In Business, This Is A Huge Number!
Market Share… There is not a business owner alive who wouldn’t love to have this kind of market share. In my own business, there are geographic locations where we actually hit 32% market share, and that is simply amazing. But 60%??
The Bad News…The folks from Exponential gave us this number. This is not a good number. Research shows that only about 4% of people in the US attend a Bible-believing evangelical church. This does not reflect a true number of believers…just Bible-believing evangelicals. Of the remaining 96% of people in our country, only 40% of those people will ever consider going to a church…ever. That leaves 60% who will never attend our church…or any church. I recently heard John Maxwell speak to this. The number he used was much more encouraging. Only 53% of people will never attend our church…or any church. Some encouragement that is! John kept saying over and over, “Did you hear me? Fifty-three percent of people in our country are NEVER GOING TO COME TO YOUR CHURCH!” Now I’m a pastor. This is not good.
What If…So what changes? According to what we are seeing in our society, we have a serious issue. On our best day, our church plan will only reach a potential 40% of lost people. What happens to the 60%?
In his book, Chase The Lion, Mark Batterson says, “There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet. We shouldn’t just be trend spotters. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we should be trendsetters. If you want to reach people no one is reaching, you might have to do something no one else is doing.”
What do you think? What do we do now? I have a few ideas, but I would be interested in yours.
Dorion
October 1, 2017 @ 2:14 am
Hmmm, I believe the next gen, Gen Y and Gen Z (millenials) have it. Doing life as a group instead of flying solo. I see my generation, Gen X, as being the ones who just went hard after success in any way that we could even if it meant abandoning life long relationships from High School, College, etc. We were so focused on savings, purchasing a home, starting a family and then preparing our kids for life that we let go of community, even with all these good intentions.
We could have had opportunities to disciple others once we found a life in Jesus Christ, but we left those relationships in the dust and didn’t intentionally invest in relationships beyond our tight circle. Now, I see this generation doing things differently. Sometimes it appears that they are avoiding marriage and family, but I’m seeing something deeper. I’m seeing a greater sense of community and tribe. I’m seeing a togetherness that I believe Jesus would exemplify if He were still walking the earth with us today.
There is great opportunity for discipling the world through communities who eat together, work together, play together and grow together all while not driving the discussion towards attending a church building. Even when it’s not about attending a church building, there’s still discipleship that ‘can’ lead the lost to a life in Jesus Christ.
steve craven
October 1, 2017 @ 10:29 pm
Why do lost adults seek God?
Adversity, illness, hopelessness, marital discord, domestic abuse, unemployment, imprisonment, addiction,
pending death, loneliness etc.
What is the church doing to provide sanctuary and hope for these people?
Why do young people , millennials seek God?
Broken home, hopelessness, loneliness, unemployment, imprisonment etc.
How does the church market itself as a safe place for those seeking? Does it actually want to?
Greg Wigfield
November 23, 2017 @ 1:56 pm
Steve,
I just saw this! Sorry, I should’ve written sooner.
You could not be more on target with your questions…questions we MUST answer.