The Many Shades of Closeness

One of the speakers at the MinistryCOM Conference, Scott Evans of Outreach Inc., focused on outreach communications. He talked about "proximity," saying that people are more likely to come to your church if they are "close" to you. But he described three different types of closeness, or proximity.

  • Geographic proximity. This is what we normally think of. People within a five-mile radius of your church are most likely to come for a visit.
  • Demographic proximity. What is the make-up of your church? Lots of seniors? Lots of singles? Lots of kids? Young families? Whatever you have a lot of, you're more likely to attract more of. A young family that visits a church with lots of other young families is more likely to conclude, "This is the church for us," than a single who visits that church and doesn't see other people his/her age arriving or sitting alone (and, therefore, probably single).
  • Spiritual proximity. This one intrigued me. Most churches are probably populated mainly by active and inactive believers, and that's the type of person most churches attract--people who want to get involved, or people who want to merely attend and inhabit a pew. But is your church welcoming to nonbelievers? Do your pews contain unbelievers who are either neutral to the Gospel, or who are seeking? My own church has a number of nonChristians who seem to enjoy hanging out with us saints. That's a pretty cool thing.

The speaker stopped with those types of proximity. I'm playing with a couple of additional ones, both of which pertain only to Christians looking for a church.

  • Theological proximity. Before settling on a new church, I would check out the church's doctrinal beliefs. Seems like a no-brainer.
  • Style proximity. This has to do with preferences regarding how the church does worship or church in general. For instance, if I were looking for a new church, I wouldn't pick a liturgical church, nor a church still using just a piano and organ. I want a band. A band that rocks. Other persons, though, may look for something liturgical in style.

Evans also said something that we should all think about. He said only 1% of people are believers looking for a new church. And yet, that's who we seem to target in our promotional materials. We talk about the programs we offer, our beliefs, where we fit in the theological spectrum ("conservative evangelical," "charismatic," etc.), our style of worship, etc. But none of this will necessarily attract nonbelievers. To do that, we need to climb out of our boxes and get creative.

Posted on September 18, 2006 12:14 PM|

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