Will The Church Be Stirred?
Jack Cunningham

This question haunts me. Will the church be stirred to reach a lost and dying world that is on its way to hell?

According to statistics … In the last 15 years, nearly one billion people have died and entered into eternity. It is estimated that half of them, 500 million people, never heard the name of Jesus spoken even one time in their lifetime.

Every day approximately 150,000 people die and 400,000 babies are born. The earth’s population is increasing by 250,000 every day. Meaning, next Sunday when we walk into our churches, the world population will have grown by nearly two- million people since Sunday past. The equivalent of a large metropolitan city springs up every four days. The equivalent population of a new United States of America is born every three-and-a-third years. A new Canada is born every 19 weeks.

North America is a mission field. The United States’ population now numbers over 305 million and Canada’s population is approximately 34 million. According to the Gallop Association, “150 million in the United States are not Christianized.” There is much concern in both the United States and Canada concerning our nations’ move toward “Non-Christian Nation” status. There are only two countries in the world with larger non-Christianized population than the United States of America – China and India.
According to Internet statistics, there are approximately 450,000 churches, of all denominations, in North America. The average size American congregation is 77 members. That means that on any given Sunday, approximately 35 million North Americans are in a church of some kind … and it also means that over 300 million North Americans are not in any church of any kind.

It is time for the Apostolic church to put reaching the lost on the front burner. Seeking and saving lost men and women must burn within the hearts of every child of God. It is high time that we awake out of our slumber, repent for our lethargy and indifference, and allow HIS passion for reaching the lost to grip our hearts.

We must pray, everyone of us, “God, make me a soul winner. God, fill our altars with lost men and women repenting of their sins. Let our baptisteries be worn out by the traffic of sinners having their sins washed away. Pour out YOUR SPIRIT upon every hungry soul in our city, state, nation, and world.”

(Jack Cunningham is the Director of Global Impact for the United Pentecostal Church International. He also serves as the District Superintendent of the Virginia District, and is pastor of Bible World Church in Chesapeake, Virginia)

From: Global Impact Newsletter, UPCI. September 2009

The above article, “Will The Church Be Stirred,” is written by Jack Cunningham. The article was retrieved from the September 2009 issue of Global Impact Newsletter, UPCI.

The material is most likely copyrighted and should not be reprinted under any other name or author. However, this material may be freely used for personal study or research purposes.