Friday, October 10, 2008
Creating New Uncontested Spiritual Space
The St. John’s strategy is to find new uncontested spiritual space, which provides new opportunities. Space can be created by expanding current boundaries or going beyond the boundaries.
The traditional rules for building the church are common to all church strategies. Boundaries are defined and accepted. This means by attracting enough people, a congregation can support the ministry team, administration, building expenses etc.
With fewer people wanting to attend churches, churches are competing with one another to attract new members.
Rather than competing with other churches such as Evangelical or Pentecostal churches for people seeking a more conservative theology or with more high church leaning Anglicans or Roman Catholics with a more liberal and traditional theology, St. John’s has been seeking to create new space for other people beyond those attracted to church to develop their sense of spirituality and interest in Jesus.
In market terms it means focusing on non-customers rather than on customers. In religious terms it means focusing on those outside the church rather than those who attend church. Rather than trying to attract church attendees with certain styles of worship the focus is on engaging with those who do not ordinarily attend church services. This engagement may take the form of partnering or collaborating on certain projects or activities. For example providing physical space for groups involved in issues of social transformation.
By interacting with people outside the church and by providing space for people to do what they want in the church along the lines of activities compatible with St. John’s values, an income has been generated which has freed the church council from having to focus on the numbers of attendees to finance its on going ministry.
St. John’s is going beyond traditional boundaries and creating uncontested spiritual space.
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5 comments:
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Is this now working? Jason
Congratulations on the new site, Trevor. I hope this virtual space adds to the sense of community at St John's and allows more contributions to the spiritual community you are creating.
There's now more opportunity for everyone to see what's going on at the Church and to realise what's happening beyond Sunday services.
Jason Nyilas
The inspiration for creating new uncontested spiritual space comes from the book 'Blue Ocean Strategy'
I think St John's is progressive and attractive to the younger Christian. I think the approach is sensible in terms of generating income from resources which maintain the overall function and form of the Church.
I left the Anglican Church after 17yrs of association with it, because at the age of 30 when I did want to start attending regularly on Sundays this was looked upon suspiciously by the leader and fault was found not with myself but with my husband (who had started attending church with me, having never been to church before) this was just too much and we left that Church and now enjoy being pious at home! It's nice for us to know we have somewhere like St John's to reconnect with the Church (physically) if we want to. We have never felt judged by anyone at St Johns. We believe it is up to God and Jesus to judge us for our mistakes not for someone who has not walked a mile in our shoes, as we felt was the case with the Anglican Church. Genuinely wanting to connect with the people outside the Church is what sets your Church apart from others. Keep up the good work.
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