Too Many Jellies for the "Nones?"

I read a compelling article last night in the November 6th issue of The Week magazine called Losing our Religion. A new study by researchers at Trinity College found that 34 million Americans have no religious affiliation - about 15 percent of the US population. That number was at 8 percent in 1990. This group is referred to as the Nones.

Less than 10 percent of the Nones are atheists. The others 90-plus percent believe in something higher but not the God as described in the Bible. They are "skeptical about organized religion and clerics while still holding on to the idea of God."

The article also concludes that while all religious institutions (churches, mosques, synagogues) have seen the decline, the hardest hit are mainstream Protestant churches (including mega churches) seeing declines in attendance of 20 percent of more in recent years.

The article also states that "denominational loyalty has eroded as church-goers 'shop' for new congregations they hope will better suit their values and tastes."

I have witnessed this, perhaps you have, too.

Church shopping. While this is never been a goal at GCC to reach the already churched, I have experienced this phenomenon on my own teams. Some people leaving for the greener pastures of other churches and some people coming into our church looking for something better. There are many church choices in our community. There is a church available for almost every teaching or worship flavor you could want. And, if your favorite flavor is not available locally, you can probably find your flavor easily on the Internet - what you want, when you want it. It's a church consumer's paradise. Or is it?

I recently attended a one-day seminar conducted by Chip Heath, a professor of organizational behavior at the graduate school of business at Stanford university and co-author of Made to Stick. He cited a study about choice and the sales of jelly. A table was set out offering 25 flavors of jelly for a week. Many people stopped by to visit the table and few sales were made. The next week, same store, same table, 6 flavors were on display. Fewer people stopped by, but sales of jelly were 10 times greater.

Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice: Why Too Many Options Lead to Dissatisfaction (check out his TED talk - 19 minutes) tells us that many choice options lead to consumer paralysis, mental confusion, and regret about possibly having made the wrong choice. The result? No choice at all or extremely heightened dissatisfaction with our choice. Could this be the mental and spiritual condition of the Nones? Of church shoppers?

It seems many people are stopping by the church jelly stand in America, but few are buying.

While I do not have the answers to these questions, I think they must be asked and considered:

Are church planters, with the good intention of reaching niche segments of the lost, inadvertently creating choice-saturated markets that create confusion and regret for all church consumers?

Is it possible that the multi-site growth initiatives of mega churches around the country are actually hurting the church as a whole by adding more choice options to already crowded geographical and cyber church markets?

I believe in the multi-site movement. I think it helps big church become small for consumers who are better served by a smaller congregation. However, I think it will be imperative that churches strongly consider what it means to inject another church into a market even and especially if it's flavor is different.