A new house went up every 20 minutes during the 2004 building boom that seized Las Vegas and its sprawling suburbs. The population of Vegas is 567,641 with only 88 Southern Baptist churches, offering a divine opportunity for church planters.


“In one aspect, people are people,” says Epic Church Lead Pastor Ben Pilgreen. “Most people in San Francisco don’t go to church and don’t think there’s any reason to go to church. Many San Franciscans have a negative view of the church because of past experiences or because of what they read,” says Pilgreen who helped launch Epic Church in San Francisco in February 2011, surrounded by art museums in the Mission District.


And the West also includes Jackpot, Nev., Nothing, Ariz., and Hungry Horse, Mont. If you have ever traveled U.S. Route 93, Jackpot is just a coin toss south of the Idaho state line. Gambling and other distractions built Jackpot, which is an economic hub for the region.


With a population of 1,500 it is huge in comparison to most of the hamlets that circle it, many less than crossroads. Jackpot has one Southern Baptist church started in 1991. But that ratio, one church to 1,500 people, puts Jackpot in the upper echelon of communities with anything close to approaching a realistic opportunity for a church to reach its neighbors. The average church-to-population ratio in the West is one church for every 16,000 people.


Categories are no more universal in the West than it is fair to say all Texans wear cowboy boots or all Georgian’s bleed red and black.


What do you need to understand about the Western mindset beyond frontier sensibilities and the ethos of John Wayne or the Marlboro Man?


“I believe there are regional idols in the United States,” says Alan Briggs of Colorado Springs, Colo. “Here the regional idol is experience. People love the mountains. They value the experiences they have here above everything. They don’t want to be in church because they want to be on a snowboard.


“We call them granolas. And I understand the mentality because that is part of the reason I wanted to be here. I want to be in the mountains, too. I understand the appeal, the draw. I can relate to the adrenalin junkies. That’s another way we can connect with people,” says Briggs, who serves as church planting and apprenticeships pastor for Vanguard Church.


28 Summer 2011 • onmission.com

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