Occasionally they find a planet in what they call “The Goldilocks Zone.” They call it that because the planet is in just right place in its solar system to support life. It is not too close to its sun and not too far away. Not too cold and not too warm. Much like the chairs, porridge and beds in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, it is just right. If the planet has water, scientists believe it might be capable of supporting life as we know it.
A few years ago, they discovered one of these planets and have been studying it carefully because they are so sure it is capable of producing and maintaining life They have gone so far as to name it Earth 2.0. Pretty exciting.
As I have observed the church planting movement over the past several decades, it seems to me that new church people are looking for the Goldilocks Zone in which to plant churches. A growing population, a lack of our brand of church, a strong economy, educated people and land available to build a building. Most new church plants took place in this Goldilocks Zone. And most failed. The few that survived tended to remain small and struggling. That is basically due to the fact that most seminaries systematically teach ministerial students how to serve 100 to 200-member churches. Thus, seminary trained new church planters grow their churches to about 125 in attendance and don’t know where to go from there. They keep doing what they know to do, only more and faster, and wonder why the church doesn’t grow. Occasionally one of those church plants took hold and a megachurch grew. (These are usually led by non-seminary trained leaders.) These are the ones that were talked about, so we kept planting Goldilocks churches in the eternal hope of birthing a megachurch.
Those of us in small churches have very little good to say about megachurches. And they do have their weaknesses and soft spots. But most of our criticisms are really born out of our insecurities and jealousy. The local megachurch pastor appears on local radio a couple of times of week. If there is a spiritual question in the community, he is the go-to guy. Every outreach his church does, which is just like the outreach my church does, only bigger, gets some film and airtime on local television. Both of our churches do about the same things: preach the Gospel, grow disciples in small groups, seek to meet the needs of people inside and outside of the church. Only they do it mega and we do it mini. He is famous, and his church is known all over the city. I am unknow and no one knows where my church is. But I am satisfied just doing the work God has called me to do. NOT!! Of course, I’m jealous.
My point is that there is not a Goldilocks Zone when it comes to church planting. I am not suggesting the planting a church 50 miles from civilization will succeed. Church are made up of people, so churches need to be near people to grow. But it doesn’t need to be near a center of population growth. The church I serve is in the center of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is not a location with a growing population. There is a church on every corner and 95% run well under 100 people in weekly attendance. The economy crashed several decades again when General Motors moved out of town, taking with it thousands of jobs and the economy hasn’t improved much over the years. We are not in the Goldilocks Zone.
With all of that in mind, this would be a great place to plant a new church. The established churches are in survival mode or trying to decide whether it is time to pull the plug on the respirator. In that mode, they won’t attract any new, younger people. Their presence is not an issue. The nearby population is well over 100,000 people. Recent research tells us that less then 22% of the population presently attends Sunday worship services. That means that around 80,000 non-church going people live within 10 miles of our church. Sounds like the Goldilocks Zone to me.
We just need to “Get into the Zone.”
Copyright © 2018, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
Bill McConnell is the Interim Minister at Norwood Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press.
He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell or on Twitter @billmc45053 or visit his Amazon Author Page @ Amazon
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