Target Areas

At a casual glance there appears to be many churches throughout to Tucson area all of the way down to the Mexican border. Reality? Not really. Are there many church facilities? Sure. The need to start new churches is so overwhelming that at times we feel like we don’t know where to start. If you were to ever look at a map of the churches in our association you’ll notice huge blank spots on the map where we’re not doing anything. And then you'll see parts on the map where there are clusters of churches clumped together. Does that mean there’s a noticeable difference? Not really. When we’re talking about an unchurched area like Tucson we could plant 20 new churches a year and still be behind the curve.

The purpose of starting new churches is to reach individuals and groups of people and to bring them into a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. Here in the CBA area, we do not start churches to reach the “churched,” but instead to reach those who are at the heart of a very secular, post-modern society. Ours is one of the most unreached areas of the US. Only 15% go to a church of any kind at least twice a year. Established churches are declining or plateaued. In the last decade, large established churches grew basically by biological or transfer growth, so the percentage for church attendance has suffered almost no variation in the same period of time. There was a lot of shuffling of members but not a real growth that could impact the culture. On the other hand, the population growth of the region is still more than 20% per decade. Not even the best of all our churches can make an impact on this region by itself. We need more churches and a network of churches with a Kingdom mentality.