Why Church Planting Demographics are Overrated
“What’s your target demographic?”
It’s one of the most common questions I received in the early stages of church planting.
To be fair, there are some obvious demographics that every church planter must consider: What is the common language? What’s the overall age range, average income, and ethnic makeup of the community that you’ll be planting in?
Having a general idea of the overall demographics can be helpful to a certain extent. After all, you’ll have a hard time connecting with people if you don’t speak the language!
But over the years, it has begun to mean something else entirely. When people ask about a church plant’s “target demographic,” they typically aren’t asking about the overall demographics of the community they’re planting in. Instead they want to know the preselected age range, socioeconomic status, and ethnic group that your new church will be tailored to. It’s a corporate business model that treats people like potential customers instead of sinners who need to repent and trust in Christ.
I’ve always been uncomfortable with this popular question because when someone asks about a church plant’s “target demographic,” they’re asking the planter to choose one group of people over another. This emphasis on target demographics is problematic for a few reasons: First, the gospel call goes out to all people. Second, the gospel is what unites people together. Which ultimately confirms what Scripture teaches: the Lord will build his church, not individuals.
1. The Gospel Call Goes Out to All People
Throughout Scripture, we’re reminded that the gospel call goes out to all people. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in Romans 10:14-15, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”
The church planter (or better yet, preacher) is called to indiscriminately preach the gospel to all people in his community because it is the antidote to everyone’s chief problem: sin that separates them from God. We’re certainly limited by time and space, but the gospel call must go out to all people in fulfillment and submission to the Great Commission.
Similarly, Peter’s sermon at Pentecost made a blanket statement to everyone within earshot. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 3:28).
We preach to anyone who is willing to listen, turn from their sin, and trust in Christ.
The gospel call goes out to all people. There is no preference of one group over another because the human condition is the same in every part of the world. We’re all sinners who need to repent and trust in Christ.
This should obviously inform the church planter’s approach because it should be the same regardless of his community’s demographics. He’s called to preach the gospel and make disciples. His community’s demographics have no bearing on the mission of the church because the gospel doesn’t change depending upon who he’s preaching to. He is always going to be preaching to sinners and they are always going to need the gospel.
Targeting an area is one thing (only God is omnipresent), but it’s another to segment and divide the population of that area. We’re called to preach the gospel to anyone that is willing to listen, not an exclusive group.
The need for the gospel will always transcend its demographics.
2. The Gospel Unites People Together
Secondly, the preaching of the gospel unites people of different demographics.
One of the primary struggles throughout the New Testament was incorporating Gentile Christians into the church. Believers from all sorts of backgrounds were converting and coming into the life of the church. Did Paul ever teach that some people were more important based upon their demographic background? Of course not.
In Galatians 3, after Paul reminds the Galatians that they were all saved by grace through faith, he famously says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
His point was and still is obvious: Faith in Christ brings people of various demographic backgrounds together. Faith in Christ unites people and makes them “one in Christ Jesus.”
Having a target demographic suggests that one group of people has inherent value over another. It implies that not all Christians are “one in Christ Jesus,” but rather our value in the kingdom of God is based upon our background or ethnicity.
But what’s most interesting about Galatians 3:28 is that Paul mentions by name the various distinctions within the church. After all, there were Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, male and female. No one is suggesting that differences do not exist, rather, we rejoice in the fact that Christ unites people in spite of their differences.
In a very real sense, a church that plasters its target demographic all over the place undermines what makes the church so beautiful: The gospel brings people of different experiences, socio-economic statuses, and ethnicities together.
3. The Lord Builds His Church
Lastly, every church planter must remember that the Lord will build his church (Matt. 16:18). To most church planters this is probably an obvious statement, but here’s what I mean by it: Church planters have little to no control over who shows up and joins the church.
If pastors had that kind of power, not a single church would have difficult people. Forget target demographics for a second. If we were actually empowered to determine who comes to our churches, wouldn’t the difficult people be the first ones to leave? And yet as we all know, every single church on the face of the earth has difficult people.
But isn’t that exactly what having a target demographic implies? It implies that the church planter has the magical power to speak what he wants his church plant to look like into existence. It’s many church planter’s version of “naming and claiming” it.
The reality is that no church planter, or any pastor for that matter, possesses that sort of power. Only God has that sort of power. Only He is able to sovereignly direct someone through the doors of your church. Which of course, confirms the words of the Lord Jesus: “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The pastor, the church planter, and the elders do not build the church. The Lord alone will build his church.
Pastors and church planters must regularly remind themselves of this truth: You don’t own the people at your church, much less, the people who haven’t even showed up yet!
Not only is having a target demographic a subtle denial of the Lord’s sovereign power of your church, but it creates a host of practical problems as well.
For one, any church that constantly reminds their congregation of their target demographic simultaneously alienates everyone who doesn’t fit it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you minister to an older congregation and constantly remind them that your target demographic is people in their 20s and 30s, that the senior folks will not feel welcome. Your target demographic might cost you the people who are currently in your church.
Secondly, what is a church plant supposed to do if it reaches a group of people outside of their target demographic? Are they supposed to turn them away? Do we consider that church a failure? I’ve been a part of two church plants now, and will be the first to admit that neither would ever, under any circumstances, turn someone away! In fact, we rejoiced anytime we had a visitor!
Christians should rejoice when a church reaches anyone! After all, “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).
But there is an even greater theological issue that lurks behind the scenes. Church plants that focus on target demographics often place more weight on man-made methodology than the ordinary means of grace. Too often church planters will consult marketing techniques before consulting the Word of God and in the process they quickly strip the church of her spirituality.
The elements that will ultimately build the church are the ordinary means of grace – the Word, Sacraments, and prayer. Church planters are engaged in spiritual work.
In the most ironic twist of fate, a 2017 Gallup poll demonstrates that the number one reason people go to church is for the preaching of the Word. Interestingly, it’s not the tailoring of the worship service to a particular demographic, it’s the most central element of worship: the preaching of the word.
And that is the primary reason people go to church: for the preaching of the word. Not only are the ordinary means of grace ingrained in God’s word and imparted to the church, they’re also incredibly practical.
At the end of the day, both Christians and non-Christians alike, regardless of their demographics, need the same thing: a steady, faithful diet of gospel preaching.
Couldn’t you summarize Jesus’ call to both Peter in Matthew 16 and in the Great Commission in Matthew 28 as a call to faithfully preach the gospel? Fundamentally, most people will not come to a new church plant because they feel catered to. They’re not going to come because a church plant scratches their demographic itch. Instead, the main reason people will attend a new church plant is the same reason people will attend any church in general - the preaching of the Word.
Church planting doesn’t require special methodologies or techniques. Church planting requires a steady commitment to God’s Word, the sacraments, and prayer.
