North Point Thinking

There are many Sundays that I have to remind myself that I’m there more for the applicable preaching than the rock music. Every January Andy Stanley preaches a ‘why we are here’ sermon. A couple of weeks ago he said that nationally the church as a whole has lost the 18 – 30 year old age group, mainly because they see the church as judgmental, homophobic, and not relevant. He said that NP’s focus was aimed directly at that age group. You can certainly tell that by the music, as well as the musicians. It could why NP no longer has dramas, though sometimes they do have humorous skits on video.

Sometimes it seems like what’s going on at is almost offensive, particularly to older people. But it’s usually because that focus is toward people younger than me. Andy even wears jeans some Sunday mornings (I do as well, mainly for warmth in the winter). Some adults wear shorts in the summer, but I’d never go that far (I’m the guy wearing long-sleeves in July because the AC is so cold).

Last year NP hired a research firm to conduct a study of people who had just started visiting for one to four weeks, about why they had come and why they hadn’t been involved in church before, etc. Broken down by age, etc. One of the most interesting findings was what Andy centered his talk around; that the main reason people first visited was because someone asked them to come. When discussing this, the NP staff all agreed that while they all talked to non-attenders about coming to church in general terms, most never specifically asked people to come on a specific time and day.

NP wants to make every part of attending be so good (parking, traffic, child-care, music, available seating, etc) that there’ll be no hassles and newcomers can focus on the message…and want to come back – even if they didn’t necessarily agree with the entire message. The research seemed to bear that out even in the 18 – 30 group, which was encouraging. They’re starting programs closer to wear the younger age groups live and congregate, like a college service held down at the Biltmore near Tech.

Andy also said that due to his age (48) and the great amount of speaking he’s done over the years, that it’s beginning to wear on his voice. To compensate, on Sundays he’s only going to preach at one or two services instead of all three. He’ll always preach at 9:00, and then later services will be shown on tape.

See this week’s AJC article on the mega-church they just built out in Gwinnett County? Everything has a fancy name, lots of technology, nice architecture, even an actual Starbucks inside. I was thinking while reading it that it mostly boils down to the message whether people are really reached. NP tries to build boxy buildings because they’re cheaper to build, so more money is left for ministry.

Sometimes Ceil and I consider attending a closer church, mainly for the kids. We do have plenty of friends at close by churches, but wonder if our relationships would really be deeper just by seeing them more often. We could always listen to NP sermons on line.