Sand Springs Pastor Urges Folks To 'Worship Local'

You've heard “shop local.” You've heard “eat local.” But what about “worship local?”

It's a new initiative in Sand Springs by local pastors to encourage people to go to church in their hometown.

Church That Matters is just one of dozens of churches in Sand Springs.

The church was founded right there in town, and part of its mission is to be involved in the community.

"Our pastors in Sand Springs meet together with our city manager and our mayor and some other city leaders from time to time, but every month we pray together," lead pastor Rusty Gunn said.

During the meetings, Gunn says they talk about shopping locally and keeping business local, and that's when he said he thought about touting local worship.

“The truth is, when someone goes outside of our city to serve or to attend worship or gives outside of our city, it really hurts our local community just like shopping outside our city hurts local businesses,” he said.

“I believe that stronger local churches make a stronger city and a stronger local community.”

And he says it's not a push to attend one specific church, but rather a push to have people look within their own communities, neighborhoods and towns for a place to worship instead of driving 30 or 40 miles away.

“I see those people at shopping centers and I see them at the school events and I see them where we are doing life together Monday through Saturday, not just coming into a venue on Sunday. So there's a lot of elements to that,” he said.

Gunn says whatever it comes down to, he thinks people should worship where they're called, but he’s urging them not to overlook the churches giving back to the same communities they live in.