This is why...

I want to share statistics (don't click away, it's not that boring, but it is sobering).

• More than 75 U.S. churches close their doors every week.
• More than 80% of the churches in the U.S. have plateaued or are declining.
• In the United States alone, there are over 180 million unchurched people, making the U.S. the third largest mission field in the world.
• Since 1991, the number of adults in the U.S. who do not attend church has nearly doubled.
  Only 3 out of 10 twenty-somethings attend church in a typical week.
• 51.9 million people in the U.S. between the ages of 20-38 are not connected with the existing churches. (Gallup Poll)
• Eight million twenty-somethings alive today will no longer attend church by the time they turn 30.
• Our nation (a Christian nation) leads the world in every category of violent and domestic crime and social decay. (NationBuilder.com)

*Unless otherwise stated, these statistics are from Barna Research Online.

Ofcourse, we need more churches. The church is just not getting it done for the most part. Sorry, but it;s true - that is not deniable. Not only do we need more churches, we need new churches with new vision and new leaders and new passion and new methods of BEING the church for the sake reaching the new generations with the ancient Truth of GRACE.

We don't need more churches that are cool and hip. We need more churches that teach the truth of the Gospel and lead people to an understanding of grace in Jesus Christ.

With this in mind, I am praying over how The Point will be a church that starts churches. We WILL be a mother church. We WILL be a church that plants churches. We WILL not become complacent and comfortable by growing a big church full of people who don't get it.

How can I say we WILL so emphatically and so boldly?

Simple. It's B I B L I C A L That's why.

Ok, I feel better now.