Church Growth

In my post yesterday, I mis-quoted a fellow blogger. To be honest, I couldn't remember what blog I had taken my information from, so I couldn't check it (I know, bad journalism). Regan commented on my post yesterday and claimed the information (thanks Regan). I went back to double check the info and found it to be inaccurate. The conservative Church of Christ/Christian Church was the second fastest growing church in the United States from 1990-2000. Second only to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The C of C is not the focus of this post. The Mormon church is.

It first struck me that this cult is lulling so many people into it's numbers. Then I remembered that two years ago we were living in another part of the country (Indiana). We had two young Mormon men come to our door. Nice looking, clean cut, well dressed Mormon men. I've always had a hard time turning anyone away from my door. Especially a group that wanted to talk about religion. I think the Bible says not to fellowship with people like this, but I let them in. I have a hard time turning vacuum sweeper sales-people away. At any rate, they came in. They told us where they were from and tried to start in with their outlined speech. That didn't get very far. I interrupted them with “can I ask you guys a question?” Their faces lit up. “Sure”, they said in unison. I didn't unload on them. We asked a few questions, then I think my wife said “You guys are Mormons!” They agreed. I asked why the church changed it's name. They said it was the reputation they were gaining from some of the fundamentalists in Utah, so they tried to disassociate the “true” church from the fundamentalists. I believe this is one reason they have experienced such growth. I know in this area, Mormons have a terrible reputation. Mainly because of the whole polygamy thing. I really don't think they would ever have experienced such a growth in numbers at that time if people really knew they were Mormons. I remember a lot of commercials on TV through the '90's for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Possibly another factor in their boom. One more thing is their door-to-door ministry. How many hurting people go out and seek a minister to talk to? I know very few people that bold. If you are hurting and someone comes to your door and expresses that they care, they've got you sold. These young men interacted great with our kids. They built Lego's with them and talked with them. They even offered to help “with anything we needed help with.” Doing dishes, vacuuming the floor. Whatever we needed! Boy, we could have had fun with them, but we didn't. We finished up talking with them. They never did finish with their outlined speech, but we found out a lot of information from them (mostly personal). They did tell us about Joseph Smith and his ministry and prophesies. They left us some literature. Some very nicely illustrated books (which could have very easily hooked the children had we let it). Then they asked us to pray about what we heard. If it was true, God would give us this burning sensation in our hearts. Seriously, that's what they said. I asked them if I could close our meeting in prayer. They agreed. I prayed that God would reveal His truth to both parties. He did to me in a dream that night (I'll talk about that in a bit). We ended up inviting them back for a meal a few weeks later. They were pretty excited about this.

The dream: The whole time they were at our place, I felt kind of guilty for letting them in. It is my duty to protect my family. I didn't want seeds of false doctrine planted in my family. That's why we did most of the talking. Anyway, I told you about the prayer and the burning in the chest we were supposed to experience. Well, obviously we didn't experience that. We continued to pray for them, though; as a family and I know I did personally. I fell asleep that night and I had a dream I believe to be from God. Somehow, skunks had gotten into the house. They began to spray everything. They sprayed our legs. They sprayed the couch and the rest of the furniture. They sprayed everything. If anyone knows anything about skunk spray, it's very difficult if not impossible to get the stink out. You have to understand, I hardly ever remember my dreams. Maybe twice a year I will remember a dream that I had. I remembered this one very vividly. The next morning it kept running through my head. Then it hit me. The Mormon men were dressed in black pants, white shirts and black ties (one had a black jacket). The same colors of a skunk! I believe that God was telling me that the same way the skunks were soiling our furniture, these men, if given the time, could soil our faith (I believe the reason we are not to associate ourselves with those with a different gospel).

After some rescheduling (due to us having a baby) we let them back in. This time I was more prepared. We had a friend who loaned us a book from a man who was very high up in the Mormon church (I believe he was a deacon). They have an Amway type of pyramid in their church. Everyone answers to a higher up, all the way to the top. This man came to his senses and left. He wrote a very disturbing book about the religion. Very disturbing! This time, we ate our supper and started right into it. We didn't give them a chance this time. We started asking deeper questions about the religion. We caught them in lies. I asked a question that anyone in the church should have known the obvious answer to, and they both gave a different answer. One “Yes” and one “No” at the same time. They were kind of taken off guard. We didn't do this to mock or ridicule. We were quoting scripture to try to get them to see the error in their thinking. The only problem is that they think our scriptures are incomplete. They have several other books that they teach from. We knew we were getting no-where, so we said it was time for them to leave. The one actually asked if they could come back and finish the outline that they had barely started. I said that as long as they were bringing a different gospel, they were not welcome (Galatians 1:8,9). I said that if they had spiritual questions that we could help with, they were welcome to come back. They knew that we would do the talking. They declined. We cntinued to pray for them for a while. I wonder where they are now. One was from Utah and one was from California.

I can see how an unsuspecting person can fall into their trap. Like I said, if they show up at the right door at the right time, it's almost a given. Why don't normal churches use this strategy? I guess maybe some do, but not in this area. We've only had one group come to our door since living in Antwerp. That was the Jehovah's Witnesses. In Warsaw, Indiana we had two. The Mormon's and a wacky Baptist group. The people visiting from the Baptist group were fine. The minister was wacky. That was the first time I had to restrain myself from walking out of a church service. Now, I wish I had.

One other thing about the Church of Christ. I wonder if the number recorded was including the International Church of Christ. They are very big into evangelism of this style. And nothing like the Churches of Christ I know in this area. Another pyramid-style church. I had some concerns there, also.

Anyway, thanks for enduring my rambling today. Don't know if this will help anyone spiritually, but now it's off my chest!

God Bless!

“…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Heb. 12:14