Shake off the dust?

The Disappearing Church Landscape in America

Christian family, the numbers hit like a gut punch these days. Gallup says regular church attendance has cratered from 42% in 2000 to barely 30% today. The ARDA reports thousands of congregations closing their doors every single year—far more than are being planted. We’re hemorrhaging members faster than we can count them. Entire denominations are graying out before our eyes.

But here’s the question that gets me contemplative: What if this isn’t just decline? What if it’s migration? What if the Lord of the harvest is doing again what He’s done before—scattering His people from hardened ground into soil that can still receive the seed? Early believers didn’t cling to Jerusalem when the storm came; they were driven out, and the gospel exploded across the Roman world. Are we willing to be driven too?

The Jerusalem Example: A Cautionary Historical Mirror

Think about Jerusalem. That’s where it all started—thousands converted at Pentecost, the church daily increasing, apostles working signs and wonders in Solomon’s Portico. It was ground zero for the faith.

Fast-forward two millennia. Christians now make up roughly 1.7% of Jerusalem’s population. One point seven. The city that once shook under the preaching of Peter now has a handful of beleaguered congregations dwarfed by mosque and synagogue alike. The gospel witness is still there—praise God—but it’s a remnant in the very place where the church was born.

Do we really want that for Texas? For Ohio? For the Bible Belt itself? Do we want our grandkids growing up in states that become spiritual Jerusalems—museum pieces of a once-vibrant faith, where crosses still dot the skyline but almost nobody inside actually believes?

The American Reality: Decline Across the Board

It’s not just the mainlines anymore. Evangelicals are bleeding too. Baptist circles report baptisms are down. Churches in some regions are plateaued or shrinking. The “nones” now outnumber every single Christian denominational group. Gen Z is walking away in droves. We’ve got cultural secularism on steroids, geographic mobility that rips families out of multi-generational church covenants, and a thousand entertainment options on Sunday morning that don’t ask for tithe or repentance.

The soil is changing under our feet.

The Churches in Blue States — A Question of Soil

Look, the state-by-state data is messy—nobody has perfect numbers. But any honest observer who’s planted churches or pastored in the Northeast or Pacific Northwest will tell you: it’s hard out there. Really hard. I’m not talking about persecution with prison and sword (yet). I’m talking indifference, hostility to truth claims, a culture that looks at the gospel like it’s hate speech wrapped in archaic packaging.

Even solid, confessional, complementarian, Holy Spirit led churches can struggle to gain traction when the surrounding dirt has been sprayed with Roundup for fifty years. You can preach the word faithfully for a decade and still have forty people on a good Sunday—many of them transplants who moved in from redder states.

If the soil changes, the harvest changes. That’s not lack of faith; that’s basic agronomy.

The Christian Dilemma: Stay or Go?

As my book Unseen Fields brings to light - I am a huge fan of the book of Acts. No where else in Scripture is such clear instruction given to the New Testament churches. And for this topic, it is no different.

The early church gives us a pattern. When persecution broke out after Stephen’s martyrdom, “there arose on that day a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem… they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles” (Acts 8:1). They didn’t all hunker down in Jerusalem waiting for the Romans to calm down. Some stayed and witnessed boldly—God bless them. Others got out of Dodge, and as they went they “they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word” (8:4). Philip ends up in Samaria of all places, and a revival breaks out.

Jesus Himself told the disciples, “When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another” (Matt 10:23). And when the welcome is gone entirely: “shake off the dust of your feet” (Matt 10:14).

Here’s the hard truth: staying in barren soil out of sentimental attachment or cultural loyalty isn’t automatically more faithful than leaving. Sometimes packing the moving truck is the obedient thing.

But—and this is a big but—fleeing without a vision for mission is just retreat wearing a U-Haul. It’s not victory; it’s surrender.

A Third Way — Relocate, Renew, Rebuild, Reach

So here’s the play I’m praying more of us consider: strategic, mission-minded relocation.

Move to where the soil is still soft. Where young families want gospel depth. Where churches are growing, seminaries are full, and the culture hasn’t yet decided that biblical sexuality is the unforgivable sin.

Move so your kids can grow up where youth groups have more than six kids and where they might actually meet a Christian spouse without swiping right on “Reformed-ish.”

Move so you can plug your gifts into a healthy church that’s actually reaching its community instead of barely keeping the lights on.

And then—crucially—keep loving the place you left. Do mission trips back. Support church plants. Disciple men online. Raise up leaders who can return as hardened gospel shock troops. We’re not abandoning America; we’re redeploying. A plan for biblical missions like this is presented clearly in Unseen Fields.

A Humble Call, Not a Judgmental Crusade

Now let me pump the brakes hard: I’m not saying everyone in Massachusetts is disobedient for staying. I’m not saying every church in Idaho is holy for existing. God only knows the heart. There are still gospel lighthouses in the bluest states, and there are plenty of dying churches in the reddest ones. Data is fuzzy, motives are mixed, and the Lord is merciful.

All I’m asking is that we pray like Bereans and test the soil—really test it. Ask: Are we bearing fruit that lasts here? Are my kids likely to walk with Jesus if we stay? Is the church growing or just surviving? And if the honest answer is “no,” maybe—just maybe—the Spirit is nudging you toward a Colossians 4:3 open door somewhere else.

The Time to Shake Off the Dust? Perhaps.

I love this country. I weep over what’s becoming of her. But my ultimate citizenship isn’t in any zip code—it’s in the household of God.

When the ground hardens and the seed can’t take root, wise farmers don’t double down on the same exhausted field forever. Sometimes they trust the Lord of the harvest enough to load the wagon and head where the soil is dark and rich again.

Wherever He plants you—stay faithful. But if He uproots you, go with joy. The gospel always advances on the feet of exiles who refuse to let barren ground have the last word.

Shake the dust if you must, brothers. Just make sure you carry the gospel with you when you do.

Prepared in Spirit. Ready in Strength.