MOVING TARGETS: MINISTRY IN A TRANSIENT SOCIETY
How churches keep from being immobilized by their mobile population.
Stephen W. Sorenson
October 1, 1991
A few years ago, the national media touted Colorado Springs as a place of growth and opportunity. Plentiful high-tech jobs and mountain beauty attracted thousands of people. Military assignments brought thousands to Peterson Field, Fort Carson, and the Air Force Academy. Housing starts reached all-time highs.
Then the recession hit. One third of the city's population has moved out of state during the past five years, making it one of the nation's most transient cities. Area pastors were caught in the middle of turbulent change.
Ministering to a transient culture, however, is not just a Colorado Springs phenomenon. It is becoming the norm, it seems, for our mobile culture. In many suburban areas, for example, one fifth of the population may turn over yearly. Pastors throughout the country know the difficulty of trying to build a church on shifting sands, trying to minister to nomads without going mad.
After interviewing pastors from the Colorado Springs area, I found that churches are adapting to the transience. The pastors have learned a great deal-and in the long run are actually benefiting from the process. Here are some of the lessons they've learned.
Challenges Intensified
Transience is not a new phenomenon, of course. America has been a mobile culture from its beginnings, so most pastors have learned to live with it, even appreciate it. But when transience intensifies, so do many of the typical church problems.
Loss of leadership. Larry and Jane were very involved in First Presbyterian Church. They had three sons, each active in Sunday school and youth ministry. Larry was an elder. But when the economy fell apart, his real estate and development business evaporated.
"He tried for months to find another avenue of income," ...
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