May 17

How to Double the # of Christians in Seattle The Association of Religion Data Archives recently released US Congregational Membership reports using the 2010 Census Info. You can also use their reports and GIS maps to zoom in on specific regions, states and cities for highly detailed information. Given the information provided, 5.5% of Seattle is Evangelical Protestant. That number jumps to 11% as you include other groups, including Mainline Protestant, in King County as a whole. There is debate around what it means to be a Christian, but for the sake of argument lets average those numbers in order to broaden the circle to include some slightly outside Evangelicalism, while tightening the circle of the Mainline. That leaves us with: 8.25%. The population of Seattle, per the 2010 US Census, was 608,660. If 8.25% of Seattle is Christian, that would be 50,214. Let’s assume church growth of existing churches is only off-setting current church decline in the area (even that is generous). To double the number of Christians in Seattle, we would need an additional 25 mega churches (defined as 2,000+) or 251 churches with 200 people - that’s just within Seattle city limits. Clearly there is no room for territorialism among existing churches. At times I’m asked, “Why would you plant a church downtown?” How could we not? Look at these numbers. Others have commented, “Well, it seems that ______ church has it pretty well covered.” Look at the graph above. This report says there are 1,204,580 people in King County that claimed no religious affiliation. That’s over 1 million people. Most of them are closest to the City Center. There is not merely “room” for more churches. There is a real, vital, critical need for church revitalization and new church planting in our city and region. If you’re interested in planting in Seattle, give me a shout.

How to Double the # of Christians in Seattle

The Association of Religion Data Archives recently released US Congregational Membership reports using the 2010 Census Info. You can also use their reports and GIS maps to zoom in on specific regions, states and cities for highly detailed information. Given the information provided, 5.5% of Seattle is Evangelical Protestant. That number jumps to 11% as you include other groups, including Mainline Protestant, in King County as a whole. There is debate around what it means to be a Christian, but for the sake of argument lets average those numbers in order to broaden the circle to include some slightly outside Evangelicalism, while tightening the circle of the Mainline. That leaves us with: 8.25%.

The population of Seattle, per the 2010 US Census, was 608,660. If 8.25% of Seattle is Christian, that would be 50,214. Let’s assume church growth of existing churches is only off-setting current church decline in the area (even that is generous). To double the number of Christians in Seattle, we would need an additional 25 mega churches (defined as 2,000+) or 251 churches with 200 people - that’s just within Seattle city limits. Clearly there is no room for territorialism among existing churches.

At times I’m asked, “Why would you plant a church downtown?” How could we not? Look at these numbers. Others have commented, “Well, it seems that ______ church has it pretty well covered.” Look at the graph above. This report says there are 1,204,580 people in King County that claimed no religious affiliation. That’s over 1 million people. Most of them are closest to the City Center. There is not merely “room” for more churches. There is a real, vital, critical need for church revitalization and new church planting in our city and region. If you’re interested in planting in Seattle, give me a shout.

May 10

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May 09

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May 08

“Don’t think that to follow the path of love means to follow the path of rest, full of sweetness and consolations. It is completely the opposite. To offer oneself as a victim to Love means to give oneself up without any reservations to whatever God pleases, which means to expect to share with Jesus his humiliations, his chalice of bitterness.” — St. Therese of Lisieux

May 02

Now that we’ve moved gathering spaces to make room for growth, celebrated our first birthday as a newly forming church, remembered Good Friday/Easter, and held our largest gathering ever on 4/15, what’s next? It has been a great season together, hasn’t it? Many of you, particularly our deacons, community leads, and ministry volunteers, are well deserving of a break to refresh and recoup. If you can, take some time to do just that. Thank you for your selfless service to this fledgling flock of Jesus-followers in the city. He has only just begun his work in, among and through us. You might be asking, “What’s next?” Glad you asked. TO READ FULL POST SELECT PHOTO. (via Downtown Cornerstone)

Now that we’ve moved gathering spaces to make room for growth, celebrated our first birthday as a newly forming church, remembered Good Friday/Easter, and held our largest gathering ever on 4/15, what’s next? It has been a great season together, hasn’t it? Many of you, particularly our deacons, community leads, and ministry volunteers, are well deserving of a break to refresh and recoup. If you can, take some time to do just that. Thank you for your selfless service to this fledgling flock of Jesus-followers in the city. He has only just begun his work in, among and through us. You might be asking, “What’s next?” Glad you asked. TO READ FULL POST SELECT PHOTO. (via Downtown Cornerstone)

Apr 25

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Apr 24

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Apr 23

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Apr 22

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Apr 21

“To have a marriage that sings requires a Spirit-created ability to serve, to take yourself out of the center, to put the needs of others ahead of your own. The Spirit’s work of making the gospel real to the heart weakens the self-centeredness in the soul. It is impossible for us to make major headway against self-centeredness and move into a stance of service without some kind of supernatural help.” — Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage, 58