The "Church" of England has a problem in England.
This church has been struggling in England for some time. Even though it is the official state religion of England, many churches are failing and closing.
When your church is failing to attract and keep people, it is normal to ask the question why this is happening and what can be done.
The Church of England as apparently decided that the answer is to get rid of the word "Church." You see, many people don't want to go to church so they want to call it something else.
The COE just wants to be relevant in today's world.
In order to keep the COE from dying, they decided to try and open up 900 new church plants. But because people don't want to go to church, they decided to rename these things.
A study done showed that none of the 900 things use the word church.
In the past 10 years, about 900 ‘New Things’ have been started.
I'm not kidding. They are calling church plants 'New Things' rather than churches.
Of course, looking at some of the things they started, it makes sense not to call them churches.
Jesus Christ said that He would build his church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.
It's true that in the west, the church is shrinking and losing members. But is it really because we use the word that Christ used?
Or is it because we have stopped preaching what Christ preached. The first word of Jesus' preaching was repent.
Christ went around with the message, "Repent and believe the Gospel."
Our world doesn't need 'New Things'. It need the message of Jesus Christ.
We need to repent of our sins - including the popular ones in today's society. We need to turn from our wicked ways and turn to Christ in knowledge and faith.
I say knowledge because there are certain facts which must be believed. Jesus is God, he died for your sins upon the cross and was physically resurrected 3 days later. He ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. And he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
No more "worshipping communities" or "New things." Let's see the church grow because it is preaching the Gospel, calling people to repent, and evangelizing the lost.
This is Pastor John.
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