As far as church work and church life, everything goes in cycles. Normally, the year before the (US) presidential elections is a bad time for churches, while the year after is one of the best. Sometimes grabbing a church job now, and toughing out a bad season, pays off in a year. This is, of course, a gross generalization, each local parish is unique.

As far as looking at “ministry as market”, it’s often more than a business decision. Any organization has a challenge to be effective, so it usually needs to narrow a focus to a specific type of person. And, any organization needs resources to survive. Absorbing a lot of high need people can quickly drain resources, however, first targeting a demographic with resources may allow an organization to then target more high-need people. All churches target a demographic, some analytically choose to be aware and open-eyed. Others choose to be blind, but still target a demographic by default. In general, most churches chase the same sixth of the population, many chase a narrower slice.

In a more esoteric sense, any movement goes through cycles. The Emerging movement has gone through an expansion phase, and now is assimilating. The leaders aren’t growing cohorts, they are out peddling books. This is a phase often called “bad stochastics”. The emerging movement is slowly creeping away from Gen-X pragmatism and integrity-challenges. And the Millennials (and retired Boomers) are bringing idealism in. Somehow, the movement needs to find a balance.

There are about a dozen companies that are extremely useful to startups – Harbor Freight, Enco, Tractor Supply, Northern Hardware, … and Cabela’s is one of them. Plenty of startups and plenty of liberals in San Francisco. And plenty of Cabela customers!

I actually think it was you – many years ago- that got me thinking wider about the internet and church.