5/13/06

Heard at conference at Mars Hill Church: Tim Keller, the  pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian  church in New York City, says that it is important to plant churches in large cities.  He says that existing churches have internal forces that keep them from assimilating new people, after a certain point.  But new churches tend to be made up of people who in the past didn’t go to church at all.

‘The average new church gains most of its new members from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other congregations. .. As a congregation ages, powerful internal institutional pressures lead it to allocate most of its resources and energy toward the concerns of its members and constituents, rather than toward those outside its walls.

‘New churches surface new, creative Christian leaders for the city. Older congregations find leaders who support tradition, have tenure, like routine, and have kinship ties.  New congregations, on the other hand, attract a higher percentage of venturesome people who value creativity, risk, innovation and future orientation.  Often older churches ‘box out’ many people with strong leadership skills who cannot work in more traditional settings’

(From his handout, that is basically his whole speech.)

I like the part about ‘kinship ties’ – explanatory of Naplatfin