Editor’s Note: Our decision to print this article is not intended as a critique of one particular denomination, but rather something that we believe should be carefully considered by the evangelical church, where indications are that generally only 7% of those who commit their lives to Christ can be found in any church within 7-10 years.1

            “How are you doing?” 

            “Pretty well, under the circumstances.” 

            “What are the circumstances?” 

            “Well, I have a very effective arm. It moves with quite a bit of animation. But then I have my bad leg.” 

            “What’s wrong with it?” 

            “I guess it’s paralyzed. At least it doesn’t do much except twitch once a week or so. But that’s nothing compared with the rest of me.” 

            “What’s the problem?” 

            “From all appearances, the rest is dead. At least, it stinks, and bits of flesh are always falling off. I keep it well covered. About all that’s left beyond that is my mouth, which fortunately works just fine. How about you?” 

Like the unfortunate person above, the denomination I am a part of has a name that it is alive but is, in fact, mostly dead (Rev. 3:1).2 Regardless of the wonderful advances in our commitment to the Bible, the recovery of our seminaries, etc., a closer look reveals a denomination that is more like a corpse than a fit athlete. In an unusual way, our understanding of this awful reality provides the most exciting prospects for the future, if we will act decisively.

The Facts 

Although my denomination claims 16,287,494 members, on average only 6,024,289 people (guests and non-member children included), a number equal to only 37% of the membership number, show up for their church’s primary worship meeting.3 One might ask what makes us claim that the majority are Christians if they involve themselves with God’s people only on such a minimal, surface level.

In the Assembly of God’s 1990s Decade of Harvest, out of the 3.5 million supposedly converted, they showed a net gain of only 5 new attenders for every 100 recorded professions. When one considers all of our supposed converts, including those who refuse to follow Christ in baptism and who never join our churches, our numbers are much the same. Doesn’t anybody see that there is a serious problem here?

The vast numbers of the members missing from attendance is even more startling when we remember that these numbers represent people who have been baptized and have publicly declared their allegiance to God and the Body of Christ. Even if you generously grant that the 37% in attendance are all true believers (an estimation that most pastors would say is way off the mark), one still has a church membership that is more dead than alive. If we are honest, we might have to ask ourselves, “Do we even believe in a regenerate membership?” 

Missing Christians Are No Christians 

What do these facts and figures, as general as they are, suggest? First, they reveal that most of the people on our rolls give little evidence that they love the brethren—a clear sign of being unregenerate (1 Jn. 3:14). It is impossible to believe that anything like real familial affection exists in the hearts of people who do not come at all, or who only occasionally check in on Sunday morning as a cultural exercise. And love is the greatest mark of a genuine believer (1 John 3:14-19). Attendance alone does not guarantee that anyone is an authentic believer, but “forsaking the assembling” (Heb. 10:25) is a serious sign of the unregenerate heart. 

Second, these numbers suggest that most of those who rarely or never attend are more interested in themselves than in God. To put it in Paul’s words, they are “fleshly minded” and not “spiritually minded” (Rom. 8:5-9). The atmosphere that most pleases them is that of the world and not God. They find a certain carnal security in “belonging” to a local church, but beyond that they will politely resist getting involved. They use the church, but they are not really a part of it. 

Keep in mind that all of these regularly absent members “prayed the prayer of salvation” and “walked the aisle.” All have been told that they are Christians. But in too many cases, obvious signs of an unregenerate heart can be found, such as bitterness, long-term adultery, fornication, greed, divisiveness, covetousness, etc. “Do not be deceived,” the Bible warns us concerning such people (see 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Gal. 5:19-21; 6:7-8; Eph. 5:5-6; Titus 1:16; 1 John 3:4-10). 

Jesus indicated that there is a good soil that is receptive to the gospel seed so as to produce a fruit-bearing plant, but that the “rocky ground” believer only appears to be saved. The latter shows immediate joy but soon withers away (Mt. 13:6, 21). This temporary kind of faith (which is not saving faith, see 1 Cor. 15:1-2) is rampant in my denomination. 

This is in spite of the official doctrine of our denomination that states that we believe in the preservation and perseverance of the saints (once saved, always persevering). In other words, if a person’s faith does not persevere, then what he possessed was something other than saving faith. 

In John 2:23-25 a large number of people “believed” in Jesus. Yet He did not entrust Himself to even one of them because “he knew their hearts.” Is it possible that we have taken in millions of such “unrepenting believers” whose hearts have not been changed? 

There are those who would say that such people are carnal Christians and don’t deserve to be thought of as unregenerate. It is true that the Corinthian believers (about whom this word was used, see 1 Cor. 3:1-3) acted “like mere men” in their party spirit. Christians can commit any sin short of that which is unpardonable. 

Undoubtedly, however, Paul did suspect that some of the Corinthians were unbelievers, for he later warns them about such a possibility in 2 Cor. 12:20 – 13:5. A long-term and unrepentant state of carnality is, after all, the very description of the unregenerate (Rom. 8:5-14; 1 Jn. 3:4-10; etc.). In calling some people carnal Paul did not mean to imply that he was accepting as Christian a lifestyle that he clearly describes elsewhere as unbelieving. He wrote in the same letter, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). Apparently there were some even then who were deceived into thinking that an unrighteous man or woman who professes faith in Christ could really be a Christian!

Is Follow-Up the Problem? 

A great mistake is made by blaming the problem on poor follow-up. In many churches there is every effort given to follow-up, yet still the poor numbers persist. I have known some churches to go to extreme efforts to disciple new believers. We must do this. Yet they generally have marginal success. They have learned to accept the fact that people who profess Christ often have to be talked into going further, and that many simply will not bother. 

Authentic new believers can always be followed up, however, because they have the Spirit by which they cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). They have been given love for the brethren and essential love for the beauty and authority of the Word of God. But you cannot follow up on a spiritually dead person. Being dead, he has no interest in growth. 

Regeneration and Revival 

It was the preaching of regeneration, with an explanation of its discernible marks, that was the heart of the Great Awakening. J. C. Ryle, writing of the eighteenth century revival preachers, said they never for a moment believed that there was any true conversion if it was not accompanied by increasing personal holiness. 

What Must Be Done? 

1. We must preach and teach on the subject of the unregenerate church member. Every author in the New Testament writes of the nature of deception. Jesus Himself spoke profusely about true and false conversion, giving significant attention to the fruit found in true believers (Jn. 10:26-27; Mt. 7:21-23; 25:1-13).

If this sort of teaching creates doubt in people, we should not be alarmed, nor should we back away from it. Given the unregenerate state of so many professing Christians, their doubts may be fully warranted. In any case, as one friend told me, “Doubts never send anyone to hell, but deception always does.” Most will work through their doubts, if they are regenerate and if we continue to preach the whole truth. Contrary to popular opinion, all doubts are not of the devil. Speak truthfully the whole counsel of God. One cannot “unsave” true believers. 

2. We must address the issue of persistent sin among our members, including their sinful failure to attend the stated meetings of the church. This must be done by reestablishing the forgotten practice of church discipline. Each church should adopt guidelines that state just what will happen when a member falls into sin.

Everyone in the church, including new members, should be made familiar with the biblical steps of church discipline. Jesus said that a person who was lovingly but firmly disciplined by the church, yet failed to repent, should be thought of as “a heathen and a tax collector” (see Mt. 18:15-17). Though David committed atrocious sins, he was a repenter at heart (see 2 Sam. 12:13; Psalm 51). Every Christian is a life-long repenter. 

Additionally, leaders must get into the homes of all our erring church members, seeking either to bring them to Christ or to reluctantly release them to the world which they love more than Christ. Nowhere in the Bible are we taught to keep non-believers on the rolls. 

Of course it is vital to remember that we are never to aggressively pluck the supposed tares from the wheat as if we had absolute knowledge (Mt. 13:24-30, 36-43). However, loving church discipline is a careful process by which the obvious sinner in essence removes himself by his resistance to correction. The church is made up of repenting saints, not rebelling sinners (see 1 Cor. 5). 

3. We should be more careful on the front end of church membership. In my estimation the public altar call (a modern invention) often reaps people prematurely. Others will disagree or can perhaps make significant improvements on the traditional “invitation system.” We have used this method in our evangelism because of our genuine zeal to see the lost converted. But in our zeal we have often overlooked the fact that many who do what our method calls for (i.e., respond to our invitation) may not be converted.

While we should always invite people to repent and believe, there is no real benefit, while there is much potential harm, in our inviting them to the front of the church and then assuring them that their short walk or tearful response proves their conversion. We don’t need better methods to get people down to the front. What we need is more biblical content and more unction in our preaching. When as many as 70-90% of “converts” are giving little if any evidence of being saved after their first weeks or months of emotional excitement, questions should be asked, both about our understanding of the gospel and about our methods. 

4. We must stop giving immediate verbal assurance to people who make professions of faith or who respond to our invitations. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to give assurance. We are to give the basis upon which assurance can be had, not the assurance itself. Study 1 John in this respect. What things were written so that they might know they have eternal life (1 Jn. 5:13)? Answer: The tests given in the book. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirits that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16).

5. We must restore sound doctrine. Revival, I am finding as I study its history, is largely about the recovery of the true gospel. The three great doctrines which have so often shown up in true revival are: 1) God’s sovereignty in salvation, 2) justification by grace through faith alone, and 3) regeneration with discernible fruit. Revival is God showing up, but our beliefs directly affect whether God will come with the blessing of His presence. God most often comes in the context of these and other great doctrines, preached penetratingly and faithfully and with the unction of the Holy Spirit.

As an illustration of our doctrinal reductionism, repentance is often forgotten completely in gospel presentations. Also, “inviting Christ into your heart,” a phrase never found in the Bible (study the context of Jn. 1:12 and Rev. 3:20, the verses used for this), has taken the place of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. And the doctrine of God’s judgment is rarely preached with any carefulness. Merely looking over the titles of the sermons which Awakening preachers preached in the past would surprise most modern pastors. 

Conclusion 

No church and no denomination should call itself healthy unless more people attend than are on the roll. We would be closer to the revival we desire if we would admit our failure, humbly hang our heads, and seek to rectify this awful hindrance to God’s blessing. 

By continuing on as we are, we will gradually blur and eventually obscure altogether any distinction between the professing and the authentic Christian. In the end we will look like every other mainline, liberal denomination. If we want to avoid complete deadness, we must take dramatic measures immediately. It will admittedly take us down a notch or two in the estimation of the rest of professing Christianity when millions are removed from our rolls. But humility and a new reality might be the starting place for God’s greatest blessings on us yet! 

1 From Follow Me by Jan David Hettinga, © 1996, NavPress.