FOCUS GROUPS – Strategic Planning Template #5

In my experiences of helping churches with strategic planning tasks – clarifying their purpose, mission, designer disciple, values, vision and strategy – the most controversial part of the process has always been the possible choice of a target or focus group.

A focus group is a demographic niche which a church deliberately decides to concentrate on reaching for Christ. In a large population area, your church’s focus group might be as narrowly defined as senior citizens, young families, middle-aged singles or the growing Hmong population in your church’s neighborhood. 

You can’t get very far into this topic before the objections begin to be voiced: “This isn’t Biblical,” “That would be favoring one group over another,” “God wants us to love everybody the same” and “God wants every age group well-represented in every church.”

There is some merit to this third objection: “God wants every age group well represented in each church.” A local church is a body  which has and needs diverse “members.” A church is also a family  and families typically have three or four generations. The Apostle John, for instance, addresses “fathers,” “young men” and “dear children.” (This may have been meant literally or it may have been a way of differentiating steps in spiritual growth.) Titus was given certain subjects to teach “older men,” “older women,” “younger women,” and “young men” (Titus 2:1-8). In my own experience, I loved the energy of the campus group that led me to Christ.  But that didn’t make it a real church body and I can see now that the students involved suffered from not having input from older Christians.

Regarding the favoring of one group over another, the Apostle James condemned – in no uncertain terms – the favoring of the rich over the poor (James 2:1-9). There’s no question that we must not choose a focus group for selfish reasons.

On the other hand, Old Testament prophets were usually given very specific national groups to share their message with and there clearly was an agreement (Galatians 2) between Paul and the earlier Apostles: Peter and company would major on reaching the Jews and Paul would primarily target Gentiles. In the world of missiology we call these “comity agreements.” Missionaries today – both foreign and domestic  – are normally sent out to reach particular demographic groups, such as Indian immigrants in London, Afghan workers in Abu Dhabi or Hispanic students on a college campus.

Putting these principles together, I think we can conclude that it’s entirely possible that God might lead a church to target a particular demographic group and, as long as equal love is shown towards any and all who walk in the door,  pursuing this God-chosen group with passion is the right thing to do.

There is also a difference between choosing a focus group in an urban area with a large and diverse population and choosing a focus group in a rural area where a more “generic” approach is probably the only appropriate and practical course of action.

Having said that, here are some advantages to choosing a focus group:

1. The process of defining a focus group forces church leaders to think and pray long and hard about what they are doing and why they are doing it.

I maintain that every church has an unintentional or default  focus group if it doesn’t have an intentional  focus group. Every church has a demographic that it is best equipped to reach; a people group who are most comfortable in their weekend services.

If this is not made conscious, the demographic which the church is best able to reach is simply the group which looks like the people who are already there. “Birds of a feather flock together.” Seniors attract seniors. Young families attract young families.

The other way to determine the default focus group is to look at: (1) the style of the music, (2) the style – and some would say the age – of the preacher, (3) the style of the building. On this last point here’s one observation: A beautiful building is not always best.  In lower income areas, a humble building (or even a very  humble building) might be more attractive to the people of the neighborhood than a beautiful building.

If there’s a discrepancy between these style factors and the current demographic makeup of the church, the current demographic makeup probably holds more weight than the three style factors just mentioned. This, of course, begs the question of whether a church of older folks can ever adapt themselves enough to fill their empty pews with younger folks. This is, at best, a big challenge. 

In my view even if a church wants to keep going after “the people who look like us and like our church” it should still be a deliberate choice, not just an accident.  The discussion of this subject – however difficult – is always worth having.

2. The process of choosing such a group challenges all current church attendees to adapt themselves in love to people who need Christ, and this is always a God-glorifying thing.

If a church is full of seniors but wants to reach younger people (a common scenario), its well-meaning members need to face honestly what it’s going to take to succeed at this. “Who actually likes our church?” “Can we change our music or our preaching style?” Of course you can, but it’s going to take effort and sacrifice and that will change hearts for the better (I Corinthians 9:23-27).

3. The process of choosing a focus group helps a ministry to focus its energies and resources.

The church which is deliberately focused on a single demographic can hone-in on such a people group in a way that the church which is “trying to reach everybody” can never do.

The process of talking and praying about focus groups is challenging, but it is a discussion that can result in good things for God’s glory and Christ’s gospel.

The following are seven ways to choose a focus group:

1. Turn to God in fervent, serious prayer. Whatever else you do to determine a focus group, prayer should precede and permeate the process. Having passionately prayed for God’s direction, should we then believe that the people group on our hearts was placed there by God?
2. Consider the kind of people the church is already growing with. Is there a demographic group that is already coming in your doors? Would it be feasible and practical to focus on this group which seems to be drawn to us?  Who were the last persons won to Christ by this church?

3. Consider who you might need to become demographically balanced. If you believe in having a demographically balanced church, a church that “looks like” your neighborhood, do you have one now, or do you need to “go after” young families, senior citizens, singles, Hispanics or African Americans to bring your imbalanced body back into balance?

4. Consider who is moving into the neighborhood. If a particular demographic group is moving into the corner of the mission field served by your congregation, it stands to reason that God is bringing these people right to your door. What would you have to do to reach them?

5. Is there a demographic group in your area which is not being reached? Is it possible that there are several evangelical ministries in your town which are all targeting the same group, while simultaneously leaving a less desirable group untouched?

6. Who are you equipped to reach? Your current congregation with its strengths, weaknesses and resources might make it ideally suited to reach one demographic niche while terribly unsuited to reach another. Will twenty-somethings actually set foot in a building that looks like yours? Will your older pastor be heard by a younger generation.

7. How much are you willing to adapt yourselves? This has to be one of your key questions. An aging white congregation can reach younger, black newcomers to the neighborhood with an extraordinary degree of love and adaptation. The Apostle Paul (I Corinthians 9) was willing to do anything except sin to reach lost people. Are we?

 Here’s what you can do: 

Get your team together. Walk through this material slowly and carefully. Spend lots of time in prayer together. Discuss questions 1-7 above.  Do any research which is needed to answer the questions accurately.  Come together a second time for prayer and make a Spirit-guided decision.