FAQ: Why are people at NCC for only 2 years?

This particular FAQ is a little outside the realm of discipleship strategy topics, but I wanted to address it because we are asked a lot. In fact, I was just digging through some archived posts and noticed that someone had asked that question.

NCC is location in Washington, DC, which is an extremely transient and fluid city. I think the primary reason folks stay with us an average of 2 years is because that's the average amount of time a person stays in this city. Twenty-five percent of our congregation are full-time college students. The majority work on Capitol Hill, in the Administration, or in some other political or politically-related capacity. It's just a very transient place. Lots of students, interns, fellows, etc. For example, I was only in DC for one year when I first came. (I did come back 2 years later).

Yes-- people do leave NCC for other more "traditional" reasons-- they don't like the music (too loud, not loud enough, too contemporary, not contemporary enough), they claim the teaching isn't good enough or too deep or not deep enough, they want a bigger children's ministry, they want better pastoral care, etc., etc. That's cool-- there are lots of different kinds of churches because there are lots of different types of people.

But the 2-year average is primarily linked to the transient nature of this city. And that's why we've built our discipleship strategy around that.