Free Churches and Social Class Structure

Marketers and real estate planners will tell you that for real growth potential your church needs to be placed on a social demographic boundary. By locating between the upper end of the median household income in your target demographic and the lower end, the argument goes, you can place your church in an area that will feel secure, comfortable, and welcoming to everyone who attends. You won't scare off your wealthier members by going too far down class. And you won't be too pretentious for your poorer members to feel confident that they belong. In fact, you can leverage this strategy even more by finding an upper income "peninsula" that forays into an area of middle to lower income households with a nice spread of commercial properties, but little to no industrial presence. Think of it as finding a place that has access to public transportation, but where the people riding it are using it as a "green" way to get to work, not as their primary method for mobility. Find these boundaries of social class in America, and you will increase the number of attendees at your services.

However, does this strategy work for building the body of Christ? Does it embrace Christ's mission to reach the lost? Does it empower us as Christians to step out in faith and find and expand the growing edges of our walk with Christ?

John Wesley, the great English reformer, challenged his followers to expand their walk with Christ beyond theology and into life with the assertion that, “the Gospel of Christ knows no religion but social, no holiness but social holiness...” and called them to join his mission with the invitation, “if your heart is as my heart, then give me your hand.” And when it came to money, he often repeated this mantra, "Earn all you can; Save all you can; Give all you can." In fact, social justice, the removal of poverty, and the integration of the social classes was so key in his understanding of Christ's mission that he would often end his sermons with this benediction,

Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can.

Christianity is about extending your reach. Rather than accepting the social norms, common culture, traditional institutions, and class structures in our society today -- Christianity demands a radically subversive adherence to walking in the footsteps of Jesus, moving easily between social classes, looking beyond the box of our own demographic profile, and making the world a better place because we have lived in it.

Jesus touched lepers and ate with rulers.

Jesus refused to take sides in the class warfare as it raged around Him, instead calling ALL sinners to repentance, and healing ALL those who had faith.

So, when making decisions about where to preach the gospel, isn't it better to rely on where God calls us to be and where the opportunity is provided?

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Don't you say, 'There are yet four months until the harvest?' Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, 'One sows, and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you haven't labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." - John 4