Some will say, “But wait! I know of a new church plant that went uber-contemporary, and they exploded in growth!” Yes, I know of several, too, but look hard at those churches. How much of their growth is transfer growth, and how much of it truly conversion growth? And even if they mark high baptisms, who are they baptizing? In many cases, even the baptism numbers are those rededicating their lives (rebaptisms) or Presbyterians getting dunked as adults. Or it’s kids and teenagers – meaning, reaping the work of Christian families.
Hear my heart; I’m not putting such churches down. I just want to make sure we understand our models. And specifically, that if you want to be a church for the unchurched, you understand what that means. Because even if a contemporary church plant grows rapidly from the unchurched, and many do, those people didn’t come first and foremost because it was contemporary.
Let’s go back to the mailer I received.
It promised contemporary music, casual dress, and good coffee. But people already have those things. They do not need to go to church to find them. If they want Starbucks, they’ll go to Starbucks; if they want to hear contemporary music, they have their iPod. They may appreciate those things when they attend, but it is not what will draw them.
That approach may have worked back in the 80s and 90s, but that was because the typical unchurched person was a Boomer just starting to have kids who were, themselves, raised in a church. They had the memory and the experience; they actually wanted a church. When churches took down the cultural barriers associated with attending (eliminating stuffiness, boredom, irrelevance, empty ritual, outdated music), Boomers were attracted.
This is no longer our world and hasn’t been for quite some time.
Think of it this way:
In today’s paper, there were probably dozens of ads for new cars. If you read the paper, did you notice them? It’s doubtful – unless you are in the market for a car. (These days, it’s doubtful you even read a newspaper – but let’s play this out.)
If you’re not in the market for a car, it doesn’t matter to you if a dealer is having a sale, promises a rebate, has a radio on-site broadcast, hangs out balloons, says they’re better than everyone else, promises that they will be different and not harass you or make you bargain over the price, or sends you a brochure or push e-mail.
Why? You’re not in the market for a car.
It’s no different with a church. People today are divorced from seeing it as a need in their lives, even when they are open to and interested in spiritual things. They no longer tie that to the need to find a particular faith, much less a particular church.
This is important because there is so much talk about cracking a particular cultural code in order to reach the unchurched and grow a church that the real investment involved is either forgotten or brushed aside.
