Article
Planting a Church When People Keep Moving: What to Know about Planting in Transient Contexts
Church planting and pastoring in high-transience contexts will never be straightforward.
Life in the Land of the Anywheres
From experience, church planting (or even simply pastoring) in high-mobility contexts—such as university cities, tech hubs, or urban centers with rapidly changing rental markets—presents both unique opportunities and frustrations. These are the places where, to borrow sociologist David Goodhart’s language from The Road to Somewhere, “Anywheres” outnumber “Somewheres.”
Anywheres are the mobile, well-educated, often culturally liberal professionals whose identity is not tied to a particular place but rather to networks of ideas, experiences, and qualifications. Somewheres, by contrast, have a strong sense of rootedness, deriving their identity from a particular community, region, or traditions.
In most high-transience areas, the dominant culture is Anywhere. People are used to (and expect to) move every couple of years or so. They change cities for work, study, lifestyle, or adventure without too much stress. Their social lives are built on connections that can (mostly) be maintained online, and their cultural capital travels with them. They are good at both plugging into existing networks quickly—and also at unplugging when the next opportunity comes along. For the church planter or pastor, this means you’re trying to build a church where the core group is basically a moving target!
The Rootless and the Rooted
The most obvious challenge is the constant churn. A church might launch with a strong core team of early adopters in September, only to find that by the following summer, a third (or more) have relocated to pastures new. Those leaving are not disloyal—in many cases, perhaps they are the very people who gave generously, served sacrificially, and brought others along. But their departure means that momentum can feel like it’s constantly slipping through your fingers. The normal rhythms of discipleship—slowly building trust, walking through life’s seasons together—have to be reimagined when your average member might only be around for two or three years.
Yet there are also unique opportunities here. Anywhere-dominated contexts are often marked by an openness to new experiences and new communities. A church plant can feel less intimidating to them than a well-established congregation with layers of tradition and unspoken social codes. Because they expect to meet new people, newcomers are less resistant to invitations. In fact, church plants in transient areas sometimes find that their visitor-to-member ratio is unusually high, giving them a steady stream of curious attendees to consider and engage with the gospel.
Still, the Anywhere–Somewhere dynamic raises deeper pastoral questions. A church simply cannot only be a revolving door for Anywheres; it must also offer a home for the Somewheres who remain, or for Anywheres who want to seek a deeper rootedness. Somewheres often feel alienated in transient contexts. They may perceive the constant change as a sign that the church is unstable or fragile, and yet, these individuals are crucial for long-term stability. Without a core of people who remain, the plant risks becoming a permanent “launch pad” rather than a home.
This is where Goodhart’s framing can be really helpful for the planter: Anywheres bring openness, adaptability, and the ability to bridge diverse networks. Somewheres bring continuity, local knowledge, and a commitment to place that keeps a church from floating off into cultural abstraction. A wise church planter will resist the temptation to favor one group over the other, instead cultivating a vision where the transient and the rooted can bless one another. The church can be a place where the Anywheres are invited to slow down, invest, and consider what stability might look like for them, while the Somewheres are challenged to broaden their horizons and engage missionally with those “just passing through.”
The Challenges of Pastoring at Speed
Strategically, planting in high-transience areas often requires condensing and sharpening discipleship. Leaders can’t assume they have five years (or more!) to train a small group leader—in many cases, they may only have eighteen months (or less!). Similarly, integration processes need to be immediate and relationally rich. If a newcomer attends for three weeks before being invited to lunch or coffee, you may have possibly missed your window.
Financial sustainability can also be far trickier. Transient populations are often younger and less established financially, which can mean higher energy but lower giving capacity. Add to this the fact that givers may leave after a year or two, and a church plant can feel perpetually under-resourced. Bi-vocational planting and partnerships with sending churches and networks can help, but the underlying instability will remain a reality to plan around until the Somewhere group grows.
Gospel Goodbyes and Gospel Growth
One under-explored pastoral dimension is grief. In transient settings, the pace of relationship turnover can be emotionally taxing for both leaders and members. “Gospel Goodbyes” become a constant feature of church life. The loss is often under-acknowledged because everyone knows it’s “part of the deal,” yet over time it can lead to emotional fatigue and a reluctance to invest relationally. Wise leaders will model honest lament over departures, celebrating what God has done in the departing person’s life while also acknowledging the cost to those who remain.
On a missional level, church plants in high-transience areas have a unique opportunity to act as gospel “hubs.” While the constant departures can be painful locally, each leaving member can become a seed planted elsewhere. A student discipled for three years may go on to influence a new workplace in another city. A family that served faithfully in the children’s ministry might strengthen a struggling church in their next location. Seen through this lens, the church plant is not losing members so much as sending missionaries—even if they didn’t sign up under that title.
Ultimately, the Anywhere–Somewhere lens reminds us that the gospel is for both the rootless and the rooted, and that the church is one of the very few communities in modern life that can hold those identities together under Christ. The transient believer needs to hear that the Christian life is not just a string of detached experiences but rather a call to covenantal belonging. The rooted believer needs to hear that the mission of God means investing and lifting eyes to new places for the sake of the kingdom. In transient places, this mutual shaping is not optional—it is the reality of a healthy congregation. It’s both and.
Church planting and pastoring in high-transience contexts will never be straightforward. It can be demanding to invest deeply in people who might soon leave. It is pastoral ministry with a shorter fuse but a broader field of mission. Yet for those willing to embrace the many tensions, it offers a beautiful front-row seat to the ways God uses even brief encounters to produce eternal fruit. As Paul might remind us, some plant, some water, and some are called elsewhere, but it is God who gives the growth.
