In that meeting, we discovered that the average age of the community was 37, whereas the average age of our congregation was 43. Although we're a little older, we're not doing too poorly. The average age of the North American Adventist is 60! Hey! That means we're not middle-aged yet! That's awesome. But there was other demographic information we looked at as well - family size, education level, marital status, male/female ratio, etc.
But the question comes now, what do we do with that information? Where do we turn next? There are some obvious implications that come with demographic information:
- Can we reach people who are like that?
- Are we like them, or different from them in our lifestyle?
- Some said like, others said different...
- How different can we be and still reach them?
- Does that affect our programming?
- Does it affect our theology?
- Should we feed the consumers of society or give them pure truth?
- Is there a balance between feeding people what they want, or what they need?
When people show up at church, after a fairly extensive survey was done, they found these 5 issues in order of preference:
- People want to have the Presence of God
- People want to Experience the Gospel
- People want to Receive Hope
- People want to Experience Acceptance by Others
- People want everything to run with Excellence
This survey connects with who we are and who we're trying to reach. It connects with people and allows us to understand what they are really looking for in church - it's the things that connect them to God. It's not programming. It's not good potlucks. It's not about what style of music we use. They want to see God and see God in others. #5, the excellence thing, helps people to have a distraction free environment where they can have the other 4.
So the question remains, how does our mission and vision relate to these things? How will it address these issues? Stay tuned....
Be a Difference Maker!
roger walter
Senior Pastor
Adventist Community Church
I've already suggested a mission, so to speak, that I believe would be worthwhile, on Pastor's blog, and that is to go to the people-and some of those people are in shelter's, there are two family shelters, one single women's and one single men's, in Vancouver. When you're in a shelter, that means you're homeless, alone, at the bottom of about everything you can be at the bottom of! I know, I've been there, literally! I am a christian and was a christian at that time, but it was still extremely challenging! We also have to be realistic about the economical climate. Many people do not have gas to go anywhere except work. They most likely aren't going to walk to church unless there's one very close or they're highly motivated and many, like the gas situation aren't going to spend $ on riding the bus or are they going to take the time to plan their trip to church through a bus schedule. People need simple answer's right now not more hassles and they probably have children and then the expense and time goes up more. This is a suggestion. There's more, but I need to end this for now. Thanks! Vickie Gaines
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