Too Many Churches?

Last weekend I went public with the news that we are heading to Durham to launch The CityWell. The response in our community and among friends around the country has been very encouraging, but amid the well-wishes and affirmation has been a question voiced by several people, "Don't we already have too many churches? Why one more?"

Well, I think we can respond to that question in a number of ways, but we must start with the heart of the matter; namely, church planting flows from the heart of God. Allow me to explain. God is perfect community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit eternally existing in complete self-giving, other-exalting and ultimately loving union. This is why the Bible can say, "God is love." Add to this that we are created in the image of this communal God and we start to understand why all of us so long for relational connectedness. Going a step further, the scripture clearly displays God as one who calls forth communities to participate in God's life and to bear witness to the world regarding God's beauty, goodness, power and purpose for creation. We see this with God's call of Israel to be a holy people and a royal priesthood. We see it in Jesus' calling together a community of disciples and then in His sending those disciples out to call forth new communities to partner in God's purposes. Throughout the book of Acts we find the emergence of new faith communities wherever the Gospel was proclaimed and received. Intriguingly, the narrative of Acts ends abruptly and seems to remain unfinished, as if to suggest that the mission of spreading the Gospel through the formation of new churches is not complete. The Church is called ever forward to establish new communities of faith who will live forth, and invite the nations to participate in, the Reign of God. So the short expression of this heart-of-God purpose is this: God is perfect community and always calls forth new worship communities; we are made in God's image to do the same thing. 

Here are a few more reasons (briefly stated):

• New churches see 3-4 times more people per attendee come to faith in Christ than do older churches.
  
• Churches that remain committed to birthing new congregations retain their external focus and evangelistic effectiveness far more than churches that exist only unto themselves. Church plants bring vitality to "parent" churches.
  
• As cultures change (and ours is in a decades-long whirlwind of change), new churches innovate ways of articulating the unchanging good news of Jesus in new and relevant ways.
  
• New churches are incubators for new leaders to raise up and discover their Kingdom calling and gifting.       

All this to say, in a context where only 17.5% of our population has any meaningful connection with a Christian church, I don't think we are anywhere close to having too many churches.

What do you think?

Start Digging!

Exciting news! As of last Tuesday the CityWell has an official commission. In late June my family will move to downtown Durham, NC, where we will begin putting legs to the CityWell dream. We are thrilled and scared out of our minds all at the same time. However, we are convinced that God laid this path before us, and we trust that God will lead us "to the land [he] will show [us]." 

The downtown Durham area is perfect for an experiment in being the church in new ways. Consider these reflections from a MissionInsight demographic analysis of the area within a 5-mile radius of central downtown: 

• Of the 270,000 people in Durham County, over 168,000 (62%) of them live within a five-mile radius of downtown, and this number is growing.
  
• The ethnic/racial diversity of the city is also growing. In 2010 43.6% of the population in the study area was Black, 32.4% White, 16.1% Hispanic/Latino, 3.7% Asian, and 1.6% other.
  
• The average age of the study area is 35 years. 11.3% of the population is college students or people new to the professional world. 43.6% of the population represents young families, families and empty nesters under 55 years of age. Less than 20% of the population is over the age of 55.
  
• 28% of the households in the study area live on less than $25,000 per year, with 16% of the population living at or under the federal poverty line. 40% of households live on less than $35,000 per year. 35% of the households generate between $35,000 and $75,000 annually. 25% of the households make more than $75,000. The number of higher wage earners is growing steadily and this growth is projected to continue.
  
• 41% of the adults in this study area have no college education. 36% have at least a bachelor’s degree, and the remaining 23% have an associate’s degree or some college. The area is growing in number of people with higher educational attainments.

The MissionInsight report reveals the significant racial, ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the downtown Durham area. This diversity must inform the mission of The CityWell, as God is calling us to this city and not merely to one demographic of the city. We must intentionally seek to embody the diversity of the city if we are to be a faithful sign and foretaste of the barrier-destroying Reign of God.

The demographic analysis also reveals that educational attainment in this area is very high, the percentage of people with at least a bachelor’s degree being 17% higher than the nation as a whole. Therefore, mission in this context will require presenting the Gospel in thoughtful, nuanced and intellectually rigorous ways. 

The population of the downtown area is young, which bears several implications. First, the younger the population the more saturated the worldview with the marks of post-modernism, prominent among which is a deep suspicion and aversion to institutional Christianity. In addition, much of the population in this mission field is biblically illiterate with virtually no understanding of the Gospel. However, being a southern city, there will be some vestiges of Christendom lingering, though this fact is significantly mitigated by the urban ethos and the heavy influence of Duke University in the city’s DNA. These factors suggest that a significant element of The CityWell mission will be helping people unlearn what they think they know about the Gospel and re-think church outside the Christendom box. 

With regards to religious practices in this mission field, there are many people with a deeply entrenched Christendom view of the Church and Christianity. However, more prominent in the religious attitudes of this mission field is the presence of a postmodern preference for an undefined and individual spirituality. These cultural contours will significantly impact the form of The CityWell’s mission, as well as how we contextualize the Gospel. In particular, we will seek to demonstrate that true spirituality is ultimately found in community and must be grounded in God’s revelation in Jesus. This mission will require a generous and affirming posture akin to Paul’s at the Areopagus in Acts 17, recognizing the God-given impulses relative to the imago Dei in all people. This culture calls for tour guide evangelism, in which we point to the ways God is already present and at work in people’s lives and provide an interpretive framework of scripture and biblical theology to direct people to a life-giving relationship with Jesus.

All of these factors call for a new expression of the Church, and I am really excited to see what God will do in our midst as we seek to know and follow Jesus in downtown Durham.

Please pray for us... and then pray some more!