I received an email newsletter today from Church Leader Insights. I had signed up to receive this a few months back and had forgotten about. This publication is put out by Nelson Searcy, author of
Launch, who had a "large" new church launch in New York that soon grew to thousands of members. The church is
"The Journey Church."
I am intrigued with church plants that still have launched large very recently. This strategy, based primarily upon a worship gathering, has been the traditional one since the 1980s. However, in recent years, I hear from Christian church planters that this strategy is not as effective as it once was. There has also been criticism that these launches mainly attracted other Christians or the "de-churched," not the totally unchurched.
The culture in the US has changed, and fewer people are interested in "going to church." They are less likely therefore to have the worship assembly as the primary entry point to faith.
I am missional by theological understanding and in practice. However, I do wonder if many in the missional movement are so reactive against "attractional approaches" that they miss opportunities to reach lost people. The fact is, reaching the dechurched is a noble goal, and there are millions of this group around. To criticize a church that reaches the dechurched, when most churches are not reaching anyone, simply does not make sense (and may be a sign of sour grapes).
And even if one thinks that most people need to be served and interacted with on a personal level first, at some point, non-Christians will need to be invited to the worship assembly. Why not check out events such as Nelson Searcy's
Evangelism Seminar and see if there is something we might learn from this? Whether it is the dechurched, the unchurched with whom we have developed relationships, or those who are simply open and curious, we need to have good ways to invite these groups to our worship assemblies and have a good experience for them when they get there.
Being missional should not mean that we are against inviting people to worship. By all means, we should encourage our members to do this. We simply want to emphasize that people need to serve others, develop relationships, and seek to invite as many unchurched
friends as they can, in addition to strangers or those they only nominally know. And we do not want to make inviting people to worship a substitue for "going out" as Christ has commanded us. Not only is this essential in today's culture--which increasingly, it is true, is not interested in worship assemblies--it is essential for our own spriitual shaping and discipleship. But invting people to worship, it seems, is still some part of North American culture and a good thing to do.
What role does the worship assembly have in a person coming to faith? Is the missional movement so reacting against the "church growth" movement that it is missing opportunities to reach lost people?
