Local Predicament: A Case Study (2)
A week ago I started to write about the importance of understanding your local predicament in developing clarity about your church’s vision and effective methods to accomplish it. Too often pastors have a way they want to do church and they’re going to do it, regardless of where God has put them. They don’t study their city, the culture, the people.
When we moved to Las Vegas we were coming out of successful church plant in Virginia Beach. That was our problem. We had been successful, and so the easiest thing would have been to repeat what we had done. But our success was in Virginia Beach, not Las Vegas. So we decided to live in and study Vegas for one year before fully developing our vision and methods.It was an interesting year. We lived here, sat in the stands at our son’s Little League games, volunteered at our daughter’s school, and went to people’s homes for UFC parties. I met with every pastor I could and asked what they had learned about ministry in Vegas. I also did stand-up comedy in a show with a bunch of local comedians. My wife got a job at a gym. And we interviewed people. A lot of people. About 300 people. Just asking them what it was like to live in Vegas, what were the needs of the city, what time would be best for them to go to church, and more. Much more.
I’ll tell you what we discovered about life in Vegas in a few days, but for now a question for you: Why don’t you spend some time investigating life in your community? Even if you’ve lived there for awhile, isn’t it possible that there are some factors you’re not aware of? What would it look like for you to set up at least 20 or 30 interviews with people out in the community? What’s stopping you?