Church Closures, MENA Converts, Real Men, and Indiana Football
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Signs and Wonders” is a column that shares thoughts on news items that either do not rise to the level of a news story for MinistryWatch or are slightly (even significantly) outside of our normal charity and philanthropy “beat.” My goal is to be punchy, opinionated, and not to worry much about being slightly off brand. If that is not for you, no hard feelings. But if it is…read on.
Church Closures. New research by Lifeway found that in 2024, about 3,800 new Protestant churches were started in the U.S., while 4,000 churches were closed. This is based on analysis of congregational information provided by 35 denominations or faith groups, representing 58% of all Protestant churches. These findings are not new. In 2019, a similar study found that 4,500 churches closed and only 3,000 were started. Ed Stetzer, dean of the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, said the study highlights “the importance of church planting in the landscape of faith in America today. Simply put, without church planting, every denomination that is growing would be shrinking and every denomination that is shrinking would be shrinking more. Church planting is the most significant engine for evangelistic growth that we have in the world today.”
Globe Trotting. Mindy Belz reports: “New findings show evidence of an ‘ongoing conversion phenomenon’ in the Middle East and North Africa at a historic level not seen since the first century.” She cites the latest issue of the International Journal of Frontier Mission. “Researchers out of Amsterdam’s Free University tallied an estimated 270,000 new converts to Christianity over the last 10 years,” she writes. Authors Scott Gustafson and Grant Porter documented the trend across 15 countries, Belz wrote, including war-torn Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Libya, and Yemen. Why all the conversions? Gustafson and Porter said respondents identified “care for refugees, loving faith communities, and supernatural occurrences.” If you are not reading Mindy Belz’s “Globe Trot,” you should. You can find it here.
Real Men. I have read a lot over the years about biblical manhood and womanhood. I tend to side with those who think we are facing a crisis, and that we need better, biblical teaching on the topic. However, one reason for this crisis is a failure to define biblically what these words mean. Will Hinton, whose Substack I read regularly, has helped me see that sometimes we think we are defining words rightly, truthfully, when in fact we are defining them culturally, by consensus. His article “Real Men” is worth a read, especially if you are raising boys. You can find it here.
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World Economic Forum. You may have noticed that the World Economic Forum is taking place this week in Davos, Switzerland. It is a meeting of the “elite” among the world’s political, business, and cultural leaders. Given the audience, I was heartened to hear that my friend Jeremiah Johnston was one of the speakers there. Jeremiah wrote: “I publicly spoke about the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and the good news of the Gospel at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Prime ministers, their delegations, and billionaires were in attendance.” You can hear his presentation, which includes his research into the Shroud of Turin, here.
Indiana’s National Championship. I am not a huge football fan, and I am especially not a fan of the celebrity culture that has grown up around sports. That said, it was hard not to get swept up in the drama surrounding football’s national championship game between Indiana and Miami. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana’s quarterback, is a particularly compelling figure. His performance on the field was spectacular, and his performance off the field was friendly, even joyful, as he spoke of his family (especially his mother, who has a debilitating disease), his faith in God, and in the friendship he has with his teammates. By the way, if you didn’t see Mendoza’s fourth quarter touchdown run, which some are calling one of the greatest college football moments of all time, click here.
Readers in San Francisco, Nashville, Los Angeles. I have some travel coming up in the next couple of months, and I would love to see you. I will be in San Francisco and Nashville in February, and Los Angeles in April. I will be doing reader lunches in all three cities. The San Francisco lunch will be on Feb. 5 at noon. Let me know if you would like to join us. My email is [email protected].
