Is it right to market our church?

Our church has been praying about a possible change in outreach focus.  Our first 8 years we've been focused on reaching out to the new and younger families moving into the newer part of town...a common strategy of churches in my lifetime.  Now, we're considering a new focus on the needs of people living in downtown Buckeye, a more needy, urban environment.

If we make this change it doesn't mean that we no longer care about the new people moving to town, it just means when we make our decisions about location, programing, priorities, staffing, marketing, worship service, etc. we make those decisions through a different lens.

When we started the church I hired a very capable young couple from CA who had gifts in admin, design, marketing, technology, contemporary Christian music, and children's education.  They were a perfect fit for our strategy!  Soon, after we hired a youth intern who was a high energy creative young man who was a natural programer.  Next we hired a high capacity professional musician, and added a dynamic family from CA to lead small groups.  Along with these hires we spent thousands on slick marketing, developed programing for the whole family, opened a professional office, and hired a receptionist.

The type of programing and hiring, plus our quick move out of downtown Buckeye (at the earliest possible moment), and the style of marketing and worship service all indicated our focus.  Even our mission and outreach projects we chose to do were the kind that suited young suburban families.  This focus accomplished our growth goal as we were one of the fastest growing churches in AZ during our first 2 1/2 years and most of our growth was young families.    

Did that mean we didn't want anyone who wasn't a young upwardly mobile family?  Absolutely not!  The diversity of age, social, and educational diversity of our church from the beginning has been remarkable.  There have been many who are older, or not new to town, or don't have young children, or don't have a college degree, or don't own their home who still found something about our church that attracted them in those first 2 1/2 years (and since.)

It comes down to unity.  When a church focuses in one direction it helps keep unity.  When everyone has a different opinion about programs, money priorities, who to hire, where to meet, how to market, what the worship service feels like, etc. it will split a church if there isn't a focus.  That's why it's important that before our church makes another move (which we need to do because of our current size,) we need to settle whether God is calling us to shift our focus from families moving to Buckeye to the needs of the working poor in downtown Buckeye.

We would still want new families to join with us.  However, we would be inviting these new families to join us not because of what we offer them and their kids, but because we welcome their help to redeem a group of people who are struggling and hurting and need Christ.  Honestly, it's not a great strategy to grow our church quickly, but the journey could result in the richest spiritual growth you've ever experienced.