Date: 07/15/2019

Series: Family Talks

Speaker: Sam Choi

The Twin Cities will look drastically different in the next twenty years...

According to projections from the Metropolitan Council, by 2040, the Twin Cities metro area will add 824,000 new residents to the 2,850,000 counted during the 2010 census. 355,000 of these new residents will be immigrants.[1]In 2010, people of color made up 24 percent of the metro's population. By 2040, the Met Council expects that number to grow to 40 percent.

Takeaway

Therefore, we need many kinds of churches that will strategically reach, equip, and mobilize them. There needs to be churches in the suburbs and the urban centers. It is important that these churches are able to reach many kinds of peoples, primarily the unchurched. No one church can effectively reach all the classes, ages, religious backgrounds, and people groups.

I’ve read one stat that estimates we need up to 3,000 new churches to reach everyone. Not save, but just have a witness to where the average person will have a high chance that they will interact with a gospel-witnessing and gospel-displaying Christian.

Currently, we are growing at a rate of 4% of new churches every year. However, the growth rate for non-Christian worship centers is 14%!

A few questions we must answer:

"How are we going to reach all these people?"

"Are our churches ready for this influx of diversity?"

Will we meet them where they’re at or will we expect them to adjust to us?

A handful of churches get this. Cities church is one of them. Over 3 years ago, the leadership of Cities started to invest into me to help me get ready to plant APC. And a year ago, that dream became a reality. However, we have only begun.

Vision 2040 is our long-term vision to plant twenty like-minded churches in the Twin Cities and send 40 missionaries to unreached peoples by 2040, in partnership with other churches.

It may not be too long from now when we start talking about the next church plant that Cities is sending out that we may encourage you to join. Pastor Ross desires to plant in Saint Paul in the next few years and we will want to send him with a team of pastors and members.

One way to look at churches is platoons. We’re all on the same team and commander in chief but we are all strategically stationed at different platoons for the greater cause. If we want to see a move of God, we need every solider playing their unique roll and for our churches to increasingly care more about the kingdom than their own kingdom.