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ELI was established to train new leaders in a new way to plant new churches.

The driving force behind ELI's efforts is a clear and noteworthy shift in the effectiveness of the Christian Church over the last few decades. This development can be credited, in large part, to the nation's expanding postmodern, post-Christian mind-set.

If there is any hope of reversing the trend and giving the church a shaping influence in the culture, a concerted and strategic response must be made.

ELI was created in response to overwhelming evidence that the North American church is dying

America is now the 3^rd largest mission field in the world
Leighton Ford says North America represents the 3rd largest mission field of unchurched and spiritually uncommitted individuals in the world, behind China and India. An April 2001 Gallup report indicates that approximately 132 million adult Americans are unchurched, representing a six percent increase over the past 25 years. In fact, only eight countries in the world have a larger total national population than the unchurched numbers in America.

The fastest growing class of unchurched Americans is the postmodern segment
In addition, data from Barna Research Group, the leading organization of investigative analysis regarding cultural trends and the Christian church, shows that within unchurched groups, the fastest growing class of individuals is the postmodern segment. Postmoderns are identified most often by a belief that religious truths and morals are relative and dependent on what each individual or culture regards as truth. According to February 2002 data presented by The Center for Creative Ministry, the percentage of postmoderns in the US "currently sits at 24% and is growing". They are rapidly moving from the fringe to the center of society.

Today's churches are losing ground in their efforts to reach the growing postmodern segment
The widespread effects of moral relativism have taken root most strongly with the generation known as the "Baby Busters" (the children of the "Baby Boomers" born between the years of 1965 and 1979) and with today's teens (also known as "The Mosaics"). The Baby Busters may in fact be the first generation in American history in which the majority seeking religion are starting their spiritual journey with a faith group other than Christianity (The Second Coming of the Church, George Barna - 2001).

This trend is further evidenced by the following:

73% of Baby Busters do not believe in absolute moral truth (Gallup Poll, 1998).
83% of teenagers claimed moral truth depends on the circumstances; only 6% said moral truth is absolute. (Barna Research Group, 2002).
Evangelicals are showing alarming declines over the last half decade. Among adults, the number of evangelicals went from 12% in 1994 to just 5% today. This drop is paralleled among teens where evangelicals dropped from 10% in 1995 to just 4% today. (Barna Research Group, 2002 - Note: evangelicals are defined as those who are born again, believe in the accuracy of the Bible, the personal responsibility to evangelize, the concept of salvation by grace alone, and possess orthodox biblical views on God, Jesus and Satan).

ELI believes that a dedicated effort is needed to directly address the current cultural shift

An immediate, concerted and strategic response to raise up emerging leaders must be made if there is any hope for the church to be effective in post-modern America.

ELI believes leaders do not emerge in the church today for several reasons:

Lack of Vision
The church lacks passionate, God honoring leaders who are captivated by the challenge of reaching younger generations through the local church. The best up-and-coming leaders are going into the business world rather than using their leadership potential to make Christ's church more effective.

Lack of Resources
If a young leader does venture out to start an innovative church, he is usually under-resourced, making it difficult to start strong and maintain an evangelistic focus on the unchurched.

Lack of Camaraderie
Few new churches start with a team, which greatly decreases the odds of success. Leaders need a team and a supportive network of other church-planters to be effective for the long-haul.

Lack of Community Support
Emerging Leaders often receive criticism and rebuke about their innovative approaches rather than emotional and relational support from other Christians. Additionally, they normally have little or no tie to the community power structure, making it difficult to access desirable facilities, obtain resources, or find favor in the established community.

In response to these and other trends came the formation of ELI.

ELI has dedicated itself to overcoming these problems, to empower new leaders to plant new churches and reach emerging generations for Christ.

ELI was established to train a new generation of church leaders

A new generation of leaders must be raised up if the Church hopes to return again to its role as an authoritative, healing, and compelling influence on America and its culture. ELI was created to play a significant role in removing the burdens and barriers that keep local churches from mobilizing a new generation of Christian leaders to reach the next generation.

ELI believes three things are necessary to reform and restore the church: New methods for recruiting and training gifted leaders who plant churches that reach the next generation New churches geared towards reaching emerging generations A new era of cross-denominational collaboration for planting multiplying churches

"Western Christianity went to sleep in a modern world governed by the gods of reason and observation. It is awakening to a postmodern world open to revelation and hungry for experience. Unless churches can transition their cultures they stand the real risk of becoming museum churches, nostalgic testimonies to a culture that is no more."

(Leonard Sweet, Postmodern Pilgrims)

"Increasingly, we are working in a postmodern environment, in which beliefs, values, lifestyles, and even styles of learning have changed dramatically from those that were commonplace thirty years ago. As teachers of God's Word, we must never compromise the core of our message; however, the communication media, styles, and strategies used to convey God's message to His people must change over the course of time because culture and context are constantly changing."

(George Barna, The Second Coming of the Church)

"""Christendom," that realm or time when Christianity was the assumed religion of the West, has come to an end. No longer is Christianity the "chaplain" to the broader culture.""

(Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches)

"No one looking at the situation of the church today can say that over the last century or so things have not fundamentally changed. The reality we are dealing with is that after around 2,000 years of the gospel, we are on the decline in just about every Western cultural context. In fact, we are further away from getting the job done than we were at the end of the third century. Even America, for so long a bastion of a distinct and vigorous form of cultural Christendom, is now experiencing a society that is increasingly moving away from the church's sphere of influence and becoming genuinely neopagan."

(Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways)