Across the world, Christianity is growing faster than population growth in every culture; except the United States, Canada, and Western Europe.

There is a whole generation, 97% of youth under the age of 18, who have no church affiliation; or they have an affiliation, but they don’t attend church on a regular basis. That means that today, in western culture and Europe; the church is missing 97% of our rising, emerging generation. Mark Anderson, head of YWAM crusades/Impact World Tours, has said that 1 out of 3 young people under the age of 18 are just waiting for somebody to tell them about Jesus Christ. But nobody’s telling them. And that is a dismal, dismal failure.

It seems the church has failed enough, that there are wholesale reasons for people to say the church is a bygone thing; it’s for the previous generations, but it’s not for today. And people are buying that line, because what we told them was, “Come to the church, conform to our ‘cookie-cutter’ images,” and “go away and be good little boys and girls.” And it’s so much more exciting than that.

Jesus called His very disciples, friends. “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends.” This says the most powerful thing that any one of us can do is to be a friend to the sinner. To be a friend to somebody who knows nothing about church culture, or someone who went to church and it’s the reason they didn’t come back; they didn’t like the experience.

And so, how do we change that? Something has to change or we’re looking at the last Christian generation in America.

Jesus was all about duplicating Himself and His own calling. Everything that Jesus did was about multiplication. It was a pretty scary idea, really. I mean, think about how sharp the disciples were fighting with one another about who was the greatest. Even in the book of Acts, the Sanhedrin said (in reference to them), “These are unlearned and ignorant men, but they’ve been with Jesus.” And that’s what qualified them; they had been with Jesus. It didn’t matter that they weren’t the “sharpest tool in the shed.” The truth of the matter is, God used these legitimate, authentic, powerful, Holy Spirit-filled witnesses; fishermen and tax collectors to change the world. It’s none different today. Same Holy Spirit, same possibilities for every, single believer; whether we’re nurses, doctors, lawyers, housekeepers, whatever we are. God can use all of us.

And so, that’s the emphasis I believe that God’s making to western culture right now, “Come up out of religion, wake up, it’s time to move on with the real deal.” I believe we’re sitting on the precipice of the third great awakening in America.