In church planting circles and training camps, it’s common practice to “define a target demographic” for your church plant. While I think you should be aware of the demographics in your focus area, I think gearing your church for one particular group of people is useless. Now…your church will draw a particular type of people…at first. It’s a simple matter of you attract what you are. But here’s the thing: the Gospel is greater than ethnic boundaries, racial boundaries, economic boundaries, and cultural boundaries.
Case in point, look at the picture above. The lady with the pink hat on? Ex-con from Boston. Loves Jesus. The lady behind her? Catholic-raised from rural North Carolina. Loves Jesus. And they are serving a young African-American kid from “across the tracks”…just after serving the indie rockers from The Ethnographers (who, by the way, are awesome and they played at the Block Party). This was all on Easter.
Bottom line? A Risen Jesus who conquered Satan, sin, and death knows no boundaries. There is no Jew or Gentile indeed. Preach against these boundaries…and plant a church that accepts all people, regardless of which side of town they live on, or what tax bracket they fall in.
I think that we need to rewrite our church planting training to reflect the Truth that the Gospel is greater than everything that man could put in its way…including ethnic, racial, economic, social, and cultural differences.
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