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KEEPING CHURCH SIMPLE – PART 2

PART II: PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A SIMPLE UNDERSTANDING OF CHURCH

Practical Implication #1: Learning to see what is happening with the church globally.

As Americans it is very hard for us to admit the facts that are now being widely reported to us: The church is growing faster in other parts of the world than it is here in the U.S. In places like China and India, the church has grown faster than in North America in recent decades. This has happened through church planting movements, which allow small, simple churches to multiply rapidly. We often lose sight of this because we see the explosion of mega churches in many suburban areas. What we do not see, however, is the shrinking of the church in urban and rural areas. What we do not see is that the population is exploding much faster than the church is growing here in North America.

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Supplemental Readings:
Church Planting Movements by David Garrison, available at www.imb.org/resources.