Purpose Driven Church Ch9 - WHo is your target?

A long-ish chapter again, tonight, but it is rather important - Who is your target?

Now, I tend to be rather skeptical of marketing-type things applied to churches, and let's face it; talking about your "target" is definitely marketing language. I mean, we're aiming to reach EVERYONE, right?

Actually, Warren goes to town on churches who DON'T define their target. He describes an untargeted approach as "callous", because the task of bringing people to Christ is too important to have such a casual attitude about it.

Wow, I never thought of it that way before.

The Church should be reaching everybody - the Church worldwide, the complete Church. But each individual church (note the small c) is responsible for a particular subset of the world's people. And different churches are needed for different people. This gives me hope - God needs Sanctuary just as much as He needs Hillsong.

Defining the evangelistic target group is therefore important, and I have to confess that looking at it that way, I can see his point. I have to accept that he's right.

It would be really easy to leap into this, but Warren gives one more warning before we head into discussing this important topic - the Biblical foundation must be laid first. We need to clarify the purpose of the Church first! Rick says that failure to do this leads to a market-driven church with a compromised message.

Interestingly, Warren points out that targeting for Evangelism is Biblical. Let's see - we have Jesus' statement that "I was sent to the Lost Sheep of Israel" (Matt 15:22-28)[1]. Similarly Jesus commands the disciples in Matt 10:5-6 to go to the Jews, not Samaritans or Gentiles. Paul targeted his message to Gentiles (Romans 11:13), Peter to Jews (Gal 2:7). It is even built into the Great Commission - we are to make disciples of all Nations. Literally, in Greek, "All Nations" is rendered as "Ta ethne" - all people groups!

Really, we know this in one respect - our music and communication methods are tailored to people like ourselves. But I don't believe we are as targeted as we should be.

Warren says that this is really important for small churches with limited resources (check!). It's critical to focus those limited resources on the people the church can best reach.

There are several ways we can define our target. Warren says you need to define your target in four ways - geographically, demographically, culturally and spiritually.

Geographically: Identify where the people live that you want to reach. Using terms like "reasonable driving distance" can be a problem because it varies depending on where you are (For Sanctuary, I suggest that the Astoria Park area gives us a nice natural boundary, at least for the moment). Remember also that people choose churches primarily on the basis of relationships and programs, not location. Just because your church is the closest doesn't mean it can automatically reach someone (Therefore working with other churches could be beneficial - if someone doesn't fit with Sanctuary, they might find Norwest Anglicans or Baulko Baps more their style). Finally, remember that as the church grows its reach will extend farther.

Demographically: What type of people live in your area? It's possible to overdo this, collecting all kinds of facts and figures. In fact, a handful of facts are needed:
* Age - how many in each age group?
* Marital status - how many are single adults? How many are married couples?
* Income - what is the median and average household income?
* Education - What is the education level of the community?
* Occupation - what types of work are predominant?
If we're serious about reaching them, we need to become experts on the community.
Don't re-invent the wheel - get stats from Council, local papers, real estate agents etc.

Culturally: What are their lifestyle and mindset like? What are peoples' values, interests, hurts and fears? What subcultures exist in the area? The more you know about them, the easier it is to reach them. Churches are sometimes "people blind" - they are unaware of socio-cultural differences between people. This is where a church survey can be useful - ask them what they FEEL are their greatest needs. Listen for their hurts, interest and fears. No book can replace talking to them.

Spiritually: What do they already know about the Gospel? This is an area where Australia is different to America - they have a predominantly Christian-based culture. Other church leaders can be a good resource here. Remember that "Unchurched" can mean more than just "not religious" - it can refer to "Christian, but doesn't have a personal faith". Again, there is no substitute for talking to local people personally. It can help you direct your evangelism methods.

Once all this data is collected, it can be helpful to "personalise" the target - that is, create a composite profile of the typical unchurched person in the local area. Saddleback has "Saddleback Sam". They have gone to a lot of trouble to do this because the more you understand someone, the easier it is to communicate with him. What would "Astoria Park Alan and Amanda" look like?

[1] I like Warren's explanation of this (something that has often bothered me in the past) - He says "Jesus targeted His ministry in order to be effective, not to be exclusive."