1. the total cost of Christian outreach averages $330,000 for each and every newly baptised person.
2. New immigrants are creating an artificial impression that the Church is not declining in New Zealand
3. Many denominations have a huge backdoor. NZ Baptist churches, for example, are baptising the equivalent of nearly 10% of adult church members each year, yet there is little overall growth in the denomination.
4. The local church of 70 adults 10 years ago is still the local church of about 70 adults. In 10 years of hard work, prayer, programmes, and planning there has been little overall change.
5. the rate of pre-marital and extra-marital sex is about the same in Christians and Non Christians
6. Historically, the Church has taken the lead in areas such as the value of human life, education, and the abolition of slavery. Now we are behind in other important areas we should be leading, such as gender equality, ecology and the “green” movement, world justice and the elimination of poverty.
7. Church has some theology, values, structures and practices that don’t reflect New Testament priorities.
8. Western Christians and churches control trillions of dollars in assets and income, while 850 million people, including 200 million Christians, are currently starving.
9. If Western Christians gave just 5% of their income towards this, it would solve the problem totally.
10. the combined personal income of church members is $15 trillion a year while each member spends on average $7.80 a year on foreign missions or about one one-thousandth of their income.
11. Preaching in the Bible is always in the context of evangelism, whereas we typically preach to the converted (week after week for the rest of their lives).
12. The Church is often focused on building itself, rather than building the Kingdom.
Snippets taken from David Allis's article "The Church has had its day" at www.edgenet.org.nz/ideasfromedge/thechurchhashaditsday.htm
