As a pastor and church leader I’ve always been sort of a rebel. I look at things not as they are, but as they could be. That’s not an easy path, particularly in the church world where along with the bad economy safe often is the understated status quo.
One reality in the church world is that 70% of the people living in most American communities now CHOOSE not to get up and go to a church service on Sunday.
I’m pretty sure if Batman heard that amazing statistic he would shout: “Holy church frustration!!”
The experts say there are lots of reasons for this stat, but the one that I don’t ever hear is the one that I feel should be at the TOP of the list:
There is an ever-growing CHURCH COMMUNICATION GAP.
The 70% can no longer relate to how most churches in America communicate their message on Sunday.
- THEY watch videos (3 billion a day) – WE talk to them.
- THEY love variety – WE do pretty much the exact same thing every Sunday (greet/music/message/music/dismiss/repeat-repeat-repeat-repeat).
- THEY live to be entertained – WE package the most important message on earth in a mostly verbal communicated by one person sermon.
- THEY learn from ‘multi’media through the week – WE teach them with lectures and a quick splash of multimedia.
- THEY want choices – WE remain the same.
- THEY want God to be relevant to THEIR world – WE want them to be relevant to ours.
So what’s it going to take to reach the 70%?
Change-change-change.
