Is it getting harder out there?
This last week I had a planning session with the leaders of the New Church Tracks for this year’s school. It was great to see how excited they are about teaching their tracks. Candace Landsberry, who in now in the second year of her second new church start in Las Vegas, made the observation that the world has changed since she started a church in Phoenix eight years ago.
Others in the group agreed. Here are a couple of things they noted:
1. People are more fearful — they are not willing to come to a stranger’s house to meet people. This makes it hard to start small groups in people’s homes. So you must look at Third Places — like Starbucks to meet people.
2. Relationships are key — to gather people you must take the time to connect with individuals, like key leaders in the community to develop contacts.
3. Timing is important — people aren’t willing to wait too long before you launch worship. 12 to 15 months seems like the longest you can wait.
4. People are suspicious of religion in general. So just saying come to church does not attract. You must give them a reason to want to be part of a faith community. So saying you are United Methodist (this is my thought) can be a positive because it shows you are part of a larger organization — not just a fly-by-night operation.
These same comments can be heard by owners of movie theaters (see blog on the Oscars), restaurants, and malls — people seem to be more and more reluctant to leave the safety and comfort of their homes. About ten year’s ago we called this cocooning. Think about it — through the Internet and your home entertainment system you can bring the world to your home without having to leave.
So even if you are an experienced new church starter, you can’t keep doing the same things over and over again. You need to adapt to climate of your community and create new ways to connect with people — not for the sake of building a church, but for the purpose of giving people the opportunity to hear of the love of Jesus, the love that truly transforms.
So what other changes are you seeing? Help make a list by adding your comments.