On Tuesday evening I invited people from my congregation to come and hear the results of my survey of church "affiliates" -- people connected to our church who aren't fully involved. About 25 people turned out.
People were really interested to hear some of the findings, for example, that 77% of the people who returned the survey went to church "most Sundays" when they were kids, even though three-quarters of them go to church "a few times a year" or less now. 68% of them went to the United Church, confirming Reg Bibby's contention that people don't stray far from home when it comes to their religious affiliations.
They were also intrigued by the finding that 71% indicated that "Finding inner peace" was their number one spiritual need. To me, anyway, that indicates a real deep longing in people's souls for some sense of groundedness and respite from the uncertainty and pace of life. The high number of people who want the church to "Help me deal with experiences of pain or loss" and "Teach me to be a better person" also generated quite a bit of discussion.
But the question we kept bumping up against over and over again was -- "HOW??" I have this vision of the church sitting in a building filled with good food and a lot of hungry people outside -- but they don't have any idea of where to find what they're looking for, and we don't have any idea how to make contact with them.
I think the church has a rich banquet of resources to connect with the very things people seem to be desiring -- but the enormous challenge today is to bring "demand" and "supply" together. Now, this is ironic, isn't it, in today's culture of instant communication. But the church isn't very good at using the means available to us, especially if they cost a lot of money. For example, even getting an up to date list of e-mail addresses from people who are rarely if ever at church can be a time-consuming and daunting task.
I know at my church, this is one thing we're going to be working on. In a way, it involves a revisiting of that long-lost "E" word -- evangelism. In order to share good news with somebody, you have to have ways of making contact with them. And you have to know what to say when you do.
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Is it good or bad for us, I don't know. My denomination is so tiny that almost no one stays away from a Reformed Church.
I find that Facebook is an effective networking tool, even though the scrabble feature is dangerously addictive.
Hmm, Facebook. I've been noticing that younger people don't even use e-mail anymore. It's too static. When I e-mail young people, often they dont' reply, but I know from my own kids that they are widely connected to an incredible network of people through things like Facebook. I know of a church where the confirmation class stays in regular touch through it.
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