Sam Rainer

@neilwatt Would love to!

@SamRainer Have you been to the Rogers Centre😊

Let's go! Gonna be one of the best venues in all of baseball. #RaysUp

@dwight_easler Awesome!

@SamRainer This is very true in our association. We are seeing incremental growth in smaller churches that is increasing the attendance as a whole across the association.

The median in-person worship attendance in churches has increased from 65 to 70 people since just before the pandemic. After years of decline, a five-person increase in the median congregation is not nothing. The typical church in America is not a megachurch. It is not a large multisite congregation. It is a smaller congregation trying to regain momentum after years of disruption. For these churches, five people matter. Five people can change the atmosphere in a worship service. Five people can strengthen a Sunday school class. Five people can help a church feel less fragile. Five people can represent a young family. Five is a significant number for many churches. churchanswers.com/blog/is-church…

@PastorView I provide much more detail in the article about what could be happening. One reason might be the closure of very small churches, but I don't believe that's the main factor.

@SamRainer Sam, there was a lot of talk about small (>50 people) churches not making it out of Covid. Is it possible losing those bumped the median up? Or does the data say otherwise?

@alan_stoddard I'm always glad to interact online. It's why I post. I expect it.

@SamRainer Great! But that wasn’t what you said. Anyway Sam, you don’t know me and I have only heard of you. I’m not trying to be difficult. But when I saw you challenge that brother, I wondered what your challenge point would be. Thanks for the conversation.

A better thing to count? Sam, have you ever discipled a new beleiver, one on one, who after you were done (it takes a year), that person could disciple a new beleiver in nearly the same way? (“assimilation Classes don’t count)

@alan_stoddard Yes, I do one-on-one discipling and have done so for 22 years of ministry.

@SamRainer (2/2) you gave an assimilation/church growth answer. That’s good, but not what makes disciples in the way I stated. (“With the goal” 😂) In the same way you challenged to evangelism, you should pay attention to new believer discipling (not assimilation).

I started my publishing company because SBCers like you were complaining about nepotism. So, I learned my lesson and did my own thing. Now you complain that I did my own thing. Anyway, I sold the publishing company. Do better homework before making accusations. It makes you look silly.

@SamRainer @drandrewhebert Well given who your daddy is (the client that drove Lifeway into the ground and got a cushy golden parachute to do it) and the vanity publishing company you run, this isn't a shock that you believe this.

I spent several years in an IFB church in my teens. I saw then what I see playing out in some circles of the SBC now: fundamentalists always eventually eat their own. The circle of cooperation grows gradually smaller until no one is left. We must guard against this in the SBC.

@drandrewhebert May your tribe increase, Andrew. We need more leaders calling out this nonsense.

Exhibit A. I’m a conservative inerrantist, fully affirm the BF&M 2000, a graduate of Criswell & SBTS, a committed Southern Baptist for 25+ years, & was just compared to a virgin-birth denying liberal. This is what fundamentalists do. No one is ever conservative enough.

@RyanTMcAllister @BrettAiken21 Of course, yes. But you seem to want to avoid accountability for not doing the Great Commission. If you're sharing your faith in the U.S., you will see the fruit of gospel work.

@SamRainer @BrettAiken21 I thought the emphasis should be on how often one shares the Gospel, not how many convert?

I’ve been at my church for 16 years. There have been spans where we baptize 2-4 people in 2 years. Not because we weren’t doing Gospel work, but because Christ is the Lord of the Harvest and souls aren’t “productivity numbers.” Weaponizing baptism 🤦‍♂️ Not good.

@BrettAiken21 @RyanTMcAllister The median church size in the U.S. is 70 people in weekly worship. It's very hard to believe 70 people can't reach more than one or two for Christ each year.

@RyanTMcAllister @SamRainer It's certainly not graceless, narrow, or unbiblical to say that churches in America should reach more than 1 person a year. They should, in all 50 states.

@RyanTMcAllister @BrettAiken21 Accountability to the Great Commission is just as important as doctrinal accountability. And the Great Commission is as biblical as it gets.

@SamRainer @BrettAiken21 Not saying “unrealistic.” I’m saying it’s graceless, narrow, and unbiblical.

@RyanTMcAllister @BrettAiken21 Out of curiosity, what location in the US would you say is so difficult that one or two conversions in a year is an unrealistic expectation?

@BrettAiken21 @SamRainer “No where” and “any context” is quite the claim. Seems too confident IMO.

@coconservative7 If that's the case, plant a church. You'll become mega in no time. Start churches that you believe are needed.

They're not going, but that's the point. Millennials who fit my general demo - educated, older kids, politically-interested, aware of societal moral degradation, may have grown up in church but don't appreciate the commercialization, feminization of modern evangelicalism, etc. are responsive to the call to masculine certitude and historical commission, but upon not finding it in weak-kneed SBC/non-denom churches, are just not going. Or worse, going EO or RC.

So if you get near the end of the week and haven't shared the gospel, you'd better find someone - anyone - nearby and get that box checked. As we know, God gives the increase, but only if you make sure to hire people who will do the work...

Isolated in the fundamentalist sense, highly skeptical and typically removed from mainstream society. And as such, I don't see a large migration into these churches, now or in the future. So, back to the original question, where are all these Millennials going to church right now? It's not at fundamentalist or Christian Nationalist churches.

You mean "institutional church movement," right? I'd argue that, while overtly Christian Nationalist-identified churches may be small and niche (not sure anyone is "isolated" in the cultural sense these days), the totality of the movement is politically observable, even if fragile. The migration from mainline churches to conservative ones in the 2nd half of the 20th century has the potential to happen again in the form of disaffected, cultural conservatives returning to church, but only if we recognize the profoundly spiritual nature of the war, place scriptural fidelity above spiritual consumerism, and dare to preach law and gospel rather than drop Easter eggs from helicopters.

This beach renourishment project looks incredible! Can't wait to visit in a couple of weeks.

@coconservative7 Men going to church is usually a leading indicator of health. For sure. But I don't know of a large and thriving Christian Nationalist church movement across the nation. The ones I know tend to be small, niche and largely isolated.

I'm not advocating for printing "old time religion" on the sign, I'm advocating for unapologetic and dispositional stability that is not afraid of the whims of culture nor being seen as out of step with it. We still have a soft pastorate suffering a respect deficit among young men. The closest expression of the stability I'm talking about (even as I disagree with some of the theological/cultural conclusions) is seen in the Christian Nationalist-leaning churches, who are making inroads with young men. Statistically (correct me if I'm misstating), when men go to church, wives and children follow, but the same cannot be said about men following their wives to church.

@ArtRainer This book should be required reading before anyone jumps into these kinds of investments: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordi…

Shocked…