One of the cornerstones of the Christian conviction is missions. Paul exhorts the church in Romans 10:14-15, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” Christian conviction and mission conviction should go hand-in-hand.
Money Numbers
Annually, Christians spend around 32 billion dollars on missions. According to a 2019 survey, 61% of a church’s missions budget is spent on local missions, 20% on US missions, and 19% on international missions. This means that roughly 20 billion dollars are spent on local missions in the United States.
People Numbers
According to a 2020 Pew Research survey, in 1972, a staggering 90% of the US population claimed to be “Christian.” By 2020, that number had dropped to 64%, with a tremendous downward trend beginning in 1990. In 2021, a Gallup poll revealed that church membership in the US has fallen below 50%. Studies and trends project that less than 35% of the US population will claim the name of Christ by 2070. These numbers tell me two things:
1. What we are currently doing is not working.
2. Parents are losing their children to the world.
A Factor
I believe that one of the significant factors in the decline of Christianity in the US is influence. With the growth of technology and increased access to thoughts, people, and philosophies that influence our children at younger and younger ages, the church is losing the battle of catechizing their children. While that sounds like a wild, churchy, word, to “catechize” simple means “to instruct orally, make hear.” In other words, parents are being beaten to the oral instruction of the Gospel; they are unable to make their children hear the truths of the Scriptures because the children are already being instructed by and hearing another gospel.
Who is doing the Catechizing?
As a sad reality, the primary influence catechizing our children is found in the local schools. You do not have to look far to see not only anti-Christian agendas, often from the top down, but, even at “Christian” schools, our children are often surrounded by peers who have rejected the Gospel of Christ. And as parents, we are left with a couple of hours each day(at best!) attempting to counter the influence of the world upon our children—the influence in which they have been immersed for the past eight hours, five days per week (let’s not forget social media, etc!)
A Radical Suggestion
So, here is where this all ties together—the missions numbers, church stats, and discussion of influence: should the focus of local missions change? In other words, it is becoming abundantly clear that we are losing the battle for souls within our very own homes, not outside them. What does it say about the church when we are watching the souls of our children walk into darkness and embrace it, but focus instead on the soul of our neighbor? This may sound harsh, but there is a deep-seated truth to the reality that the Gospel worked primarily through the family unit for the majority of history—what does it mean when that is no longer the case? What does that say about our Christian homes, the priority of the family unit, and the focus of our discipleship?
The bottom line is this: What would it look like if we reconsidered local missions spending and began allocating funds to help church members homeschool? Or, what if local missions looked like scholarships aimed at helping parents afford to send their children to Bible-grounded, Gospel-driven, Christian schools? What would it look like to support our church members so their mothers could remain home and raise children under the influence of the Gospel of Jesus, instead of whatever that daycare worker or teacher choose impresses upon them? What if local missions began focusing on our most vulnerable age group of pre or not-yet-Christians in our very midst? Friends, we must first take care of our own house. Unfortunately, the Christian church in the US is overwhelmingly failing to do this and the evidence is right before our very eyes.
*A personal note: I have many good and godly friends who work in both private and public schools–both as administrators and as teachers. And while I do believe they work in some of the best remaining public and private schools, those environments are few and far between. For most public schools, there is often no ability to shield children from Christian homes from the influence of other children or non-Christian teachers. The curriculum is not composed to reinforce biblical ethics or morals–often it is in direct conflict with them. For those friends of mine who work in these environments: continue to fight the good fight!
