The Seed is Moving: Why the Church Isn't Dying, It's Just Relocating
We are not witnessing the death of the church. We are witnessing its pruning (John 15:2).
If you scroll through the headlines of American religious life, the news is grim. A recent article titled "The Slow Death of the churches of Christ" has sparked a difficult conversation within our fellowship. It paints a picture many of us recognize: empty pews, aging congregations, and a youth dropout rate that breaks the heart of every parent and elder.
The data is undeniable: in the United States, our numbers are shrinking. But to conclude that the Kingdom of God is dying is to make a critical error in geography and theology. We are looking at the husk and calling it the harvest.
If we lift our eyes from the American decline and look at the global reality, we find that the Church of Christ is not dying. It is germinating. The "Seed Principle" is alive and well, and the harvest is exploding in soil we too often ignore.
The Seed vs. The Silo
In Luke 8:11, Jesus gives us the foundational definition of Kingdom growth: "The seed is the word of God."
A seed does not need a cathedral, a budget, or a cultural stronghold to survive. In fact, biology teaches us that for a seed to produce life, the outer shell—the husk—often has to break down and die (John 12:24).
What we are witnessing in America is the breaking of the husk. The institutional structures of the 1950s—the "cultural Christianity" that made it easy to fill buildings—are fading. But the Seed is indestructible. When the soil in one region becomes rocky or thorny, the Spirit does not stop sowing; He simply moves the planting season to where the soil is good.
The decline of the institution in the West is not the failure of the Word. It is the relocation of the harvest.
The View from the Global South
If the Great Commission is our metric—"Go into all the world"—then we are arguably living in the most prolific era of the Restoration Movement. While we wring our hands over attendance numbers in Tennessee or Texas, the Church is experiencing Acts-like multiplication in Africa and Asia.
The evidence is found in the work of frontline ministries that have bypassed institutional complexity for apostolic simplicity.
Gospel Chariot Missions (GCM), led by George Funk, provides a stunning counter-narrative to the "slow death." Using mobile evangelism units—literally trucks equipped to travel into the bush—they preach the Gospel in open squares and market towns.
The Data: GCM reports annual baptism figures often exceeding 2,000 to 3,000 souls per year.
The Strategy: By utilizing "4 Fields Discipleship" and simple tools like the Jesus film, they are planting churches where no buildings exist.
Recent Impact: In 2024-2025 alone, reports from Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi document rapid growth. A single campaign in the Mzimba district of Malawi resulted in 25 baptisms and 22 restorations in just two weeks. This is not a dying movement; it is a movement on wheels.
Photo from Dino Roldan Facebook page. 
The Gospel Chariot is on the move, and it takes faithful men to open the doors. We want to highlight Dino Roldan (center in black) for stepping up to accommodate the Chariot and rallying the brethren in Cam Sur.
Similarly, World Bible School (WBS) proves that the hunger for the Word is ravenous.
The Reach: WBS currently engages millions of students worldwide, with a massive concentration in nations like Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Kenya.
The Harvest: In Zimbabwe, a single "God Bless Africa" campaign saw 38 correspondence students baptized in a matter of days.
The Pipeline: These aren't just numbers; they are a pipeline. WBS provides the "Seed" (the lessons), and ministries like GCM provide the "Harvest" (baptism and community).
The Center of Gravity Has Shifted
We must stop measuring the health of the Kingdom by Western standards. Research from the Pew Research Center and the Lausanne Movement confirms a massive historical shift: the "center of gravity" for Christianity has moved from the Global North to the Global South.
In 1900, 80% of Christians lived in Europe and North America. Today, nearly 70% live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The Church of Christ is riding this wave. We are seeing indigenous church planting movements in India and massive growth in Africa that dwarfs our domestic struggles.
To say the church is "dying" because U.S. numbers are down is like saying a global corporation is bankrupt because one regional office is downsizing—meanwhile, the international branches are breaking every record in history.
A Call to Realign
The Word of God is alive and active. It has not lost its power; it has simply found new fields.
This does not mean we give up on our home. It means we stop despairing and start learning. The growth in the Global South is driven by prayer, reliance on the Spirit, and a focus on the "Seed" rather than the "Silo."
We are not witnessing the death of the church. We are witnessing its pruning (John 15:2). The Master Gardener is at work, and if we look across the ocean, we will see that the fields are not just white for harvest—they are already being brought into the barn.