Resurrection Sunday falls on April 20 of this year. It is a great time to celebrate the work of Jesus, culminating in his crucifixion and resurrection three days later. Families gather to celebrate this event, and most churches celebrate with great pomp and
circumstance.
With that in mind, let us not forget that this is a great opportunity to invite our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and strangers to church. It is a time to introduce them to your church and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I did some research on the number of people connected to a church or denomination in Denton and Cooke Counties. I used the website https://www.thearda.com/. Every 10 years The Association of Religious Data Archives updates the number of denominations and the people who are involved in them on national, state, county and city level.
For Denton County the population based upon the 2020 census was 906,422. From that total 333,079 indicated they were part of a Christian denomination and from this number 122,611 were connected to a Southern Baptist church. That would mean that 7.39% of the total census would be connected to a church and 36.74% would be connected to the latter group of a Christian denomination.
For Cooke County I found that the population based upon the 2020 census was 41,668. Out of that group 27,918 or 66.9% identified with a Christian denomination. 6,342 or 15% said they were members of the Southern Baptist Convention of Churches.
In both counties we can see that there is a significant amount of work that can be done. For example, in Cooke County there are 13,750 people who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. In Denton County the number is a staggering 580,110 people who are not connected with a church and in many of those cases do not know Jesus Christ. For Denton County 64% of its population have not met Jesus Christ personally.
While we look at this information, there are several different ideas that come to mind. There is a huge number of people in our two counties that have not experienced a personal relationship with Jesus. As we think about these numbers, we can become overwhelmed. I am reminded of the old dad joke that asks, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer, “One bite at a time.”
Our association currently has 105 churches. What would happen if each of our churches sought to see one person come to know Christ this Resurrection? What if we combined the 129,260 individuals connected to a local Baptist church, and they decided to pray and invite one person to their church to hear the gospel preached on Sunday April 20? Can you imagine the impact it would have on our two counties? Most importantly can you imagine the impact it would have on the individual invited if they trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior?
Let’s celebrate Resurrection Sunday this year by inviting one person to church! As we do this, we will be pushing back the darkness in our association and letting the light of Jesus grow stronger in our area.
(If you would like to find out the status of your city’s religious status, simply click on https://www.thearda.com/. Once you have opened the website click on US Religion, Religion Census, Membership Reports. Once you are there use the drop down menu to search for your city. After you have identified your city click on Start a report and you will then see the data for your area.)