“The only way to increase the number of Christians in a city is to plant thousands of new churches,” said Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

We often hear about churches closing their doors in the U.S. But some may be surprised to hear that the total number of churches is not in decline anymore.

An important shift happened in recent years, according to researchers Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird. After decades of net decline, more U.S. churches are being started each year than are being closed.

The credit largely goes to the recent increase in enthusiasm for church planting. Stetzer, who leads LifeWay Research, says church planting has become the “it” thing right now and the new evangelism
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So many new churches are springing up that Stetzer and Bird believe the U.S. is on the edge of seeing a major breakthrough in church multiplication, they write in the newly released Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers.

“[C]hurch planting is on the mind of North American Christians at unprecedented levels,” they write.

Despite the aggressive increase in church launches, a massive church planting phenomenon hasn’t happened yet and the co-authors are hoping to help Christians move past certain obstacles in order to orchestrate a viral movement.

That means, church planting must move from being a fad or “the next big thing” to a “passionate pursuit of the lost.”

Another obstacle is getting past the “don’t we already have enough churches?” mentality.).

Read More: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100513/total-us-churches-no-longer-in-decline-researchers-say/index.html