Should we be like a plant?

So we've all heard of church plants. Where some church people decide to start a new church. Sometimes they're quite successful. So who goes to them? Here's some interesting data on that.

Turns out that about half the people were previously not part of a church. This is a far cry from mainstream church where only about 2% are new to church. Most have always gone to church, or have switched from another church to their current one.

So what's the big secret behind this ability to connect with people from outside? Well there's data on that too. Turns out that the most successful way to connect with people is to invite them.

So if it's so incredibly successful why don't we do it more? Why don't we invite people we know? Deep down I think we know it's because we know they wouldn't like it. Why? Because it's designed for us, not them. We make church this weird thing that only makes sense to people who go. Sure Jesus is great, but church is weird.

We say we'd like more people to come, but we know they won't. We know it would be awkward. So we're not going to invite people we know. Why would we put a friend through that?

So perhaps the first step is to make church less weird. Something we could invite someone to. Something that a normal person could come to. It might be hard, but it could be good practice at thinking less about ourselves and more about our neighbour.

PS. There's also the possibility that we spend so much time in church and doing church activities that we don't have meaningful connections outside churchland. if you don't know any non-churchgoers, who would you invite anyway. More on that another time.