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“Should a local church expect commitment to the same degree from everyone who attends?” This question was on a seminary forum for a class I’m taking. Since I posted the below response personally, I think it should be ok to reprint it here. And you don’t need to be workign on a degree to answer it. Here’s my answer, I’d love to hear yours:

“Should a local church expect commitment to the same degree from everyone who attends?”

Certainly not.

The landmark book Missional Church ed. by Darrell Guder and the Gospel and Our Culture Network talks about this at great length concerning the idea of “bounded sets” and “centered sets”, namely the concept of communities that are strongly bounded by identity and culture and difficult to penetrate – vs. communities that are “centered” in focus and strategy – not so much strongly bordered but looser in identity and affiliation yet deeply purposive (hence “centered”) in mission.

I’ll admit I didn’t understand this idea too well when I first read this book many years back but upon re-reading I find it spot-on.

It would seem the conclusion of the Network is that what is needed are communities that are both bounded and centered-set communities, namely possessing “centered-set” vision, values, and strategy, and yet within the loose affiliation that is “centered”, there exists a “bounded-set” community deeply connected by identity, communal values, life and experience. This “inner circle” sounds like what is called “the core group” in church planter’s parlance.

As a former planter myself I’ve observed closely how churches with centered-set vision draw people in to the bounded-set community. It’s a miraculous thing to behold, how newcomers will eventually deeply identify with a church plant and while some will stay and some will go, those who stay become deeply involved, inextricably connected to the congregation and their lives become centered around the community. Many church plants suffer from “revolving door” syndrome. Even the successful ones. I recently chatted with a pastor at a church that has done marvelously and those were the exact words he used – in the fall their church became a “revolving door”. Still my follow up question revealed that there was indeed a strongly-knit foundation – the bounded set within the centered set – a core group of about 350 people. That’s how you build a church.

I would even go so far as to say if one is thinking about church planting and they do not have this “bounded set” core group – forget about it. It’s suicide. Conversely, if one is trying to plant a church w/ centered-set valued folks – again forget about it. It’s still suicide.

Agree / Disagree????????

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