Baptist Press: As the Empowering Kingdom Growth movement gains momentum throughout the Southern Baptist Convention, EKG national strategist Ken Hemphill expects a changing of the culture of the church, with members shifting their focus from the concerns within their walls to thinking in terms of the larger picture: God's heartbeat for the world.
"Right now, according to some of the most recent studies, about 70 percent of our churches are plateaued or declining," Hemphill said in an interview with Baptist Press. "So how do you turn the plateaued or declining church into a growing, vibrant church? My conviction is the problem that creates plateaued churches is spiritual myopia. When we look inward, we see all of our flaws and shortcomings -- we don't have enough staff, we don't have enough room, we don't have enough buildings. Everything turns inward. The only way to change that is to get a global vision as we begin to look at the world as God sees it."
Though he was a leader in the church growth movement, Hemphill said a downside to the movement is some churches became myopic -- focusing on growing their particular congregation without equal concern for the world.
