England and america Will History Repeat Itself? By Richard Atwood   Find out more about Free Will Baptist Home Missions by visiting www.homemisions.net.

MY WIFE SANDY AND I had always wanted to visit England. With our 30th wedding anniversary approaching, we saved our nickels and dimes and made the trip. We ate one main meal a day in order to save money and stayed in a hotel room so small you could sit on the bed and touch all four walls, but we got to see a lot of great sights. I love history, and England has a lot of it.

In America, we think a 100-year-old building is old. In England they have buildings more than a thousand years old. We visited castles and palaces, saw the Magna Carta, and enjoyed great art. We also took lots of rides on the subway. The British call it the tube, and rather than saying, “Watch your step,” they say, “Mind the gap.”

Some of the most interesting sites we visited were connected to our spiritual heritage. Beautiful churches like St. Paul’s Cathedral were so awe-inspiring that they nearly brought us to our knees. We saw a plaque marking the spot where John Wesley was saved and visited his church in London. Across the street, we visited the non-conformists cemetery where John Bunyan, Susannah Wesley, and Isaac Watts are buried. We attended a church service at the Metropolitan Tabernacle where Charles Spurgeon pastored. Everywhere we looked, we saw the evidence of our Christian heritage.

Unfortunately, today one would hardly call England a Christian nation. According to the BBC, only about six percent of the people attend church on any given Sunday. Between 1979 and 2005, half of all people who called themselves Christians stopped attending church. In one recent poll, only 22 percent of teens said they believed in God. “All indications show a continued secularization of British society.”

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I don’t want the same thing to happen in our country! The Christian church in America is only one generation from extinction. Books have been written and will continue to be written on what we can do to avoid this fate. I have two quick thoughts.

We have to find a way to reach young people. Many congregations today are filled with older people, and a lot of pastors are conducting a great number of funerals. According to Thom Rainer in his book The Bridger Generation, only 16 percent of people born from 1965 to 1976 are evangelical Christians and only four percent of young people born since 1977 are evangelical Christians! These are scary statistics. Our churches must do something and do it now! I asked my 20-year-old daughter to share her thoughts about reaching her generation. You can read her ideas below.

Here are some suggestions:

Learn the names of the young people in your church. Help them get involved in service to others and the work of the church. Teach them apologetics (why it makes sense to be a Christian). Teach parents how to teach their children. Be willing to give up some of your preferences to reach the younger generation. One of our home missionaries had a couple leave the church because too many of the “new people” had tattoos. That kind of attitude is killing us. We are more concerned with our preferences than whether or not someone is going to Hell. We should rejoice because new people are being saved!

We need to start more churches. From 2000 to 2004, the U.S. needed a net gain of 13,000 new churches to keep up with our population growth. Since we only started about 3,000 churches, the Church incurred a deficit of almost 10,000 churches. Thom Rainer says that 94 percent of our churches are losing ground in the communities they serve. The population is growing, but they aren’t keeping up. Most statistics seem to agree with this quote by David Anderson of the Bridgeleader Network, “More evangelism happens through church planting than mega churches.” More people are saved in newer churches. Everyone should be involved in helping to start new gospel-preaching churches.

Don’t misunderstand. This article is not intended to discourage us. God is alive and powerful! He wants people to be saved, and America doesn’t have to go the way of England. Let’s get excited about the needs and possibilities. I’m fired up! How about you?

What can you do to help start new churches?

1. Your church can parent a church. Take a few people 20 miles down the road and get started. There are many ways to do this. Call me if you need some help in this area.

2. Partner with a home missionary church planter. Pray, give, and take mission trips to help see new churches started across the continent. Visit our web site at www.homemissions.net for a list of our home missionaries.

3. YOU can go. Go either as a church planter or get a job and be a part of the church planting team. Jim and Sylvia Martin moved from Alabama to New York and got jobs so they could help the Booths start a church in New York State. There are a number of others who are doing the same thing. Maybe you should go. Yes, I’m talking to YOU!

FROM MY DAUGTHER, RACHEL...

Hey, Dad!

So, as I was thinking about my generation, I thought about how we are so hands-on and tech-savvy. I think the church should tap into that. I think we need to teach my generation how to have a mature faith. We know how to have childlike faith, but as we get older, we are left with only a childlike understanding of faith. The intellectual level of Christian training often drops as we get older. I think the church focuses on having so many children’s programs in order to gain contact with the parents, but college-age programs are often scrapped or they are poor quality.

We also need to hear more biblical application directed to our lives and what we are dealing with, not just a general "trust in the Lord." Tell us what that means, and how can we do that in our everyday life.

We need more than just fundamentals like prayer is powerful. That is definitely good, but we need more information applied. For example, How do I pray for my friends who are living in continual sin? How does prayer work? I have had many friends question how prayer works and why we pray. We need helpful answers.

We NEED community with other believers, and not just in Sunday School. Honestly, the classroom is not the best environment in which to get to know each other. Outside activities provide opportunities for people to come together, and a bond is formed. This is so true, but we often forget to implement this into church life.

As a young person, here is what I would say to a church:

When a new young person comes into your church, don't assume that you can't relate to them because you are older. You can! You have something they need, and that is friendship. Young people long to fit in, and that need can be met from people who are not our age. Please talk to us, and don't just ask our age and major in school and then walk away. Try to get to know us persons. Sit with us. Don't expect someone else to talk to us…you do it! SMILE while you talk. That is encouraging and it shows the love of Christ without words. Be our friend, not just a random “hello.”
- From a young person

Young people are searching for something; they are just not sure exactly what. The church needs to step in (not in an invasive way but in an encouraging, kind, and loving way). Ask people in the church to invite young people out for lunch instead of just going with their usual friends. College students always love a free meal! Food is a good way to get college students to come to meetings or social events, and it is easier for them to invite their friends to attend as well.