Nothing scares me more than a church leader who says, "I want to reach young people." I can always tell that packed into that statement is someone who doesn't know young people. And if you don't know the people you're trying to reach—if you don't know them heart to heart—you can't reach them.

You might say to yourself, "I want to reach younger people," or, "I want to reach 30-somethings." And I would ask you: which 30-somethings? The 30-something where the doctor is married to the lawyer and they live in a $3 million house that's paid for? Or the 30-something who's living in their parents' basement playing video games all day? Which one are you trying to reach? Because not all 30-somethings are alike.

When you understand who God has given you a unique ability to reach, you develop a heart for them and create experiences around them. You create a Queen of Sheba experience, where they come in and recognize God in what you're doing. But you can only do that when you understand very clearly who God has called you to reach.

So let me challenge you. If you've thought to yourself, "I want to reach older people," or "younger people," or people of any category, but you don't know how they live, how they act, and how that affects how they perceive your church, you'll never be able to reach them until you do.

My prayer for you in this next season is that you would get tremendous clarity and laser focus on who God has called you to reach. That clarity wouldn't just affect who you pursue in your advertising. It would affect who you're preaching to on Sunday morning. And everything you do as a church would begin to align around who you've been called to reach, while staying tethered to who you've been in generations past.

Thank you for what you do for the King and the kingdom. If you have any questions, give us a call. We're here to help.