Ever wonder why people join your church? Here’s reason #9 from a Top Ten list taking shape here at Saddleback …
#9 — Availability of Church/Campus Near Our Home
Here’s an instant win for why people become members of your church – it is close to where they live! According to the research of over 8,000 new members at Saddleback Church - convenience and location plays a small role in why people choose to attend and engaging as members. But coming in so high on the list – 9 out of 10 makes it clear that location isn’t everything – it matters, but probably not as much as you or I may think. To me, anything in the Top 5 matters most and should get a majority of attention and funding. If this response is indeed accurate it would sharply contrast the current trend of the local church going multi-site or expanding quickly into regionals.
Youth ministry application: Your best chance of success is working to create a healthy youth ministry. While it may be easier for some churches to win simply based on geography or in that they happened into a prime location – people will go the distance for a great church. People will sacrifice comfort for a remarkable experience. They will drive past other great churches and youth ministries for other reasons (like the things on the rest of this list, I’d imagine) to be at yours … or they’ll drive by yours for the same reason.
JG
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Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [
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Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
With gas prices and the Florida economy, distance has become more of an issue for our members lately. I wish our church had a van…I rewally think it would aid getting even our neighbors to church. Looking forward to the rest of the list…
Josh, what is the “statistical” distance between these 10 reasons. Like the HS track meet I was at yesterday the distance between runners finishing a race matters. Runner that finish 1,2,3 in a near dead heat are all considered great runners, but when the first runner finishes way a head of the second only the first runner is considered great. I’m no statistician but it is important to know the “distance” between these reasons. Is reason #1 twice as important as #2 or are they equally important? Are all 10 so close in ranking that they are of nearly equal importance? Is there really a gap between the first five and the second five or are you just dividing evenly? Give us a little data–and I mean a little–behind the rankings.
Mark makes a great point – knowing the % breakdowns for all of these reasons matters greatly if we are going to act on them.
I’ll ask for the numbers!
This is interesting, we have a few students who drive 30 minutes or so to get to a Wednesday night service, but have lost a few due to drive and gas prices. I think locale does factor in, but as you said not very high on the scale. Mark does bring up some intriguing points. Looking forward to the rest of the list as well!!
Blessings,
Jeremiah
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