An article was posted on our staff room wall today: Churches adapting to an influx of teens. (Nelson Mail, Sat April 14, 2007).The article declares that more young people are going to church because the "majority" of churches are now becoming more active in seeking the "missing generation" and because even though New Zealand is a "particularly secular" society, it is still quite a spiritual one.
I think that both reasons are true, but it's important to note that, even though many churches are making an effort to reach the "missing generation", they simply don't have a clue how to do it.
Today I could order a computer from Dell, and have them build it exactly how I want it. Down to the last megabyte of RAM, the size of the graphics card and the number of pixels in the monitor. This kind of micro-segmentation is the future of commerce - being able to buy a product tailor-made for you. Is that possible in church?
The post-modern generation is complex, diverse and in a constant state of flux. One church with one service will work for some, but not most. Essentially, what Miramar Baptist has done is try to reach another market segment - creating a product more suited to those who don't 'get' the traditional model of church.
I believe that this segment will get bigger and bigger and bigger. Then, within that segment will sprout other segments and so on and so on.
Maybe a church in the future will be more like Dell than Henry Ford's "any colour you like as long as it's black"? A whole collection of different style worship services, each catering to their own small segment.
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