Why People Should Plant Churches in Pittsburgh
In my second post on church planting in Pittsburgh, I want to examine the question: Why should people plant churches in Pittsburgh?
Short Answer–Because:
- God’s wants his love to be made real to people in the context of community (i.e churches).
- Pittsburgh is centrally located in the middle of half of the country’s population.
- Pittsburgh is economically connected on the national and international scale.
- Pittsburgh has a diversity and density that will allow for many neighborhood church plants.
- Costs associated with planting could be greatly reduced in Pittsburgh, leading to more churches being established.
Before looking at market research or demographic trends which might make Pittsburgh a good place to plant churches we must understand a more important reason to plant churches in Pittsburgh. We should plant churches in Pittsburgh because God uses churches as the main instrument of his redemptive work.
Should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left…
One verse that encapsulates God’s desire for reconciliation is Jonah 4:10-11 “And the LORD said, ‘You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?’” God explains to Jonah that the reason Jonah was sent to Nineveh was because God loved and cared for the people of Nineveh, and he wanted to be reconciled to as many people as possible.
Unfortunately, some Christians today would rather enjoy their own vines, than do the harder work of declaring God’s love to a people who don’t know their right hand from their left.
I hope that beyond the circumstantial reasons for church planting in Pittsburgh, people will see it as a priority because God uses churches to care for people.
There are however several reasons why Pittsburgh is a good location for church planting efforts, from a strategic perspective.
Location
Pittsburgh is a half-days drive to 5 of the 10 most populous metro areas in the country. It is 6.5 hours from Chicago and NYC, 5.5 hours from Philadelphia and only a little over 4 hours to Washington DC. This means that Pittsburgh could become a strategic center for ministries serving half of the country’s population centers.
National and International Connections
Though Pittsburgh is small city it has many industries that give it a very long reach, both on a national and international scale. Pittsburgh is home to Carnegie Mellon University, CMU, which year after year is ranked as among the top universities in the world. Pittsburgh also has has a disproportionate number of fortune 500 companies(7 in all). Additionally, because of the influence of CMU, Pittsburgh is becoming a tech hub, with many new startup landing in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is so tech-connected that Google has an office here. All this means that people reached in Pittsburgh might very well end up being connected to many people in many areas of the country and even the world.
Neighborhood City
Pittsburgh like many Northeastern cities is a collection of smaller neighborhoods that all interact with one another. Additionally many of these neighborhoods are very densely populated. Some ranging from 5000 to 18000 people per sq mile. For church planting this means that churches can be planted very close to each other and still reach new groups and more non-christians. This means that church plants can be close and be connected to one another in their day to day lives.
Cost Effective
Finally Pittsburgh is a very cost effective place to plant churches. Pittsburgh never entered the housing bubble which means that it is much cheaper to live in Pittsburgh than most other large cities. For instance I recently saw a four bedroom victorian townhouse for sale in an up and coming neighborhood for 149k. In most American markets that would be the absolute minimum entry price for the city.
If Pittsburgh is cheaper it means that less support is necessary to plant churches here. This means that planting can be more rapid. It also means that church planters can be less concerned about being self supporting. Not because it would be harder in Pittsburgh but because it will me easier than in many other major cities. This means less time will have to be spent on support raising, and more time can be spent with people.
Because of low cost associated with planting in Pittsburgh, Planters can experiment with planting strategies.
Right now most of the PCA’s “research and development” is happening is places that are costly, but I would suggest that Pittsburgh would be a better testing ground for planting techniques.
These are just some of the reasons why people should consider church planting in Pittsburgh.
Can you think of any other reasons?