After the "Reaching - Keeping" Seminar

I expect our “Reaching People Under 40 While Keeping People Over 60” seminar this past weekend to be a catalyst for much reflection and dialogue as we seek to be faithful in actively fulfilling the calling we have from God as His church. Our seminar leaders, Eddie Hammett and Randy Pierce, did a good job in focusing our attention on the challenges and opportunities established churches—ours included—face as we witness and minister in our current world.

More than fifty people attended the seminar on Saturday. Thanks to Jeannie Carruth who coordinated the lunch and refreshments on behalf of the “Next Generations” study/work group and to Bob and Sally Upton and Mary Gillespie for their assistance. Thanks also go to Sharon Fontanella for her coordination of the meal on Saturday evening at the time of discussion between our seminar leaders and the “Next Generations” group and the church staff.

In preparation for the seminar, more than sixty copies of the book were distributed and more than fifty people participated in the small reading groups. We are grateful to Lou Voegler, Beverly Finnen, Sharon Fontanella, Ellen Chenoweth, David Chenoweth, and Kevin Cheek who were the group facilitators.

The seminar presentations and discussions were challenging, thought-provoking, idea-generating, maybe even discomforting, troubling, and fear-producing. But there were also words of encouragement with reminders of the potential we have as God’s people and the assurance of hope because of Him.

In the seminar and in the Saturday evening discussion of the leadership group with Eddie Hammett and Randy Pierce, these are some of the observations and affirmations they had for us:

• Our congregation is not unique, for the great majority of churches of all denominations in our country are on a plateau or declining.
• At least 70% of the people in our country are unchurched and reflect a secular, postmodern culture; 30% are part of a church culture.
• We have a good bit of room for growth in our understanding of the differences between our church culture and the people of the secular, postmodern culture. Some of our comments and questions reflected the mindset of a church culture which will not likely reach the 70% who do not share our church culture. There are things we mentioned which may increase the effectiveness of our ministry to church-cultured newcomers who may be looking for a church and to people who come from a church-cultured background and may still be comfortable with the church culture, but they will not likely have much impact in reaching the 70% of the secular, postmodern, unchurched population.
• Reaching people under 40 is much more than just a matter of worship style. These things are also crucial: not just being a church that says “come” and tries to “attract” people to come to the church building, but being a church that “goes” and is involved in mission in the community; being a church that gives people first of all a place where they can find a sense of belonging; being a church that blesses and empowers people in the ministry they are called to do rather than having a structure which controls and has to give permission; cultivating ways of discipleship which lead to life transformation and not just gaining information.
• Parallel structures are important. You preserve what the older generations need, but you also provide what the younger generations need. Where the same core values are present in all of the parallel structures, you still have the unity of one church engaged in the same mission. This unity can be celebrated at periodic times of coming together to see what God is doing in people’s lives.
• We are in a good location for being a multi-ethnic, multi-language church. We need to consider allocating our resources to reflect this reality.
• To reach young adults, we need to go where they are. This involves the consideration of the possibility of becoming a multi-site, multi-campus church.
• If churches are serious about reaching people for Christ, they need to move toward allocating their resources in a way that directs 70% to the unchurched population and 30% to the church culture.
• Churches need to move beyond the mindset of institutional survival and the fear of being unable to continue to maintain organizations and do church work; churches need to do the work of the church, which is to be on mission for Christ in the world and reach people with the Good News.
• The transformation of heart values is the first and primary step in any process of change.
• As with many churches, things could go either way with us. We can become and be a church for all generations, or we can be one of the many churches who no longer exist in twenty years. There are no quick fixes or easy answers. There is hard work. But there is reason to be hopeful.

We now begin the real work of praying, and listening for God’s direction, and aligning our will with His will. We need to continue to let God’s Spirit percolate and work within us as we ponder and reflect on what we have encountered. As a very practical step, in the near future we will convene a gathering of the folks who expressed an interest at the seminar on Saturday (and any other interested folks, too) in developing in a hands-on way some “go” structures to go beyond the walls of the church and reach people where they are. To quote the verse Eddie Hammett referenced from the Book of Revelation on Saturday, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Let us prayerfully join together to listen to the Spirit.