Rt. Hon Tony Blair,
Former Prime Minster of United Kingdom

Bono (Videocast)
Lead singer of U2 and
activist in the fight against
AIDS and poverty in Africa

Andrew Rugasira
Founder and CEO of Good
African Coffee and African
trade advocate

David Gergen
Political analyst for CNN and PBS
and former White House adviser to
four presidents

Bill Hybels
Founder and senior pastor of
Willow Creek Community Church,
South Barrington, IL

Ed. Note: Here is an article that borrows the title from Rick Warren's best seller yet does not mention one thing that has to do with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ or the Christian message. A salt-less church infecting society with an unbiblical message is pointless.

Denominations are branding their beliefs
ASSOCIATED PRESS - By Rose French - June 2, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Shrinking mainline Protestant denominations are turning to marketing to help stem decades of membership losses and stay afloat.

The United Methodist Church recently released a $20 million rebranding effort aimed at attracting younger members to the large but diminishing Protestant sect. The new ads will appear over the next four years as part of the denomination's "Rethink Church" campaign.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has invested nearly $1.2 million in the past two years launching a similar branding effort based on the theme "God's Work, Our Hands."

The denominations are trying to bounce back from losses that began in the mid-1960s.

From 1990 to 2008 alone, mainline Protestants dropped from 18.7 percent to 12.9 percent of the population, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.

The United Methodist Church has just under 8 million members in the U.S., with about 3.5 million additional adherents overseas. The median age for a United Methodist is 57, according to the Rev. Larry Hollon, the denomination's chief communications executive.

The new ads highlight the opportunities for involvement within Methodist churches - from helping feed the poor to volunteering with youth basketball leagues in low-income neighborhoods, reflecting research that found that young people are especially interested in service projects.

"We need to refocus on young people and provide them an opportunity to be a part of the church," Mr. Hollon said. "What we're hearing is, they say, 'Belief connects to how I live my daily life.' If I say, 'I value people because I'm a religious person,' then I have to demonstrate that in concrete ways. It's walking the walk, not just talking the talk."

One of the 30-second ads, posted at www.10thousanddoors.org, asks, "What if church wasn't just a building, but thousands of doors, each of them opening up to a journey that could actually change the world? Would you come?"

Another ad shows children reading books and asks, "What if church was a literacy program for homeless children? Would you come?" ...
Read Full Report

Ed. Note: This article doubles as an advertisement for a book as a number of WorldNet Daily articles do these days. However, Answers in Genesis is a good ministry, this is a worthwhile article to read, and the reasoning is all to well known.
BE/\LERT!

Ed. Note: There is some truth in what David T. Olsen states, however, I am not talking about changing the gospel message as so many modern day preachers wrongly do, but reaching people in the places where they are at which is not always the places we or are families were at. I call this the modern day Areopagus, the places where you find people who are interested in spiritual things and where "the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few".

The Roman Catholic Church, 67,117,06 members, down 0.59 percent. (Ranked 1)
The Southern Baptist Convention, 16,266,920 members, down 0.24 percent. (Ranked 2)
The United Methodist Church, 7,931,733 members, down 0.80 percent. (Ranked 3)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 5,873,408 members, up 1.63 percent .(Ranked 4)
The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members, no change reported. (Ranked 5)
National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., 5,000,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 6)
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,709,956 members, down 1.35 percent. (Ranked 7)
National Baptist Convention of America, Inc., 3,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 8)
Presbyterian Church (USA), 2,941,412 members, down 2.79 percent (Ranked 9)
Assemblies of God, 2,863,265 members, up 0.96 percent. (Ranked 10)
African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
National Missionary Baptist Convention of America, 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., 2,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 11)
The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS), 2,383,084 members, down 1.44 percent. (Ranked 14)
The Episcopal Church, 2,116,749 members, down 1.76 percent. (Ranked 15)
Churches of Christ, 1,639,495 members, no change reported. (Ranked 16)
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 1,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 17)
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc., 1,500,000 members, no change reported. (Ranked 17)
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,400,000 members, down 3.01 percent. (Ranked 19)
American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,358,351, down 0.94 percent. (Ranked 20)
Baptist Bible Fellowship International, 1,200,000, no change reported. (Ranked 21)
United Church of Christ, 1,145,281 members, down 6.01 percent. (Ranked 22)
Jehovah's Witnesses, 1,092,169 members, up 2.12 percent (Ranked 23)
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1,071,616 members, no change reported. (Ranked 24)
Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.), 1,053,642 members, up 2.04 percent. (Ranked 25)