In a recent conversation about church planting, someone presented this simple math. The world population clock says there are more than 7 billion people alive today. According to the Pew Forum just over 2 billion of those people are Christians. These facts reveal there are 5 billion people who don’t know or follow Jesus. How will they hear? Imagine if 1 leader took responsibility for inviting 1000 people into a life changing relationship with Jesus – it’s a simple and reasonable strategy for reaching 5 billion people. In order to accomplish it, we would need 5 MILLION new church planters.
That got me thinking, what does the same math tell me if I apply it to more specific geographies. The same population clock says there are 316 million people in the USA. Research indicates that about 80% of Americans label themselves as Christians. However, statistics about actual church participation
I live in a suburb of Sacramento. The Census Bureau says almost 2.5 million people live in this metropolitan area. According to Barna, it’s the 17th most post-Christian place in America with 47% of population identify themselves as secular or nonreligious. Even if we just want to reach these post-Christian people, that would require 2,115 church planters in my own hometown.
What happens if you do the math for for you own city, state or country:
(Total population – Christians) / 1000 = number of church planters needed.
I’m guessing you’ll find the math as eye opening and vision expanding as I did. No wonder Jesus said, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”
It has been my desire ever since to plant a church. I have been envisioning a healthy and strong congregation filled with the Spirit, filled with the love of God and compassion for the lost souls. These people of God shall work with the vision of the pastor to reach lost souls at all costs. I know it is God’s desire that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And we as His called servants equipped with spiritual gifts should make sure that we have obeyed our holy and heavenly calling. We are His co-workers. I will never be satisfied in life until I see a church functioning very well and accomplishing the will and commandment of God.
Through the years I have been serving the Lord in many ways reaching out for the lost souls and believers. Either in personal contacts or through the web. This time I wanted a church established in the Name of the Lord and having partners doing and accomplishing His work. I have been an independent and finance my own ministry. This time I am praying for partners so I can really go on full time with the work of the Lord. God has equipped me in the ministry. Have engaged first hand in dealing with all kinds of faith and religions including the cults. Have shared the gospel to a single soul to thousands at a time. Have studied His word with my whole heart and trained with it in life so that I know what I will teach others. I have written books and sermons ready to be taught to many.
My desire for the church planted is to have the passion I used to have. To make disciples, preach the gospel to the lost, teach the word effectively, unite the body of Christ, give glory to God and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Christ,
Pastor Larry Dela Cruz