Why
CGWM is Here
It seems as if there are already too many churches...
A church building of one denomination or another seems to occupy
every other street corner across this country. In some areas,
it may seem like there are more churches now than ever before!
Unfortunately, this just isn't
the case... appearances can be deceiving. Every week, in the United
States, an average of 77 churches close their doors forever, while
only 29 new churches are started. That makes a net loss of 48
churches a week (2500 churches a year).
Everyone Already Goes to Church... Surveys
show that church attendance in the US is actually declining (while
the population, according to the recent census is increasing).
In fact, a breakdown of age groups attending church shows that
less than half of the US actually attends church. The problem
seems to be that there are too few churches, not too many.
65% of Builders (people
born before 1946)
35% of Boomers (born 1946-1963)
15% of Gen-X (born 1964-1982)
4% of Gen-Next (born 1982 - present)
An obvious question is... "why don't the churches
we have just reach out and pick up more people?" There are
several answers to this question:
1) Regular churches often
have a pretty bad reputation in the community today. There are
a number of reasons for this. If you ask the general public,
they will often say churches are boring, pointless, full of
hypocrites or really pious people, and full of legalism. Whether
or not these accusations are justified is not important. What
is important is that most churches do not realize they have
this image, or worse, they don't care. Therefore they do nothing
to attempt to change it.
2) Do you like the same
music your grandparents liked? The same TV shows? Probably not,
or at least mostly not. You're a different generation with different
tastes in clothes, music, television, etc. Church is no different.
The types of music and preaching that really reach some people
are unattractive to other people. Newer generations often feel
out of place in the existing traditional churches.
3) Finally, many churches
have an aversion to change. People in general just like to keep
things the way they are. As a result, churches split or die
before they change to accommodate the masses who fail to come
each week.
Who We're Reaching... Yes, there are many churches already.
We promote a different approach to Church ministry in order to
reach those people for whom traditional "program based"
Churches just don't work, or are disillusioned by what they know
as "religion" and the dogma's associated with it, but
still have a desire for a relationship with God, the quest for
the truth, and fellowship with other people that share those desires.
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