Thoughts on Church Planting, Networking, and Living on Mission.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Relationship Receptivity
Ed Stetzer and team recently released one of the largest surveys on Americans’ receptivity to different methods of church invitations. Conducted last December, the study included a survey of over 15,000 adults:
There's much to learn from this information. It's very telling. While our hope is that others will certainly find authentic biblical community, I think we also need to consider that maybe the "end all" of our goal is not necessarily to just "invite to church". Seems to me that the reason a personal invite works for neighbors, family members, and friends is because there has already been a trusting relationship forged. That doesn't happen overnight... nor does it happen through a cold-call knock on a door asking them to come. Our posture with people may be the most significant thing we have.
Brandon is founder of South Austin Cares and lead pastor of Austin New Church. He is married to author and speaker, Jen Hatmaker and has three crazy cool kids, Gavin (10), Sydney (8), and Caleb (6).
There's much to learn from this information. It's very telling. While our hope is that others will certainly find authentic biblical community, I think we also need to consider that maybe the "end all" of our goal is not necessarily to just "invite to church". Seems to me that the reason a personal invite works for neighbors, family members, and friends is because there has already been a trusting relationship forged. That doesn't happen overnight... nor does it happen through a cold-call knock on a door asking them to come. Our posture with people may be the most significant thing we have.
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