How Will Gas Prices Impact Your Church? June 20, 2008
Posted by illiniphil in Uncategorized.trackback
Yesterday, as I pulled away from my son’s baseball practice, I looked at the closest ‘Speedway’ station and saw gas at $4.09 per gallon. Unbelievable.
I have had some people specualte on what kind of impact on our churches we can expect from such a huge hike. I stumbled upon this great article by Kent Shaffer at churchrelevance.com and he gives these theories:
Theories About Church & High Gas Prices
- An Unaffected Core
I believe that most people who are considered core members of a church are not likely to stop attending church to save money on gas. They may make adjustments in their lifestyles, but cutting church from their lives is not an option. However, core members who live especially far away may have no other choice but to find a new, closer church. - Worse Attendance from the Uncommitted
For every-other-Sunday church attenders, going to church just gets harder when gas prices make it $2 more expensive to go. It is just one more excuse for their long list of excuses. - Greater Challenges in Reaching the Unchurched
Agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, and non-church-attending “Christians” are rarely, if ever, motivated to visit a church service or event. In fact, many would try their best to avoid anything church related. As gas prices increase, the likelihood that the unchurched will drive to your church decreases. Your best chance at reaching this group is to give them transportation (e.g., bus ministry or church members bring them). - Weakened Advertising Results
Your postcards, billboards, and radio ads need to be interesting enough to create a desire to attend your church. Rising gas prices are like raising the admission price to your church. Even if someone is interested enough to take the time to attend your church, is he interested enough to spend the money to attend your church. - Difficult Volunteer Recruitment
The financial cost issue can even be a factor for prospective volunteers. They may be willing to give their time, but they may not be willing to pay $4 per gallon to get there. - A Shrinking Radius
As gas prices rise, I think a church’s radius of reach will shrink when it comes to reaching new members. Core members may still be willing to drive 40 miles to attend, but first-time visitors will probably come from the nearby areas surrounding your church. So if people are currently willing to drive 20 miles to attend your church, would they only be willing to drive 12 miles if gas prices reached $6 per gallon? - Multi-Site Church Advantage
One of the many advantages of a multi-site church format is it can strategically shorten the distance people have to drive to attend church. And in the big picture, it increases a church’s scope of reach. For example, a one campus church might be able to reach a 20 mile radius, but a two-campus church might be able to reach a 40 mile radius.
- Internet Church Advantage
Churches with an Internet campus can obviously avoid the gas prices issue altogether. Some examples of this church model are LifeChurch.tv (Edmond, OK), Seacoast Church (Mt. Pleasant, SC), and Flamingo Road Church (Cooper City, FL). - Revitalized Ministry Opportunities
Rising gas prices may cause bus ministries to return as a popular and effective method. After all, what better way to solve the gas problem than to bus people to church. - New Ministry Opportunities
Although rising gas prices create a number of problems, they also create some opportunities. Mosaic Church (Charlotte, NC) gave away $2500 worth of free gas ($15 per car) to bless their community and create awareness for their church. And Fellowship Church (Miami, FL) created a direct mail piece that could be redeemed at the church for a $5 gas card.
SO, let’s see your comments.
- How are rising gas prices affecting your church?
- How can a church minimize the negative effects of high gas prices?
- What are some ministry opportunities in a world of expensive gas?
rising gas prices?? just another opportunity for followers of Christ to evalaute how we “do ministry.” if the way we “do ministry” is working – meaning people are coming to Christ and being brought into Christlikeness – then don’t fix anything. on the other hand, if the way we “do ministry” is not working – people are not coming to Christ and being led into Christlikeness – rising gas prices or not, we need to reevaluate!
I felt the insights in the article were excellent. I agree with Josh, however, that the challenge of “hard times” (in whatever form) only tends to refine our motives. Historically, the church has thrived in hard times (persecution, oppression, economic depressions) and did poorly when lavishing in riches in the Laodician “comfort zone.” Hey, I used to pray for great weather on Sundays, now I pray it’s moderately miserable enough to keep people from running off to outdoor entertainment instead of coming to church. Who knows, maybe the $4 it costs someone to drive to church will will seem like a deal compared to the $20 it will cost them to go to the beach! (Pretty shallow – but just trying to be positive!)
There was definintely some good insight in this article. Since this is the comment section let me offer my take. In many if not most of our churches (particularly the A/G) a large portion of our adherents travel a good distance to get there. I’ve known 2 families in 2 differnent churches over the years that would travel in excess of 45 minutes 2-3 times a week. While we might want to call that committed some might think they need to be committed. The point is that in the time it takes many of our adherents to get to church they are passing by a number of very good churches (and yes some are A/G) So what does this have to do with the effect of gas prices? Maybe this will bring us back to supporting our community church. We talk about wanting to reach our communities for Christ but how can we do that when the majority of our people don’t even live in the community? (Some pastors don’t even live in the same community as their church.) Their kids aren’t in the schools, they don’t shop there.They don’t hang out at the local Starbucks. How can they really get to know and relate to the people if their only exposure to them is for a couple hours a week in church or a couple times a year for an “outreach”?
Maybe this challange is a “blessing in disguise” Maybe this will cause Christians to discover their community church and get to know the people in their community better and be able to better minister to them. Instead of running out of town so they can be “better fed” or experience better worship, as member of their local church they will be better able to fulfill the great commission. After all is that what it’s all about? It’s not supposed to be only about us and getting our needs met.
One other thought. Maybe we as established churches should also more warmly embrace church planting. The more churches the easier it will be for those who want to be to get there. These church plants aren’t and should not be considered our compeitors. Did you ever wonder why Starbucks has several stores so close to each other or even across the street from each other? They want to make it easy for their customers to get there. That’s what church planting helps to do.
How we do ministry constantly needs to be evaluated and redefined and varies from church to church. Let’s not let this new challange frustrate us but stimulate us to adapt to our everchanging society.