05/17/2026
“To the saints who are faithful”
There are 89 places of worship in Bryan County of any faith or religion. These churches report a combined attendance of less than 6,500 weekly attendees. Of those churches three large light houses gather over 50% of total church goers. The other churches total average worship attendance is 37. Many of these churches reported less than 15 weekly attendees.
That means around 50,000 people in Bryan County do not attend a local church.
Church attendance definitely doesn’t save us, but it’s safe to say some people attend church weekly and don’t know Christ also.
Could it be true that there are over 50,000 people in our local community that don’t have a relationship with Jesus?
Does anyone else have a burden for revival? Is anyone else willing to do anything about it? I’m not okay making myself comfortable on Sunday mornings knowing that 50,000 people in our backyard will be uncomfortable for all eternity.
The Harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. Let’s stop pretending that everyone called to ministry will have a master’s degree and get a full time salary from the church. That’s not the case God simply wants His people to be faithful in reaching these 50,000 people.
*Of the 89 Places of worship reported from US Religious census data it’s estimated that over 20 have closed their doors since the last census.
*The population of Bryan County is over 55,000 people. Bryan County is the fastest growing rural community in Oklahoma year over year since 2022.
*Bryan County is home to Durant (20,000) South Eastern University (5,000) and Calera (3,000) the majority of the other towns have a population of less than 500 people.
* A large portion of these churches have long tenured pastors in or nearing retirement, others haven’t had a pastor for years. Less than 10% of these 89 churches have a full time pastor.
