well guys i might be wrong, plz correct me if i am.. but what i perceive from the statement is basically an ideology that when you have something near you, the least bothered you are about that ... i mean it doesn't necessarily just fits for the church .. it can be for any worship place... mostly we see that the people who are near the worship places are mostly less interested in gaining the love of God and least bothered even... but many times we see people travelling from far off to the worship places ... i think the main drive behind is actually the Love of God, that compels them towards it ... we see an expert example of this in the case of Hajj for muslims. they come from far off there, but the people living in saudia are, i think, not that much passionate about it.. similarly many historic churches are huge attractions for the far off christian visitors but for the natives, they are not much of an interest..

hope i expressed thru, atleast some... :p

God bless y'all

Dr. Ambrose Emmanuel