Survey

This past Saturday, our church conducted a survey for the community in which we’re relocating. Our goal is to become a church that impacts our community. The first thing we want to do is choose a name that has meaning for our neighbors – so, we conducted a survey. We listed five options and asked them to choose which one sounded best for the community.

*Southside Community Church – this particular area of the Tree Streets is known as the Southside community (it’s the name of the school that’s the center of the neighborhood).
*College Park Community Church – ETSU is 5 minutes away.
*The Dwelling Place – edgy, postmodern feel.
*Crossway Chapel – the network of churches that helped plant Sonlife has asked that their membership consider changing their names to this
*Bridgepoint – not your usual church name.

In our church planting class, Dr. Jones suggested that neighborhood surveys can be more effective if you ask the person what their neighbor would think about something, or why they think their neighbor does/doesn’t go to church, etc. It’s supposed to give the person the freedom to open up about himself, but without really saying he believes that way. It’s some psychological thing.

So, I asked one guy to think which name his neighbors would find most attractive. He said, “None of them. They’re Orthodox and don’t care about a church name.” I tried to get him to think about what he liked, then. I couldn’t get him out of the mindset of his neighbors, though. I guess psychology doesn’t always work.

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Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"
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