August's Theme: If You Build it, They Won't Come

I have thought for years that the church in the West is in decline. It seems that decline has accelerated as of late. The only issue is, it depends on who and what you count.

If you count "phonebook churches" - established churches with a building, street address, etc then yes there is a lot of decline going on. But if you count churches as a whole (which means including house churches) the numbers level out a bit. God is doing some amazing things through house church networks in the United States and I believe this is only going to grow.

I want to be careful this month to not sound like this is a criticism of institutional churches. My belief is that God needs all kinds of churches - big and small, in homes and in buildings for various purposes. God isn't through with the institutional/traditional model of church. I also believe that God is just getting started in the house church movements in the U.S. and that is great news!

So welcome to August at Wineskins. I am excited to share what I have learned with you as we planted a church last year and God continues to show us how to do it!