Dr. Robert Dreyfus

 

The church is largely engaged in 'Cliff Side Evangelism' which has been described as a rescue service that awaits at the bottom of the mountain for cars that fail to make a dangerous curve with no warning signs or barricades preventing them from going over the side of the cliff.

 

Most of those that plunge into the gorge are lost despite the expenditure of massive amounts of time, energy and money by rescuers to save them.  How much better it would be for them to erect warning signs and barricades preventing them from going over the side.

 

An analogy is the loss of our children to the world.  The church spends 85% of its time, energy and money on adult evangelism.  It would be much better to spend the greatest percentage of our time, energy and money giving children a Christian education either in the home or a truly Christian school in order to save their souls, who would then become spiritual champions impacting the culture in whatever vocation they choose.

 

George Barna, a researcher in issues that affect the church, states that 96% of children are lost to the church which averages 9,000 children per day 365 days year!  The results of sending our children to secular schools, is that only 7% of the average church congregation and 51% of pastors have a Christian worldview.  No wonder the church is becoming increasingly irrelevant and 3,200 churches close each year.

 

In spite of this churches continue to spend the bulk of their resources on buildings that are used only a few hours each week and on adult evangelism.