A Little More on Context...

Before I dive into ideas about relational evangelism, I wanted to share a little more about the context of which we live ministry.  These are some ideas from the Bills - Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittain, co-leaders of 21st Century Strategies, Inc.  These ideas come from their book Effective Staffing for Vital Churches, and offer another perspective (although related).

- "People don't come to church on their own anymore."  Now they must be brought by a friend, relative, neighbor, or co-worker.  Several of you who have commented on this blog have spoke to your efforts to do just that with your friends and co-workers.  The Bills believe that this is one of the most profound changes for Christianity in our lifetime.

- "When people do show up at church they are blank slates we must write on."  This statement reflects the "de-churching" of American culture.  In the past, a majority of children in the United States either grew up in church, knew someone who did, or had at least some secondhand knowledge of what happens "at church."  No more.  According to the Bills, it now takes longer and requires more staff to disciple people than it did two decades ago.  I also believe it takes more diligence from all of us.

- "When people think of Christians and church they are skeptical about our motives."  No more are pastors revered even by people who attend worship.  Now, before we disciple people, we have to gain their trust.

- "People are defecting from the church in record numbers." Today, paretns are more apt to leave the church when their kids leave home than they are to remain in the church.  I've seen this happen at Community.  The Bills explain that's why effective churches focus much of their attention on adults.  That doesn't mean that younger kids and youth are ignored, it's all about building relationships with adults so that they stay after their childre are grown.

- "Global migration is changing demographics and culture."  In the near future, if a church isn't multicultural, it probably won't be growing.  We are blessed in this college town to have a diverse congregation, but we need to pay attention to how we can be more so.

The Bills state that the results of all of these changes is that "fewer people are attending worship today than every before in the history of Western civilization, and when they do attend they are mostly clueless about what it means to be Christian."  Some recent Gallup polls report that although 79% of the US population consider themselves "Christian," these same polls also report that only 30% actually attend church regularly.  The Bills believe that figure to be inflated, and that actually 17% of the US population attend church on any given weekend.

In the eyes of the world, the United States is seen as one of the largest mission fields in the world.

The Bills lift up that "the church must spend most of its time, energy, and money filtering people out into the community.  The measurement of effectiveness shifts from 'How many in worship?' to 'How much difference is the church making in its efforts to transform the city.'  The question 'What is God doing in our community that we can be a part of?' is replacing 'How can we get more people to come to church?'

The future is outward!

Next post will be some practical ideas on relational evangelism.  Share your thoughts good people.

How Does CUMC Engage Evangelism?

I want to thank all of you who were able to read and share your ideas on my first post!  I know I have been blessed by the conversation, and I hope that all of you have too.

Continuing our conversation on Get Their Name: Grow Your Church By Building New Relationships, Farr/Anderson/Kotan next tackle the big question of "why".  Why do most Christians rarely share their faith in Jesus Christ with other persons - especially persons who are not yet followers of Jesus Christ?

The authors of the book suggest that the mainline church hasn't done a good job of defining and practicing evangelism over the last five or more generations, at least evangelism understood as connecting persons to God through Jesus Christ in a vital, dynamic, personal relationship of faith.  Farr/Anderson/Kotan (who I will now shorten to FAK in my blog posts) share the following statistics (note: where they received these statistics are not clear):

Generation born 100 years ago  
                                  80% connected to God through church
                                  If Protestant, vast majority connected to older established churches

Generation born 80 years ago
                                  65% connected to God through church
                                  If Protestant, majority connected to older established churches

Generations born 60 years ago (Baby Boomers)
                                  35% connected to God through church
                                  If Protestant, majority NOT in older established churches

Generations born 30-40 years ago (Gen X)
                                  Less than 20% connected to God through church
                                  If Protestant, strong majority not in mainline Protestant church

Generations born 10-20 years ago (Millenials)
                                  Less than 10% connected to God through church
                                  If Protestant, vast majority not in mainline Protestant churches

FAK suggests that the reason for this drop in connection for the last five generations is because mainline churches have understood evangelism as reconnecting disconnected churched people who come through our church doors - we are waiting for people to arrive who are already Christian but are disconnected from a church home.

Even knowing our heritage as United Methodists, we pastors sometime assume that people may be Christian, and are only looking for a church home, as opposed to someone who has never been to church.  I remember having lunch with Bob Farr several years ago, and he shared with me how he engaged strangers to find out their faith background.  When she came back to check on our table, Bob asked our waitress, "Do you have a church home?"  Our waitress replied that she did have a church that she attended.  I wonder, though, where Bob would have gone with the conversation if she replied, "No, but I've never been."

Questions for all of you reading this post... What are your thoughts on how Community UMC engages in the practice of evangelism?   Are we "building relationships with people we don't know," or are we more interested in "reconnecting disconnected churched people who come through our church doors"?  Because... there is a decrease in the number of churched people... and an increase in the number of unchurched people.

Engage!