State of the Church Report 2023
by Dr. Jamie Mitchell, Director of Church Culture and Pastoral Engagement
Excerpt from “State of the Church Report 2023”.
To view, download, or print the PDF, please click HERE.
“…This year has its own challenges. It has been a full year or more since the pandemic ruled our thinking and planning, yet we see a possible threat again of a COVID 2.0 and the going back to mandates and fear that crippled us. We enter 2024 with yet another heated political season and a daily reminder of the national division which plagues us. The world is in turmoil with wars, weather events and wealth threatening crises around every corner and little relief in sight. Pastors and Church leaders must prepare to respond and try to anticipate how to position their flocks to handle the pressures, but even more so, be a Gospel influence throughout these unsettling days.
With all of this and more standing in front of us, we have concluded that the greatest need in the church
today is a revival of COURAGE. Courage is a virtue that is necessary to live out a dynamic and faith filled life for Christ. Courage is needed to speak boldly when everyone else is speaking a different message. Courage is necessary to confront some of the attitudes that have afflicted many believers today.
Courage must resurface in the church again if we are to reclaim our place as an alternative to the cultural confusion we see on a daily basis. We thoroughly believe it is time for courage to re-emerge throughout evangelical Christianity…”