Brothers and sisters,

Our Supercluster in Truro is this coming Thursday! (Oct. 19). Pastors, I encourage you to plan to be there to gather with other pastors as we praise God and edify one another. We will have some time to share, some teaching, and some food. In preparation, please read pages 53-66 in Stronger Together. (If you don't yet have the book, please let us know. We have a few copies left to distribute.)

A brief encouragement: If you are in the Halifax area, please make it a priority to be part of Zac Jackson’s ordination council (see link below). It was scheduled on a weekday because some of us have most of our weekends booked. We want to help Lake Echo in this important process as we live out being stronger together. 

I read on The Bee Hive a wonderful article: “Why doesn’t my neighbor go to church?” The author shares some survey results and gives us some thoughts on how we can do better at answering the objections. Obviously this is from the States, but I think there is plenty of overlap to our contexts. Here is a quote:

A recent survey asked people why they do and don’t attend church. Those who attend cited reasons such as “to get closer to God,” “because I find the sermons valuable,” and “to be part of a faith community” as some of their answers. Those who don’t attend listed these as their top reasons for not attending:

1. I practice my faith in other ways
2. I am not a believer
3. I haven’t found a church I like
4. I don’t like the sermons
5. I don’t feel welcome

That’s a helpful glimpse into the heart of the non-church attender. You might notice that four of the five reasons don’t have anything to do with their beliefs. That means that the most significant objection you might fear from your neighbor (disagreeing with your faith) is unlikely to be the main reason they aren’t attending.

Perhaps you are experiencing unprecedented growth in your church, but most of us should not only think through these answers but find good ways to communicate them to the people we are called to lead. Read the article and think through what is helpful.

May God bless you and keep you.

Andrew