(May 24, 2018 at 7:40 pm)Chad32 Wrote: I don't know if I ever told this story, but I think it's kind of cute. On a road to my parent's house i saw a new trailer on an empty grassy lot, and a little cardboard sign saying fellowship services held there. Over time it grew to two or three trailers, and a gravel path. Within a year, a foundation was set for a new building off to the side. They were able to build a proper church building, and today, after I hadn't seen it in a while, I noticed it has a paved parking lot and an electronic sign.
I wonder if anyone else has seen this kind of thing, where they travel a road somewhat frequently and notice progress being made on little stuff like this. I thought it was kind of cute. A group of locals banding together to make something that the area didn't have.
And yeah, a new restaurant or grocery store would have been more generally useful, but I thought it was cool anyway.
You are being influenced by the "halo effect". You see the church growing and you subconsciously start to think that they must be doing something right or else it wouldn't grow. If you don't remain detached before you know it you will become a member yourself. It's like people driving down the road. If they see cars parked in front of a restaurant they are more likely to stop because the cars indicate that people like the place. That influences other people to stop there.
