Michael L. Lindvall, Senior Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, wrote an article in the September 6, 2011 edition of the Christian Century about the mixed motives people have when joining a church. Sharing insight from his own experience and data to show that this is not merely a recent or American trend, he suggests that people do not join churches out of “pure conviction.” He suggests that this assumption “underestimates God” and also “misunderstands human beings.” He explains the latter with two subpoints:
- Faith is not an arrival; it is a journey . . . joining is not so much a faith arrival as it is a commitment to journey deeper into faith.
- Humans are relational and congregations are communities of relationship. People become part of a congregation not just for God, but also for other people.
So What?
Understanding why people join your church is not as easy as asking them to state their reason or reasons for doing so. It is far easier to use surveys to determine how they first learned of your congregation or one or more of its many ministries
- How do you understand assimilation to be related to joining/membership (occurs before, occurs after, ongoing process independent of membership, etc.)
- How can Lindvall’s two observations help your congregation craft a more meaningful assimilation ministry?