How Should We Respond to New Neighborhoods?
The church I planted in McKinney, Texas was in response to several massive new housing developments. Cornfields were being turned into homes, row after row after row. We are seeing this in different parts of the United States — entire new neighborhoods are sprouting up, often connecting suburban towns as they spread out from big cities. Unfortunately, these neighborhoods are often miles away from an Episcopal church.
What is the church to do? One approach would be to ignore them, trusting that the Episcopalians that are moving into these neighborhoods will take the initiative to find our closest church. Surely, they will be willing to drive thirty minutes to get our church, right? Not likely! Another approach would be for the proximate churches to work together to develop a working strategy to reach these new neighborhoods. Many times, these neighborhoods pop up between two churches or in the middle of three. Imagine a Christmas Eve direct mail advert, inviting people in the neighborhood to all three churches! Share the cost, pray together and think through an intentional strategy to let these new neighbors know that you exist and that you are inviting them to come. If such a partnership isn’t possible, then a single church should strategically adopt the new neighborhood into the “parish” boundary of the church. Don’t wait until you see a few new members come to respond, get in on the ground floor and be the first church to extend an invitation.
My favorite option — and I know this will shock you — is to start a new church! There are several ways that churches go about this. The easiest and best way, of course, would be for a nearby church (or even better, two or more churches!) to commission a leader and launch team to reach the new neighborhood. This could be made up of people who live there or who just have a heart for their community. I’ve also seen new churches get started from among the people who have moved there. Seeing no church close by, a group of Episcopalians get together and start a new one. These new ministries often start in homes. With time and effort, they can get to the place where they approach a diocese for clergy support and organization. A really compelling option with great potential is an ecumenical partnership. Church planting in big new neighborhoods is a terrific opportunity for an Episcopal/Lutheran or Episcopal/Methodist church plant.
For a diocese, church or group of Episcopalians considering or praying through starting a new ministry in a new neighborhood, I would ask you to consider the following:
- Communicate with the developer about property acquisition. In large developments, land is often set aside for churches. I can’t think of a single development where an Episcopal church was one of those churches! How do the Baptists and Methodists get the first crack at these opportunities? Dispatch a faithful Episcopalian with good real estate ties to find these developers and ask them how to go about getting in on the ground floor. Many times, this land is discounted or even given to churches for this purpose.
- Communicate with the builders and developers about the timelines for buildout. We had a recent case of a church planter who tried to plant a church in a new neighborhood only to see the pace of construction slow to a halt. It’s a tricky balance, but we need to wait until there are enough people to get things going but not too long until the neighborhood is built out and we are late to the party.
- Do a careful audit of what spaces there are available to hold worship. This is a tremendous obstacle for many church planters who are starting without a building. Don’t get started until you have this bit figured out. Schools, day cares, dance academies and gyms (favorite places for new churches to rent from) are often built well after the people move in. New ministries in neighborhoods need to be ready to start in houses and scramble their way forward from there.
All of this is not to mention the new neighborhoods that are emerging in the downtowns of many great American cities. With the troublesome phenomenon of gentrification comes the tremendous missional opportunity with people who are moving back into urban areas. Here, we often have tremendous churches, beautiful buildings and ready clergy! Let’s just be sure that we are thinking and praying through the changes in the neighborhoods and responding to them like a church planter would.
I pray that your church and your diocese will not sit on the sidelines as the housing patterns in your mission field change. In so many places, we simply do not have churches in the right locations. Denominational loyalty, decreasing by the day, is not strong enough for us to adequately respond to these new realities. Let me know how I can help!
