SEND NORTH AMERICA

Yesterday the storm knocked out the internet at the office; my initial response was confusion and then panic because I suddenly realized I was disconnected with the known universe. Well, not really, but it seemed that way. But it gave me an  opportunity to read the latest issue of On Mission magazine published by the North American Mission Board (NAMB). Our church gets a copy, but I generally scan it and then put it on the resource table in the welcome area of our church. But something (or Someone) drew me into the articles and I was amazed at what I read.

The magazine outlines NAMB's new emphasis on church planting through a program called Send North America. They've divided North America into five regions: Canada, Northeast, West, Midwest and South. You can read the details at www.onmission.com, but what really got my attention were the numbers. In each section they breakdown the ratio of SBC churches to population, and the numbers were mindblowing to me. Here is a summary:

Canada - 1 church for every 123,971 people, (272 SBC churches in the entire country of 33 million people)
America:
           Northeast - 1 Church for every 37,788 people, 1,761 SBC Churches)
           West - 1 Church for every 16,788 people, (4,465 SBC Churches)
           Midwest - 1 Church for every 12,802 people, (5,363 SBC Churches)
                        ...drumroll...
           South - 1 Church for every 2,697 people, (38,671 SBC Churches)

I had always heard that I lived in the "buckle of the Bible Belt", I just never realized how big that buckle was until I saw those numbers. God really got my attention. I'm prayerfully struggling with how to justify living in a place that has so much access to the Light, while most of the rest of the world is walking in darkness because they have so little access to the Light. I shared these numbers with our deacons last night and asked them to begin to pray about being involved in church planting in other parts of our land. I'm anxious to see what the Lord will do.