I’m conducting an experiment. We have a lot of people in our church who have little or no church background (If I had a dollar for every time I heard that!). But seriously, because these folks are so new, they don’t come to church every week. This has its’ share of challenges.

So this weekend I asked, “Who was here last weekend?” 50% of the hands went up. That makes sense because every week I stand up in front of these people and ask myself, “Who are these people?” We had a pretty good idea it was going to be a high percentage, but I didn’t think it was going to be 50%. Just to double check, I asked, “How many of you were NOT here last week?” Sure enough, 1/2 the hands went up.

I think it’s amazing that these folks are taking some first steps in their walk with Jesus. I had a guy at our Christmas eve-eve service come up and bear-hug me with tears in his eyes and say, “I wanted you to be the first to know that today marks a year that I’ve been part of the church!” The problem is, I don’t remember ever seeing the guy before! But for someone who has never had church on his radar, coming to church once a month is major commitment.

These are the strange phenomena of doing ministry in our nation’s second most unchurched city.