Lazy Christians = Low Hanging Fruit

- Dan Dick, General Board of Discipleship, United Methodist Church. 7/5/2007Ben Black of Optimedia, Inc., is a leading market researcher in the Church Growth industry. Optimediaset out in January to discover the secret of fast growing mega-churches. What he found challenges theconventional wisdom and has some large churches steaming. “Basically,” reports Black, “we found that the fastest growing churches depend on the least involved,least motivated, and least engaged Christian believers.” Optimedia’s study, to be published this November, examined 2,000 American churches of 1,000members or more – including 28 United Methodist congregations – interviewing dozens of recentmembers in each. Of the 76,000+ participants, 1-in-9 (11% or about 8,500) become deeply andactively involved in the life of the church. Approximately 55% (42,000+) drift away into inactivity within18 months. “Think of a baseball team where only one player is actually playing the game and everybody else on theteam is just watching, or doing something else,” says Black. “This is what we found in the vast majorityof ‘premiere’ churches – a whole lot of disinterested spectators.” Karen Davidson-Marsh, coordinator of the large church research project phone survey componentshares, “We especially focused on the highest profile churches – the ones everybody has heard of.When you talk to the guys in charge – and believe me, most of them are guys – you hear a wonderfulmilk & honey story of success; when you talk to the people in the pews it’s like they’re talking aboutcompletely different churches.” “That’s just not true!” “This was a hack job.” “They just didn’t talk to the right people.” These arecommon refrains from representatives of many of the surveyed churches. “They ignore the 10% (of thepeople) who are on fire for God to focus on the consumers. It isn’t a fair picture,” says a leader fromJoel Osteen’s Lakewood Church. “We have an audience and we have a congregation – they only talkedto people from our audience.” Ben Black responds, “We talked to everybody. Our sample size is enormous – over 75,000 individualinterviews in person or by phone. What many people don’t realize is that we wanted to test for success.This is not what we expected, either.” The research indicates that the vast majority (80+%) prefer:>> Anonymity – they like the size of a church that allows them to be invisible>> Quality performance – they like good music, funny sermons, a fast pace, and high energy>> Affirmation – they want to leave feeling better about themselves than when they arrived>> No pressure – they don’t like people ‘pushing’ them into small groups, giving money, serviceprojects, or ‘churchy’ activities>> Focus on activities for children and teenagers – love our kids, love us.>> Comfort – nice seats, bright, clean spaces, great equipment and technology score big points.Among key dislikes:>> Long services – the rigorous demands of television mean that the service stays short.>> Strangers – being singled out and ‘greeted’ is uncomfortable for 4-out-of-5 respondents.>> Demanding sermons – ‘heavy’ messages, ‘deep’ theology, ‘guilt trips,’ and highly intellectualmessages are big turn-offs.>> Old – old buildings, old furniture, old people, old hymns, old stories, etc. Anything old feels lowquality. “Everybody talks about a ‘consumeristic culture’ and a ‘consumeristic church,’ but they don’t know thehalf of it,” says Black. “The number one reason people give for leaving these churches is that the churchstarted making demands on them. The basic message we heard is this: ‘I come to church for me. When