Diversity vs. demographics

Successful marketing often depends on finding specialized segments, and the Church has long catered to specific demographic groups.

Yet somehow, marketing the Gospel is both the same and different from marketing commercial goods. We are commanded to witness (sell), and I find strong support in Scripture that this witness should be for everyone. I don’t find anything in Scripture that suggests we segment the market. The church has always been for everyone.

Tensions of any kind require wise, discerning leaders who help the congregation depend on the Bible to find its way. This is usually neither easy nor simple.

The reality is that this is not a new issue. Churches have always made decisions that appealed to some but not others. Think of your “base,” the people you are most likely to connect with. Now, the goal is to stretch that base, challenging them in new areas of diversity and moving them out of their comfort zone. Make the defining feature of your church not the worship style or pro-grams, but rather the sense of community. People from all backgrounds are loved and cared for at your church.

It is impractical to expect any individual or local church body to succeed at witnessing to all 7 billion people living in this world.

When my Dad taught me how to hunt ducks, he said, “Sometimes the flock will look so thick that you think you can’t miss, but resist the tendency to just shoot into the flock. You need to pick a target or you’ll usually end up missing them all.”

The targeting of a specific demographic should not be seen as a decision to exclude, alienate, or fail to welcome those outside that demographic but instead as the best shot we have at not missing them all.

Ideally, we’d like to be all things to all people at the Highland Church, but the reality is that we do not have the resources to offer services and programs across the spectrum of styles and interests that would allow us to do this. Rather than try to do everything and end up succeeding at nothing, we are focusing on cultivating a spirit of hospitality to everyone who visits. Our hope is that even if our particular worship style isn’t exactly what they’re looking for, the love of Christ that they feel will make them want to come back again.