So, Why Isn't the Church Reaching my Unsaved Friends?

Today I read a guest blog at http://www.ronedmondson.com/2014/03/why-the-church-isnt-reaching-my-unchurched-friends.html. It was a good, heartfelt, and pointed article. Right on target in many ways. For example, "Fake" IS a real problem. Has been a real problem for 2000 years. But we still need to address it and seek to change it. She admitted that some of the problem was her 'college age' attitude. When I was in college, I found a church (1972) but didn't fit in at all with the campus ministries. (It was more me than them.) And, she admits, the problem is people, both the churched and the unhurched, not how it looks or what it sounds like.

    But I guess I have some questions:

How do you know, from visiting on Sundays whether the people you see aren't the same Monday thru Saturday?

     When you said, "We want to ask questions. Voice our doubts. Explain our struggles. Confess our sins. Confide our fears." I thought, So? Aren't there small groups for that? If you can't talk in their home groups and/or Sunday School groups, there are plenty of churches where you can.

And doing stuff? Do none of these churches have outreach or service oriented activities? I bet some do.

May I suggest a different reason your friends aren't doing church or the church isn't reaching them?

Are you ready?

You aren't reaching them.

Before they are ready for church, they need to be reached by you. And me. And every believer reading this.

The problem is not FAKE. The Problem is LOST. Or for some it is is BACKSLID. (Old fashioned, I know, but I gotta be me. Authentic and all that.)

"There is none that seeketh after God." We must be the vessels God uses to pursue them.

And God does pursue. But He is not anxious, worried, or wringing His hands. In fact, this is the God they don't seek: Rom 1:18 "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, ... even his eternal power and Godhead; so they are without excuse:

21 Because, ...they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and birds, and beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:"

     That was me, before Christ. I imagine it was you too, even if it was a 5 year old version of all that.

Part of the problem with the message of the church now is that we are less willing to speak the truth in love. (Sometimes we do speak it and the world screams "you intolerant bunch of haters." Guess what, Jesus told us that would happen.)

     The truth includes: there are "lost" people. Sinners, objects of God's wrath. There is such a thing as sin. It is wrong. God hates it. You can say you don't care what God thinks but you will answer to Him someday.

But, and this is the glorious truth, God so loved He sent His Son. And by turning from sin and selfishness, and surrender to Jesus Chris we may be saved. We may be indwelled by God Almighty Himself.

     Then, it doesn't matter how old the songs are, how the minister's dress, what color the carpet is, how "real" people may seem to you. You want to praise God for what He has done. If He says, don't forsake fellow-shipping with the Saints, you want to do what He says. When He says, let your light so shine that people may see your good works and glorify God in Heaven, then you want to work for Him.

Its amazing what a saved perspective can do for you.

Then a few other things were posted about how 'authentic today's generation is and how put upon the millennials are etc. 

So I posted this:

     I guess I have a problem seeing the Millenials, Xers etc. as more 'authenic' oriented or more 'put upon' and criticized than my generation. Yes I'm at the tail end of the boomers. But, narrowing it down to my High school college years. We are the ones who faced the military 'face to face' over Viet Nam. Were shot at at Kent State. Ushered in free love and (gasp) psychedlic rock. Drug use skyrocketed with my generation. We led a rebellion and nobody even noticed!

     We thought we INVENTED the whole idea that we wanted to get away from the fake stuff of our parent's generation and get real. In fact I think we coined the phrase "Get real." But then I realised, Every Generation wants authenticity! Nobody ever said, We're gonna be more fake and phony than our parents. As we get older, we may forget our ideals, but we didn't start out that way.

     So why aren't we reaching the millenials 'as a church.'? Because that's never been how we reached people. The people saved at large 'church events' without having had an individual planting the seed, are not the majority of the rank and file members of the Church Triumphant (in heaven) or the Church Militant (still here). Its made up of people who knew a believer, and were evangelised. Maybe they didn't become a Christian when they first heard, but the seed was planted and watered and some blessed soul got to reap the harvest.

     Faking it and inauthenticity has been a problem forever. As believers we DO need to address it. But acting like it's new or the 16 year olds of the world invented it is really ridiculous. We should Be real to people. And allow people to Be Real to us and still love and accept them. But we also need to Be Real before God and not try to massage His word into something acceptable to the wicked human heart.

The Gospel is offensive because it calls people Sinners. And even Authentic Millenials can recoil at the horrid thought that maybe they aren't as special and precious as our schools told them they were. Everyday. Ad Nauseum.

Signs, Church Signs, Dumb Signs

We have a church sign! It’s about 12 feet tall and it has three lines for messages. We like to put coming events or general info up there, but we also put the occasional inspirational message. But you have to be very careful with that.

Why, you ask? I hope you asked that anyway; if not go ahead and do that now...I’ll wait....
OK, Thanks.

Frankly, some churches make themselves just look silly, or ignorant, or even offensive at times with their signs.

People look at signs differently than church folks do. They can appreciate humor as good as the next guy usually, but some signs are just a little looney.

Among the humorous I’ve seen:

        Who ever is praying for snow, Please Stop!

        Come in and pray today. Beat the Christmas rush!

        When the restaurant next to a Church put out a big sign with red letters that said, “Open Sundays,” the church reciprocated with its own message: “We are open on Sundays, too."

        Walk-ins Welcome  (that’s on our sign-thanks Dave)

        Have trouble sleeping? We have sermons—come hear one!

 

Now that last one is a little curious. Did they intend to say the pastor is boring? Or that if you get right with God you’ll sleep better?

You see some signs maybe cute for members, maybe even inspirational. But to the unchurched they get a response like “HUH?”

        Honk if you love Jesus, Text while driving if you wanna meet Him

        Free Trip to heaven. Details Inside!

        Try our Sundays. They are better than Baskin-Robbins.

        Sign broken. Message inside this Sunday. Dusty Bibles lead to Dirty Lives

        Come work for the Lord. The work is hard, the hours are long and the pay is low. But the retirement benefits are out of this world.

        It is unlikely there’ll be a reduction in the wages of sin.

        Do not wait for the hearse to take you to church.

        Forbidden fruit creates many jams.

        In the dark? Follow the Son.

        Running low on faith? Stop in for a fill-up.

        When down in the mouth, remember Jonah. He came out all right.

You have to consider what the unchurched think when they see it. Down in the mouth? Jonah? I don’t think they’ll get it. Of course, if you WANT to have them think less of you and of Christ; But most people don’t want that. So some try to be “Trendy.” I’ve been guilty of that myself.

        Get off of Facebook and Get in the Good Book

        You have a friend request from -Jesus:

         Confirm                            Ignore

        God’s got an app for that

        If you don’t like the way you were born, try being born again.

First, people don’t like being told what to do, as if there is something morally wrong with being on Facebook.

Secondly, A friend request from Jesus? Really? A statement like “You sinned, Jesus has blocked you.” Would be more accurate, but NO, don’t put that on the sign!

Third, Actually Jesus doesn’t have an app for everything. This is one of those false promises like, “Come to Jesus He’ll make everything better.”

And these days there are folks who’ve never heard of being born again.

Upcoming events are a good thing to put on a sign, and they’re usually pretty safe.

But even then you should be careful:

        A singing group called “The Resurrection” was scheduled to sing at a church. When a big snowstorm postponed the performance, the pastor fixed the outside sign to read, "Resurrection postponed."

Then there are those pithy sayings, but think twice, will your neighbors think you’re rehashing old sayings because you are not real bright?

        People are like tea bags—you have to put them in hot water before you know how strong they are.

        God so loved the world that He did not send a committee.

        Fight truth decay—study the Bible daily.

        If you’re headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns.

        Looking at the way some people live, they ought to obtain eternal fire insurance soon.

        This is a ch_ _ ch. What is missing? -----> (U R)

        If you can’t sleep, don’t count sheep. Talk to the Shepherd.

Then there are the serious issues dealt with in a silly way.

        How will you spend eternity—Smoking or Non-smoking?

We always need to go beyond “What do the unchurched ‘drive-bys’ think?” And ask ourselves, “What does God think?”

Is God pithy? Is he ‘selling something’? I hope you answered No to both of those.

Now some of you thought while reading this, “But I don’t DO church signs.” Very true. But do you do bumper stickers? Do you email cute little things to a large group of people? (With, perhaps, lost and unchurched people in the bunch?) Or Tweet? Or do status updates?

Do you live your life giving off simplistic ideas of what you find important?

We need to be real; honest; and deeper than a bumper sticker. We need to live our lives among those who don’t know Jesus the way He did. He took their pains to heart. He didn’t sin with them, but he didn’t judge them. He did judge Pharisees because they wouldn’t judge themselves. But for some reason sinners – who knew they were sinners – like to be around him. Why is that? Maybe He just loved them.

Oh, Lord Jesus, it’s really hard to love some people. But I know you loved me in spite of myself, so it’s the least I can do, to love others for you.

That’s my prayer, what’s yours?

Clark D

PS Remember - "This is a ch_ _ ch. What is missing? -----(U R)"

Once I put on the sign:

“Its almost T__key Day!

What is missing? U R “