Friday, April 24, 2009

Types of people not in our churches

Transforming Melbourne has reported on a research about Melbourne churches. Here is an excerpt from their recent email news (24 April 2009).

Major groups largely absent from the churches

People in de facto relationships: (=1% of church attenders, 8% of adult population)
People who have never married (=19% of church attenders, 43% of adult population)
People without tertiary qualifications (=53% of attenders, 80% of adult population)
People in full-time employment (=27% of attenders, 37% of adult population)

I think to some extent these are due to the fact that we tend to share the gospel with those who are similar to us. I live in an eastern suburb in Melbourne. Most of my friends have someone in their household working full-time. Most of them have tertiary qualifications, and indeed many of them have postgraduate qualifications. But my heart goes to the others whose lives are different from mine, especially those who are less fortunate than I. That's why I prefer to be part of a Christian community that has plenty of people unemployed, single and without tertiary qualifications. (But I understand that not everyone can, in practice, be part of such a community, and often for good and/or valid reasons.)

Any thoughts after reading the above stats?

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