Bible belt

This post is from the defunct blog “Dying Church”

I spent part of last week in Atlanta, Georgia, in the middle of the Bible belt. Churches there (not all of them, but a lot of them) grow from nothing to thousands in no time. It's easy when I'm there to think that the church doesn't have to die, at least not in that area. Why should it? It's growing. It's reaching people. In the words of one pastor down there, it's prevailing. But dying has nothing to do with how well a church is doing. All faithful churches must die to themselves. Those of us in Canada and Europe, and in parts of the States (New England, the State of Washington, etc.) need to die to ourselves and be willing to give up everything to follow him. But this applies to the churches that are running 15,000 plus every weekend. It's almost harder for them to die, but the call to them as well is to take up their crosses daily. It will look different. It's harder. But it's just as necessary.