “The Bridger Generation”, by Thomas Rainer:
65% of the Builder Generation attend church weekly
Only 35% of the Baby Boomer Generation attend church weekly
Only 15% of Generation X (roughly ages 34-49) attend church weekly
Only 4% of Generation Y (roughly ages 16-33) attend church weekly
At this rate of decline, what will the church in the U.S. look like in fifty years? What (if anything) do we want to do about it now, to invest in the future?
Who’s Your Man/Woman?
When I was in my twenties, my spiritual leaders pointed out the fact that Jesus, who desired to impact the whole world with God’s love, chose a seemingly inefficient strategy. Rather than regularly investing in the multitudes, modeling church services and programming strategies, he chose instead to intentionally love and invested in a small group of individuals. He discipled them and taught them to do the same with others. And they did. God’s ripple effect from that small group changed the course of history.
My leaders pointed to Jesus’ example and challenged us to try it with just one person. They would ask us, “Who is one person you could pour into? Who’s your man (woman)?” They’d also ask, “Who is one person who is pouring into you? Who’s your man (woman)?”
Nuree’s Legacy:
A few years ago, Legacy Shepherding Ministries invested in a young man with a pastor’s heart (though you’d never know it from this Ninja photo on the left!) – Nuree Kim. Nuree in turn poured his pastoral heart into three guys over the past couple years, one of them being a young man named Dave Keyes. Each of Nuree’s guys stepped up into leadership and met with other guys. They affectionately referred to their extended group (missional community hub) as “The Ninja Fortress”.
Recently, Dave Keyes took over the leadership role from Nuree, overseeing the entire group with a co-leader named Noah (a young man I currently mentor). Here’s what Dave wrote:
“Lately, I’ve been thinking more about Nuree than ever before. Leading the community’s first meeting, I could not stop thinking of how Nuree would handle every situation – whether it be from sharing, to creating space, to respecting people’s time. Nuree is so present in every aspect of our new community; it’s like he never left.
“After being on the opposite end of things, I have come to respect Nuree even more now. What he did in our group of broken people was absolutely amazing – nothing but love and acceptance for everyone who came through the doors. He created that culture. Our group accepted and loved because he made it okay to do so.
“In addition to Nuree’s impact upon my leadership ability, Nuree has poured and poured into the healing of my soul. I came back from school in desperate need of a loving Christian community, which was something that I never experienced before, and Nuree met me exactly where I was at. He took up the role of cleaning, probing, and building me up.
“As I’m thinking back, I am reminded more and more of what Nuree said to me, what he didn’t say, and how positively that has molded me into the man that I am today.
“I would hate to imagine the type of person I would be today, if Nuree Kim wasn’t a part of my life.
“Thank you Nuree for being an amazing friend, for setting the standard high, and for being the most honest and humble man I know.” – Dave Keyes
Dave and Co-Leader Noah Baptize Leah:
Recently, one of the women in their medium-sized group asked Dave and Noah to baptize her in the lake. Noah invited me to attend. It was powerful. The guys did a great job of leading. (Brrrr. I was cold just thinking about being in that water!)
The Multiplication Illustration:
Back in the day, my leader’s illustrated the potential impact of Jesus’ seemingly inefficient strategy: If you invested in one person for one year and equipped that person to do the same, at the end of the year there would be two of you. If the next year the two of you invested in one person each, at the end of the second year there would be four of you. At the end of the third year, there would be eight of you. It starts small, but then the multiplication effect kicks in. The chart below shows the exponential growth over the years:
The population of the world is currently around 6.88 billion. With this strategy, if no one broke the chain, within thirty-three years, the entire population of the world would have had someone invest in them for an entire year, experienced transformation, and would be equipped to do the same with another person. In one life-time! Just by meeting with one person at a time. (I know that’s not realistic. Realistically, it takes more than one year of meeting with someone and not everyone will pass on what they’ve received, but what if this generation achieved even a fraction of that impact?) It seems worth trying. Meeting with just one person seems do-able to me.
Who’s your man? Who’s your woman? Who are you pouring into? Who’s pouring into you?
The Need Is Great:
God’s seemingly inefficient multiplication strategy may be the means of loving and meeting people in the Y-generation right where they are at, which may or may not be at church services.
Who better to reach the next generation than the next generation, guys like Nuree, Dave, and Noah?
This ministry hopes to continue to pour into guys like these, to follow Jesus’ multiplication model of reaching the world with God’s love, grace, and truth.
If you haven’t already, I’d love for you to partner with me financially in bringing this ministry to the twenty-something generation. You can make a difference. Contributions are tax-deductible. Thank you so much!
In His Love,
Randy
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men (and women) who will also be qualified to teach others.” – Paul to Timothy, casting the vision of multiplication (2 Timothy 2:2) Invest in the few to reach the masses.
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