First Assembly of God Newsletter                                                                           September & October 2011

It is always amazing to me how quickly summer comes and goes. It seems like only yesterday that school was letting out for summer break, and now students and teachers are already a few weeks into the new school year. As many of you are adjusting to the routine of a normal schedule, may I encourage you to include attending church regularly. We have missed many of you over the summer months, and I hope to see you at church soon.

We have many things planned for the upcoming months and need your participation to make them a success. I would like to encourage everyone to seriously consider becoming a part of a home group this fall. They meet on either Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night, and you pick the topic, group and night that you would like to participate. I believe that home groups are vital in developing friendships and are a key to evangelism and discipleship. A list of topics and host families are posted on the bulletin board by the sound booth.

Second, there will be a meeting for all church ministry team leaders on Thursday, September 8 at 7:00 p.m. in the conference room. We will be discussing the vision of our church, and sharing ideas as to how to coordinate the various ministries of the church so we are all striving to obtain the same objectives. You will be receiving a personal invitation from me in the mail with a meeting agenda. We need your input, so please plan to attend.

Third, we would like to schedule a Community Fun Day sometime in October. It would be a day where we woul d have games, activities, concerts, food, etc. and invite the community to come and participate. More details will be forthcoming in the future. It's a great way to get involved and meet new people.

There are many opportunities for you to become involved in a ministry here at First Assembly. If you are interested in becoming a part of our ministry team, please speak with one of the church ministry leaders. There is always room for you!

—Pastor Jeff

I recently read a series of disturbing reports from the Barna Group, a private, non-partisan organization that conducts a wide variety of research relating to religion. They have been tracking how America's faith has shifted in the past 20 years (1991 to 2011) on 14 religious variables. If you have access to a computer you can read the entire State of The Church Series 2011 at www.barna.org. To perk your interest I will provide you with some of the pertinent findings concerning behaviors tracked over the past 20 years.

1. Currently, an estimated 40% of adults read the Bible during a typical week. This is a drop of five percentage points over the past 20 years.

2. Church volunteerism has dropped by eight percentage points since 1991to a level of 19%.

3. Adult Sunday school attendance has declined by eight percentage points over the last two decades. On any given Sunday, about 15% of adults can be expected to be in Sunday school.

4. Overall adult attendance since 1991 has dropped by nine percentage points. Adult church attendance has gone from 49% in 1991 to 40% in 2011.

5. Sadly, the percentage of unchurched adults has increased by more than 50% in 20 years. In 1991, 24% were unchurched, while today that figure stands at 37% of the adult population.

6. Church attendance for women sank by 11 percentage points since 1991 while men declined in attendance by six percentage points.

7. Two-thirds (67%) of the public believe that God is "the allknowing, all-powerful and perfect Creator of the universe who still rules today." That is a seven point drop since 1991.

8. In 1991, 46% of adults strongly affirmed that "the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches." That has slumped to just 38% who affirm the same belief today.

Space does not permit me to relate all of the findings contained in the report but I think it is clear from the above that the overall trend for the church in America is down. Clearly church is not the priority in people's lives that it once was, even though the percentage of adults professing to be born again Christians actually rose by 5% in the past 20 years. So what should we be doing about these trends?

First of all, I think we need to make sure that we are not personally contributing to the downward trend. Hebrews 10:25 clearly instructs us not to forsake assembling ourselves together. Verse 24 tells us that we are to encourage one another in order to stir up love and good works. By doing what God instructs us to do, encouraging others, and reaching out to those around us we can do our part to make First Assembly a strong, friendly, welcoming, and growing church that is fulfilling God's will. See you in church next Sunday.

—Steve Parsons