Take a look at the list of the companies in the following 3 groups:
Group A: American Motors, Brown Shoe, Studebaker, Collins Radio, Detroit Steel, Zenith Electronics, and National Sugar Refining.
Group B: Boeing, Campbell Soup, General Motors, Kellogg, Procter and Gamble, Deere, IBM, and Whirlpool.
Group C: Facebook, eBay, Home Depot, Microsoft, Office Depot, and Target.
All of the companies in Group A were in the Fortune 500 in 1955, but not in 2014.
All of the companies in Group B were in the Fortune 500 in both 1955 and 2014.
All of the companies in Group C were in the Fortune 500 in 2014, but not 1955.
If we compare the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 to 2014, there are only 61 companies that appear in both lists. In other words, only 12.2% of the Fortune 500 companies lasted 59 years. Most of the companies on the list in 1955 are unrecognizable, forgotten companies today.
(https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/fortune-500-firms-in-1955-vs-2014-89-are-gone-and-were-all-better-off-because-of-that-dynamic-creative-destruction/)
No one will argue that faith and spirituality stands the test of time!
According to Gallup, however, Americans’ membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup’s eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.
(https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx)
Ever really wonder why? Why do people “not want to belong” to a church?
Some have been wounded . . . and don’t want to be a part of that again.
Churches, no matter how hard we try, are led and managed by imperfect people. Humans make mistakes. And far too often in a church, when someone is impacted by someone else’s mistake, they retreat or leave completely, rather than having mature conversations around errors and seeking resolve.
Some seek “the perfect church,” and frankly, that cannot be found.
But for others, it is because the church lacks relevance.
People have needs, and followers of Christ believe that our needs can be filled by having spiritual connections. The church needs to be an experience for people to fill their innermost needs while helping them transform themselves deeper and deeper into Love.
The best way to do that is to meet people where they are and offer relevant ways to engage in transformation.
It is just as easy for churches to become irrelevant and lose themselves from the “Church Fortune 500” as businesses.
Where do we need to examine our relevance today?
If you missed yesterday’s message, we explored why it matters to be relevant. I hope you’ll listen or watch below.
Grace and Peace,
Andrea
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