Urban Planting Is Harder Than Expected

May 14, 2011

Over a year ago I felt driven to look at church planting within the urban centers of our nation. After releasing my findings over two years ago on Planting Fast-Growing Churches, I felt compelled to take these findings and refine them for a more Urban setting. In the next couple of weeks I want to share with you 15 key findings of the study. The first key finding has to do with the level of difficulty of planting in a more urban environment. Here is what we discovered.

Rapid growth is very difficult in urban settings. 

In my study of fast-growing church plants in 2007 i discovered that 7% of plants across the U.S. were reaching 200 within three-years. So, while the number of fast growing churches in the Urban settings my be a little discouraging, these churches are growing at a stronger pace than their suburban counterparts.

We asked the planters themselves to what they attributed that difficulty. Here were some of their responses.

1. Finding a facility is tough. Locations are not always the best and the cost factor limits what we are able to use.

2. The cultures we encountered in the city was not something we were prepared for. (more on this later)

3. A strong consumeristic attitude is prevalant in the city. More so than what was encountered in the suburban setting.

Posted 5/14/2011 in Church Planting | 1 Comment - Add Comment

Comments:

     Where can I find the follow-up posts that were mentioned in the first paragraph? Thanks!