In 2005, I read an article in The New Yorker, by Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point and Blink). The article was called “The Cellular Church” and was about Rick Warren, head of one of the most successful mega-churches in the US. The way these churches maintain a “sense of community” as they grow very large, says Gladwell, is by creating “a network of lots of little church cells – exclusive, tightly knit groups of six or seven who meet in one another’s homes during the week to worship and pray.”

The church has thousands of volunteers who are charged with getting to know each member that walks in the door and getting that new member plugged into a small group, formed around shared hobbies and interests – knitting, quilting, mountain biking. These cells effectively function as social networks, fueling deep friendships between church members. What’s clear from the article is that people who are in small groups are more likely to show up at church on Sunday, stay a member of the Church longer, and give more money. These mega-churches are succeeding because they understand that for most people, it is the social connections they form as an aspect of going to church that in large part drive them to attend and donate. Without the small group, Warren explains in the article, going to Church with 5,000 people could feel pretty impersonal. Perhaps a bit like going to a concert hall with 1,800 people?

In the 2006 New Zealand Arts Survey, the number one reason for decreased participation, given by 56% of survey responders, is “Less Time/Other Commitments.” One might assume, perhaps, that the top reason for increased participation would be “More Time/Fewer Commitments.” It’s not. 29% of survey respondents said they were attending more frequently because they had someone to go with, and 20% said they were attending more frequently because they were “more interested” in the arts. The survey noted that when participants in the “low attendance segment,” in particular, were asked why they are attending more often now than they were three years ago, this segment (more than the others) identified the need to be encouraged by their social network to attend.

Saying “no time” reminds me of the oft-used, let-me-down-easy breakup line: “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Like these churches, arts organizations need to foster small-group, socially-driven arts participation.

Quoted from: Address to Australia Council Arts Marketing Summit by Diane Ragsdale