A Revolution is Brewing in the Church Today!

The Waning Influence of the Modern Church

George Barna has read the tea leaves on where the modern church is headed in the coming years. His new book Revolution (Tyndale) makes the following explosive observations about the future of the modern institutional church:

* A quiet revolution is rocking America, though the nation is largely unaware of it.

*The quiet revolution is about recognizing that we are not called to go to church. We are called to be the church.

* Modern research demonstrates that the institutional church has little to no ability to transform the lives of God's people. It also has virtually no influence on our culture.

*The Bible never describes "church" the way we have configured it.

*The fastest growing models of church are the house church and cybercommunities.

*The United States will see a reduction in the number of institutional churches. Church services will decline as Christians devote their time to a wider array of spiritual events. Donations to institutional churches will drop because millions of believers will invest their money in other ministry ventures. A declining number of professional clergy will receive a livable salary from their church. Denominations will go through cutbacks and executives will be relieved of their duties as their boards attempt to understand and halt the hemorrhaging. To some, this will sound like the Great Fall of the church.

*This trend has begun. A growing number of Christians are leaving the modern institutional church. 

David Barrett, author of The World Christian Encyclopedia, estimates that there are already 112 million "out-of-church Christians" around the world.

Why is this happening and what is God doing with the unchurched today?

INTRODUCING . . . a series on radical church restoration by Frank Viola

Go to www.ptmin.org/books.htm to see each volume.