CRM - Empowering Leaders

Why do we do it?

The challenges facing the church and her mission:

• 80-85% of churches in North America are in plateau or decline.
• The unchurched population of the USA would in itself comprise the 5th largest country on the planet.
• Every year in America, three times as many churches close as open.
• In America, it takes 85 Christians one full year to reach one person for Christ.
• Roughly half of all churches in America did not add one single person through conversion last year.
• And, this decline has been going on for fifty years!

[for more information, we recommend Lost in America, by Tom Clegg and Warren Bird]

The challenges facing pastors:

• 70% say they have no close friends.
• 80% say the church has had a negative impact on their families.
• 33% of pastor’s spouses say ministry has been outright hazardous to their families.
• 90% felt inadequately trained to cope with the demands of ministry.

[source: Archibald Hart’s research]

In a post-Christian era where the church is perceived as irrelevant and out of touch, aligning our lives and our ministries with the missional heart of God requires change:

• Churches must become mission outposts;
• Pastors must be missionary-leaders; and
• Believers must be missionaries.

"The day of the churched culture is over;
the day of the mission field has come."

from Effective Church Leadership, Kennon Callahan.