In a recent report, it came out that the SBC is most likely in its first ever decline since its inception. Of course I have some thoughts of my own as to some factors that are leading to this decline – but they are strictly opinion, of course. I may feel free to divulge into them someday, but I wont for today. I enjoy being a part of the SBC, and I see many good (even great) aspects to this Baptist life. There is one trend, however, that I tend to see within many of these churches – and it is the exact opposite of what we are trying to do at our church. This trend is that many churches seem to put their primary evangelistic focus on what I may otherwise call a ‘believer’.
Now, it is possible to be a ‘believer’ in Jesus without accepting Him as Savior. The Bible does tell us that even the demons believe… so the issue is not do you ‘believe’, but do you have a ‘relationship’? In recent years, the phrase ‘seeker-sensitive’ has come in and out of popularity. It’s rarely used today, but in a way it has existed quite heavily in our attempts to evangelize. Here’s what I mean. We put the majority of our evangelistic effort internally within our ministries. In other words, our biggest outreach is within the walls of our own church. We give alter calls, and have retreats and camps. These equal our evangelistic outreach. Don’t misunderstand me, I think these things are GREAT… but we are only reaching for making Christians of people who were already believers. In the seeker sense, many seeker-sensitive churches seek to answer the questions of those seekers. In other words, they are attempting to bridge the gap between believing and having a relationship with Christ.
Ok, I know this is a good thing. Though it was highly unscientific (and how could it be?), I heard Billy Graham said once that more than 90% of many churches were lost. It is not a sin to reach out to those believers who are attending… but I do think that we should not ignore creating Christ-followers of people who are far from God. It seemed that Jesus didn’t flat out avoid people who were already believers, but He pursued people who were far from God. Things have changed a little bit too. Experts are no longer as credible, and instead Wikipedia (a user submitted dictionary of sorts) has become an authority. Would scores of people who hate God and Church show up to hear someone like Billy Graham these days? Probably not. There are few people that could bring in lost people the way Billy did… maybe Joel Osteen could bring some crowds out – but I’m not quite sure they’d hear the Gospel. (though they might hear how they can lose weight and feel good about themselves…. end rant on Osteen.)
I will clarify, that I don’t think the answer to our Conventional woes are to change all of our evangelistic methods – but I do think that we could probably learn to care a little more about people who are not like us. We’re doing a good job of this overseas, but here at home we live in the 4th most un-reached nation in the world. We simply cannot rely on the idea that people who are far from God are going to attend our church and then walk to the front to accept Christ. The church was never intended to do evangelism internally – because we are the church and we need to take this message to the world. So we do need to add to our typical outreach. Hey, I accepted Christ in a youth ski retreat – so I’m definitely a huge fan of them. But how are we being Christ to our neighbor? Are we helping the poor and disenfranchised? And I’m not talking about writing a check, but getting out there. I hear people say that ‘evangelism’ is not their spiritual gift, but it doesn’t matter if it is or not…. because it is a command.
It’s why Summit is here for people who are far from God… not simply swapping sheep. And to be honest, it’s not always the best church-growth-strategy out there. It’s like trying to market to people who hate your product… not the easiest task in the world. But we are committed to not simply internalizing our efforts to see the Gospel change lives – but equipping people to share this good news daily! Tomorrow we launch our new series, Growing a Movement, which will highlight the importance of our commitment to Scripture and obeying the Mission of God. I love doing what I do. As hard as it is… which will probably be my next post… it is rewarding and pushes me MUCH further than I’d ever push myself.
Honestly though, it’s not the best press in the world – but then again they wouldn’t be in the news for anything good they have done.