Almost every church I know says they want to reach unchurched people. But few are actually doing it.
Part of the problem stems from the fact that many churches don’t really understand unchurched people (here’s a post on 15 characteristics of today’s unchurched person).
And part of the problem is that our model of church is designed to reach and help churched people, not unchurched people. Churches haven’t embraced change deeply enough.
So you can say you want to reach people all day long. You can teach about it every week. But if you haven’t designed your church around ministering to people who don’t go to church, you might as well be preaching that you want to lose weight while eating a triple cheeseburger.
Your model simply doesn’t match your mission.
So how do you know that your church is actually ready to reach unchurched people?
Here are nine signs your church is ready to embrace unchurched people:
1. Your main services engage teenagers.
I’ve talked with many church leaders who want to reach unchurched people who can’t understand why unchurched people don’t like their church. They would be stumped until I asked them one last question: Do the teens in your church love your services and want to invite their friends?
As soon as I asked that question, the leader’s expression would inevitably change. He or she would look down at the floor and say ‘no.’
Here’s what I believe: If teens find your main services (yes, the ones you run on Sunday mornings) boring, irrelevant and disengaging, so will unchurched people. As a rule, if you can design services that engage teenagers, you’ve designed a church service that engages unchurched people.
