Is the church ready for the new day dawning among the unchurched?
February 19th 2011 13:33
Somehow we still believe the notion that unchurched people will come just because we have a nice building and a church family whom we love. There are many nice buildings which are not church buildings where unchurched people can go on Sunday mornings – places they love. When it comes to attracting the unchurched; it is not about what we love (other than Jesus), but what they love.
In the old days (yes, the word “old” is relative), churches had stained glass windows that reflected upon Bible stories and characters with a certain artistic beauty that brought about an atmosphere of calm and serenity. In our current world, it is difficult, maybe even next to impossible to find unchurched people who will attend “our church” to stare at the windows for an hour or two in order to become calm and experience serenity.
The days of the church building mentality “if we build, they will come” are quickly coming to a close, at least as an effective reality. A new day has dawned upon the world around the church and it may not be such a negative thing as church leaders are making it out to be. Many will come if they know “the presence of God” can be tangibly experienced within a church, its people and its ministries.
Admittedly finding a church where “the presence of God can be tangibly experienced” is an increasingly difficult challenge. How often do church leaders actually sit down with their people and ask, “Is the presence of God a tangible reality within our church?” When they did ask the question, were they willing to honestly evaluate the answer without giving some “religious cliché” answer that made them feel secure about themselves? The unchurched world will see through and quickly dismiss churches that live and practice religious clichés.
If the early church had used the church growth principles of todays church; it would have been a failure from the beginning. It had no buildings, marketing tools, technical resources, and program based ministries such as we have today. It had nothing more to offer than the words and works of Jesus bathed in the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the unchurched world could tangibly experience the presence of God through the church.
Someone recently wrote, “I can’t help but imagine what would happen if we took the “attractional service” budgets and began to dump them into the “attractional Christ follower” budget.”
The fastest growing religion in the world is not Christianity (or even Mormonism), but Islam. Islam is not growing because of beautiful modern buildings, feel good answers to sensitive seekers, or high salaried charismatic leaders. They are growing because their adherents are faithful followers of the cause!
It would do the church well to ask, “Are we faithful followers of the cause – JESUS CHRIST?” When we faithfully follow Christ, He will be tangibly present in word and works because we will be where He is tangibly doing what He does. Without consciously knowing it, that is exactly what many unchurched people are seeking. Come to think of it – that is what many churched people are seeking.
In the old days (yes, the word “old” is relative), churches had stained glass windows that reflected upon Bible stories and characters with a certain artistic beauty that brought about an atmosphere of calm and serenity. In our current world, it is difficult, maybe even next to impossible to find unchurched people who will attend “our church” to stare at the windows for an hour or two in order to become calm and experience serenity.
The days of the church building mentality “if we build, they will come” are quickly coming to a close, at least as an effective reality. A new day has dawned upon the world around the church and it may not be such a negative thing as church leaders are making it out to be. Many will come if they know “the presence of God” can be tangibly experienced within a church, its people and its ministries.
Admittedly finding a church where “the presence of God can be tangibly experienced” is an increasingly difficult challenge. How often do church leaders actually sit down with their people and ask, “Is the presence of God a tangible reality within our church?” When they did ask the question, were they willing to honestly evaluate the answer without giving some “religious cliché” answer that made them feel secure about themselves? The unchurched world will see through and quickly dismiss churches that live and practice religious clichés.
If the early church had used the church growth principles of todays church; it would have been a failure from the beginning. It had no buildings, marketing tools, technical resources, and program based ministries such as we have today. It had nothing more to offer than the words and works of Jesus bathed in the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the unchurched world could tangibly experience the presence of God through the church.
Someone recently wrote, “I can’t help but imagine what would happen if we took the “attractional service” budgets and began to dump them into the “attractional Christ follower” budget.”
The fastest growing religion in the world is not Christianity (or even Mormonism), but Islam. Islam is not growing because of beautiful modern buildings, feel good answers to sensitive seekers, or high salaried charismatic leaders. They are growing because their adherents are faithful followers of the cause!
It would do the church well to ask, “Are we faithful followers of the cause – JESUS CHRIST?” When we faithfully follow Christ, He will be tangibly present in word and works because we will be where He is tangibly doing what He does. Without consciously knowing it, that is exactly what many unchurched people are seeking. Come to think of it – that is what many churched people are seeking.
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