People who need Jesus - Reason #1 for a new church

I have been questioned a few times on the real need for another church/campus in the Merrillville area considering there are so many churches there already. 48 to be exact. On the surface it does appear like there really isn't much need.

However, a few things have to be considered:

1 - effectiveness of those churches;
2 - style of churches - I believe it takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people;
3 - the number of people yet to be reached.

One presenter today gave a "formula" for figuring out how many people in any given community there are to reach. It looks like this:

a - (b X 2c) = d

a = Population
b = Number of churches in community
c = Average church attendance
d = Number of unreached, unchurched and dechurched - people who need Jesus in other words.

If you plug in these numbers for Merrillville you get this:

32,000 - (48 X 200) = 22,400 of people who need Jesus in Merrillville alone.

I think that alone is reason enough for more new churches in that area.