The way we do church is working with fewer people in our culture all the time.The model of church that most of us are a product of is quickly becoming ineffective in today’s world. This isn’t about styles of worship, high church or low church, mainline or independent, protestant or catholic, liturgical or pentecostal. This is about all of the Christian churches. Just about every church in America can be described with three words: “Come to us.” That is it. They put on amazing services and do everything they can to communicate truth to the people who make the effort to come to “the box” for worship and community. Alan Hirsch in his book “The Forgotten Ways,” calls this segment – The Shrinking 40 percent. In the Grand Valley this number is somewhere between 34 percent and 57 percent.
If there is a shrinking 40 percent then there is a Growing 60 percent. Most of these people believe in God (in some way), they may even have a respect for Jesus, and most are on some sort of spiritual journey, but they don’t consider the church (as we know it) as a resource to help them and it’s likely they never will. They pursue their spirituality through culture, friendships, music, TV personalities, their own Bible study, self-help books, coaches and more. Studies indicate that young adults today are less church-connected than prior generations were when they were the same age but they are just about as spiritual as their parents and grandparents. Our inability to engage this growing segment of our population with the Gospel is the reason that churches are aging and that they are closing at a rate faster than they are being planted. If current trends continue the Millennial generation will see churches closing at an even faster pace.
We believe that there are enough good churches in the Grand Valley for the shrinking 40% of our population. We acknowledge the need for these churches that focus on this segment, their historic success, and the ongoing need for them in our community. However, our desire for NineSevenZero Church is to break mold of the “normal” nature and praxis of church and create a faith community that is designed for the growing 60% of our population. We must take the church to them. We must join their journey.
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