Niche versus community context

In my last post, I discussed niche churches and why they can be a harmful thing because of the isolation which can be experienced, etc. I think it's important to distinguish the difference between meeting a community where it is at, and establish a niche.

When I talk about a niche church, I am speaking of a church which is planted with a detailed, specific subgroup within a community, such as a "skater church" within a certain neighborhood, as opposed to a church planted in a neighborhood which is planted with the neighborhood in mind, and able to minister to all the types of folks within the neighborhood.

Why do I make that clarification? Well, different communities have different styles and are made up of various interests and people.
For instance, many in a neighborhood may not be "churched", so therefore, it would not be appropriate to plant a church in that community in which only Christianese is spoken and only unfamiliar types of music, styles of worship are incorporated.

If, I as a white Presbyterian go into a predominately Afro-American neighborhood and plant a traditional Presbyterian type church, it would utterly fail because I do not take into account the neighborhood, and would expect the neighborhood to worship "like me" with "my" music, etc. However, if I, as a white Presbyterian, planted a church in this same neighborhood, and took into account the context of operation, and used music which is familiar to the people, and took into account that the neighborhood responds/worships a certain way, and incorporated some of those aspects into the service; I do not see anything wrong with that. This would work in any neighborhood where various social, racial, ethnic groups are living.

That is different from a niche, which is designed solely for the purpose of bringing a group from the community, as opposed to bringing the community as a group.

I think this is why there is a varying degree of styles of worship, preaching, etc in various areas of the country. Farming communities relate differently than suburban communities and urban communities, etc.

Churches have to relate to the community where they are planted in order to be able to meet the needs of the area.

Sometimes this is hard to grasp because there is a hesitancy to not want to adapt to the context God has placed you in. I am extremely comfortable with traditional hymns, maybe a little contemporary music, but mostly traditional, with traditional uses of catechism questions and the ancient Creeds incorporated into the service, but in certain contexts much of the content can stay, but my preferred mode of interacting with the content may not. I may have to sing A Mighty Fortress is Our God in a way I'm not used to. I may have to clap my hands (it's Biblical) even though I lack good rythym. I may have to sing a chorus more than once a verse, even though I don't prefer to.

But what must be realized is that adapting to a neighborhood is not creating a niche. Creating a niche is doing something in a way to only attract a certain subgroup, not the neighborhood, or community as a whole.