Lobby Tests and Fabric Stores

Maybe I’ve been to your church. Maybe not, but I’ve visited a lot of churches – and I usually try to visit those that are supposed to be growing and doing exciting things, or churches that are very new. So if your church is supposed to be growing, doing exciting things, or is new, maybe I’ve been to your church. If so, here’s what I did …

Whenever I go to a church I do my “lobby test.” I walk around wide-eyed and gawking like an amazed tourist at Disney Land. I walk up to people and say, “Wow, this church is amazing. Do you go here?” When the person proudly answers in the affirmative, I ask, “That’s cool! How long have you attended this church?” After they answer, I ask, “What church did you go to before this one?”

That question was the whole point. I want to find out: Was this person regularly attending a church before attending this church?

The answers are absolutely depressing. In one church I asked forty-two people and every one of them quickly identified their previous church. In every church where I’ve done this a huge majority of the people had come from other churches. And, remember, I only do this in churches that are growing, exciting, new, cool.

Often after they tell me the church they used to attend I ask one more question. I say something like, “Oh. Well this church you’re attending now seems awesome. If you weren’t going here, would you go to that last church, or if not, what church would you go to?” At this point they’re looking at me a little weird, because I’m asking more questions than Judge Ito at the O.J. trial, but still they answer. And, in almost every case, they name a church. Not the church they used to attend; they name a different church they would attend if they stopped going to their current church.

Okay, so you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m thinking that if you reach a truly lost person: (1) They wouldn’t be able to tell you what church they were attending, because they weren’t, and (2) They wouldn’t be able to name what other church they would attend. (Like, if for some reason you found me at a fabric store, and asked me which fabric store I would go to if not this one, I would say, “How the crap should I know? I don’t go to fabric stores. It’s weird that I’m even in this one.” If I quickly told you the other fabric store alternatives, you would have to assume that my being in this fabric store was not that surprising).

Am I wrong?

And if I’m right, isn’t this just more evidence that, as I said in my first post: “We absolutely suck at reaching people who are far from God. There are lots of things our churches do well, but if we’re being honest, leading lost people to Jesus is not one of them.” (I have decided to make it a habit to quote myself. Someone has to quote me!)

So enough bad news, I’m even making myself miserable. Next time I’ll start telling you a little about me, and about my church, and sharing some of what we’ve learned about not sucking at reaching people who are far from God.

Until then … blog naked!


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From Edward E. Nigma to You (with love)

Okay, so post one we said we'd be honest. Post two we looked at statistics which reveal that less and less Americans are going to church. From 1990 to 2006 the percentage dropped from about 26% to somewhere between 18 and 20%. The number continues to decrease and it’s expected that in 2050 there will be 10% or less of Americans in church.

So today it all comes together. Ready? (You’re not. You really don’t want to read this.)

• Question: How many churches grew into the thousands between 1990 and 2006?
• Answer: Tons of them. (For instance, from 2000 to 2005 the number of churches with attendance over 5,000 doubled).

• Question: How many churches were started between 1990 and 2006?
• Answer: Tons of them. (Approximately 21,000)

So riddle me this: If, since 1990, hundreds of churches have blasted into the thousands (some into the tens of thousands), and over 20,000 new churches have been started (many of them growing into the thousands) … how is it possible that there are less people going to church now than in 1990 in every single county in the United States? And how is it possible that there are 8% less people going to church cumulatively? (If you do the math, the number of people in church is down since 1990 by over 8 million). Answer that one Batman!

Here’s what I think: Our churches aren’t reaching lost people. Or, as I said it on day one of this blog: “We absolutely suck at reaching people who are far from God. There are lots of things our churches do well, but if we’re being honest, leading lost people to Jesus is not one of them.” (I just quoted myself. How cool am I?)

Sure, some people who were going to church back in 1990 have stopped, and others have died, and some babies have been born since then who aren’t showing up on Sundays, but still … if we were bringing in people who weren’t going to church the numbers couldn’t look like this. Seriously – think about it - there are hundreds of thousands of people now attending churches they weren’t attending sixteen years ago (many in churches that didn’t even exist) and yet 8 million less people are in church.

Our churches are almost exclusively reaching people from other churches.

Want more proof? I’ll give you some next time, and then we’ll start thinking about how we might be able to turn the tide on this and really start helping people who are far from God find their way to Him.

Until then don’t le the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.


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Take a Listen

Want to get a better idea what Forefront is all about and what we're doing?

Listen to our message from Sunday at http://www.forefront.org/messages_revolution.html ("A Worldwide Revolution"). It may not be up until Monday or Tuesday, but if you listen you'll hear how we're going from one to three campuses this October; and how we are starting a campus on Tuesday Nights, that will meet in a BAR, and the bar will be open for business while we're doing our service; and you'll hear me sing some Queensryche; and you'll hear my Fat Albert impersonation. That ain't bad for about 30 minutes....

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Proof of Sucking

Did you read my blog yesterday? If not, what’s your deal? Do you have a life or something?

Well, we said that our goal was honesty and, if we’re being honest, we need to admit that we suck at reaching people who are far from God. Our churches may do some things well, but leading people to Jesus is not one of them. There are exceptions, but they are extremely few and far between, and your church is probably not one of them.

Want some “proof”? Check this out:

• Though church attendance in America from the mid-1960’s through the 1990’s was reportedly about 46 to 49%, it’s now been revealed that the actual percentage of people going to church was about 26%.
• So up through the 1990’s church attendance in America was about 26%. It is now … approximately 17.4%.

And the more you study the numbers, the worse it gets. Like, did you know?

• Not only did the percentage of people attending church decrease significantly from 1990 to 2007, some studies say that there is not a single county in the United States where there are more people now attending church. (The only possible exception is in Hawaii. So, unless you’re in Hawaii, there are less people in your county going to church now than a decade ago.)
• The Barna Group tells us that the number of adults who did not attend church nearly doubled from 1991 to 2004.
• The 2001 American Religious Identification Survey said that more than 29.4 million Americans have “no religion” which is double the number just eleven years earlier.
• If the present trends continue, the percentage of the population that attends church in 2050 will be almost half of what it is today.

And, for you church planters:

• The increase in the number of churches (between 1990 and 2000) was about one eighth of what is needed to keep up with population growth.
• The church-planting rate has been declining throughout the history of our country. (Churches started per 1 million residents)

And want to know the most bizarre, twisted, messed-up, disturbing factor in all this? … Well, then, you’ll have to read my next blog …

Until then be sure to tip your waitresses.

Sources:

• Stanley Presser, in “Data Collection Mode and Social Desirability Bias in Self-Reported Religious Attendance,” American Sociological Review, v. 63 (1998): 137-145 (with L. Stinson).
• http://www.theamericanchurch.org/
• www.barna.org, May 2004
• Dave Olson’s slide show, “Twelve Surprising Facts about the US Church”

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We Suck

I decided not to blog. Several people had encouraged me to start, I looked into it, but decided against it. No offense to bloggers, I just decided it wasn’t for me. Then I was asked again, but this seemed different. It wouldn’t be “my” blog – I would be a contributing blogger – and the blogs would be for church planters – and my topic would be evangelism. Well, my favorite topic is evangelism, my favorite people are church planters, and my favorite thing to contribute to are blogs. Okay, that last part isn’t true, but the first two are. So I said yes.

Here’s the goal for my blogging: Honesty. I’m not worried about me. I can and will be honest.

I’m worried about you.

Can you be honest? No offense, I mean I don’t even know you, but I’m not sure you can. If you can’t be honest, then I’ll be wasting my time on this, and I don’t have any time to waste. So, do me a favor – do yourself a favor – and, most importantly, do God a favor, and let’s be honest.

Ready to start? Here we go: We absolutely suck at reaching people who are far from God. There are lots of things our churches do well, but if we’re being honest, leading lost people to Jesus is not one of them. Can I prove that? Well, if we’re being honest I don’t think I even have to. But yes, I think I can prove it. And I’ll do it tomorrow…

Until then, you don’t have to go home but you’ve got to get up outta here.


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