I had to learn that my church cannot be all things to all people. For example, our worship style won't attract every demographic in our community. Not everyone will like the way I preach. Our programs will not meet the needs of all persons. And, as hard as I try, I'll never develop a theology that every Christian will agree upon. The sooner we learn that our church cannot reach every person in our community, the better off we'll be. When we finally figure out that we can't please everyone, we can begin the exciting process of discovering our own unique niche.
Of course, your niche will be different from ours as it should be. Every community needs a rich diversity of congregations from small to large, traditional to contemporary, pentecostal to liturgical, and conservative to liberal. Since every community has different kinds of people, every community needs different kinds of churches, all of whom are essential parts of the body of Christ (see Rom. 12:12-31).
As you seek to identify your own unique niche, ask yourself and your church the following three questions.
-What is your passion? When you and your congregation can identify your greatest passion, you are well on your way to determining your niche.
-What are your strengths? Before you can determine your niche, you must identify what you do well, because that will substantively impact whom you reach. For example, one of our strengths at DGOG is worship that incorporates traditional and contemporary styles of praising The Lord. Of course, not everyone likes our blended style of worship. That's OK! Lots of people do like our style of worship. The important point is that our unique worship style helps create and complement our niche.
-Whom are you reaching? Perhaps the best way to determine your niche is to find out what kind of people you are currently reaching.
When your answers to the above three questions dovetail together, you have successfully found your niche. I know we can't meet the spiritual needs of everyone in our community so I focus instead on reaching those i can, trusting God to use the other good churches in our town to reach the people we cannot. That way, every church in our community gets to play their own unique role in advancing God's kingdom in our small part of the world.
If you want to be successful in this business, you need to find a niche." So what's your niche?
No comments:
Post a Comment