It's located in a city about an hour north of our original campus. Easter 2016, we will launch another campus in this building.
That will be campus #9. And it won't be the last. I don't think we'll ever stop adding more campuses.
Why you might ask? Isn't 9 campuses enough? No. And here's why. We still have tons of people in our area who are far from God. We still have hundreds of thousands of families who don't have a relationship with Jesus. We still have multitudes of kids and parents who need Jesus.
In fact, a report just came out from Barna that lists the top "churchless" cities in America. Here they are. The ones in bold are where our church has campuses now.
1. San Francisco, CA 61%
2. Burlington, VT 55%
3. Boston, MA 53%
4. Portland, ME 52%
5. Chico, CA 52%
6. Las Vegas, NV 51%
7. Seattle, WA 50%
8. Albany, NY 50%
9. Phoenix, AZ 49%
10. New York, NY 48%
11. West Palm Beach, FL 48%
The same report listed the top "never churched" cities.
1. West Palm Beach, FL (17%)
2. Santa Barbara, CA (16%)
3. New York, NY (15%)
4. McAllen, TX (15%)
5. Chico, CA (15%)
This is why we must continue to start campuses. This is why we cannot kick back and put it in neutral.
The issue is not how many people are attending your church and mine. The issue is how many people in our cities are not attending church anywhere. That is the number that should keep us up at night.
Has your ministry lost its passion for people without God? Have you decided to "hold on til Jesus comes back?" Have you grown content and decided to coast for awhile?
May God stir up a fresh fire in my heart and your heart for the kids and families in our communities. We must keep starting campuses....we must keep planting churches...we must keep reaching people. Eternity is at stake.
