In his new book, The Nuts and Bolts of Church Planting, Aubrey Malphurs summarizes research by Win Arn on average drive times of those "going to church" (attending a worship service). The average drive times are:
- Less than 5 minutes - 20%
- 5 to 15 minutes - 40%
15 to 25 minutes - 23%
25 minutes or more - 17%
This research shows that 60% drive 15 minutes or less, and 83% drive 25 minutes or less. Only 17% were willing to drive more than 25 minutes. In other words, there is a definite association between drive time and church worship attendance. The longer someone had to drive, apparently, the less likely they were to attend a particular church. Conversely, the geographic proximity of a congregation (not looking at other factors) does help people attend a weekly worship service.
Of course, since the majority of church goers are church goers (I know, this is brilliant analysis), this study would indicate the affect that drive time had upon Christians. What about non-Christians and drive time?
While I am not aware of a study which tries to capture this number, the intuitive, obvious answer is that the unchurched are even less likely to attend a worship service that is far away and causes them to drive 25 minutes or more.
So if a church is drawing people that are 25 minutes away, they definitely ought to consider planting a new church or in that far away area. (They ought to church plant for other reasons too, and could plant a church across the street and get a whole different group of people. This is just an additional reason.) In fact, in speaking recently with Rick Atchley, he indicated that this was the reason they were opening up a new satellite. They had a number of people driving an hour or so to come to one of their worship services. Rick said that they were not starting a satellite for the convenience for their own members, but so that their members would be able to invite their unchurched friends to a worship service that they might actually go to because of its closer proximity.
In a normal situation, how far would you want to drive to a worship assembly (what is the upper limit)? How about your unchurched family, friends and neighbors?
Comment
That's exactly the reason why we have to evangelize the area in which we live. It's easier to motivate someone to attend a service that is minutes away instead of driving half an hour away.
I use to live in one city and drive 20 something miles to another to attend a service. I realize now that it is difficult to be a part of a community when you are not actually in it. Fortunely, now I live and worship in the same city and area and we are doing more work for the Lord than I ever have before.
But I haven't figured out these new satallite campuses yet. Why not just plant another church and let them be independent?
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