"These New Churches Will Undoubtedly Fail"

Last week Metro Silicon Valley ran an article on our church plant/church planting in Silicon Valley that has stirred up some great discussion.Last Friday I was at a Bay Area coffee shop and, over the course of two hours, I got into a discussion about Jesus, the church, and culture with eight different people who were sitting at nearby tables and reading the article.The online version of the article allows people to leave comments. The comments have been heated and interesting. A man named David left the following comment:

Young people are a lot smarter than these church folks believe. Silicon Valley is made up of people who believe in the sciences, not some silly infantile superstitious beliefs that contain no empirical evidence. These new churches will undoubtedly fail.

David's comment is not surprising. Many church planting attempts have failed in Silicon Valley. Many churches have failed to engage the very secular culture here. And estimates say that only 4-5% of Silicon Valley is considered "churched." This is the context in which I'm planting Garden City Church. And I love it. It's a wonderful challenge. And my confidence isn't in David's words, my confidence is in Jesus' words:

I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.