Kerby Anderson

During a radio interview with Professor Winfield Bevins, he told the story of how the president of Asbury Theological Seminary welcomed incoming seminary students. He began, “Welcome to life on the fastest-growing mission field in the world: North America.”

Consider the estimates just from the United States. Approximately, 180 million have no connection to a local church. That makes it one of the fastest-growing mission fields in the Western Hemisphere. One survey estimated that as many as 700,000 people leave the traditional church each year.

Surveys done by Barna, Pew, and Probe Ministries conclude that more than a third of emerging adults could be identified as “nones” or perhaps the more accurate term “unaffiliated.” When you add in everyone who does not identify as either Protestant or Catholic (in other words, adding in Islam and Hinduism) the percentage of emerging adults who do not identify as Christian is essentially half of that cohort.

This is a growing mission field that Christian leaders need to reach with the gospel. But some commentators have tried to assure us that these unaffiliated young people are individuals who are Christian but don’t want to identify with a particular religious tradition. However, if you go to the surveys we have done and separate out the “nones,” you can see if they hold orthodox beliefs and attend church at least once a month. Sadly, only a percent or two of emerging adults can be identified as practicing Christians.

Another assumption is that we need to build church programs to reach the unaffiliated. I call this the “Field of Dreams Myth” – “if you build it, they will come.” We have built over 350,000 churches in America. They aren’t coming. If we are to be successful, we need to go to them. We have a mission field right next door.