LIFEdevelopment.info - Audience
SEVEN - KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE (AS A CHURCH)
One cannot reach out to secular post-moderns in a vacuum. At some point one needs to confront the inevitable tension between the way the church does things and the way mainstream people respond. We have to struggle with the question of how the Adventist horizon and the secular horizon can come together without compromising the best qualities of either. What can a local church or conference do to make a bigger impact in the secular environment?
Educate the Church
First of all, churches and groups of Adventists need to be educated regarding the challenges of both secularism and post-modernism. Many still believe that the strategies of the past will work if implemented with sufficient faith and vigor. But while faith, prayer, and a principled commitment to Adventists beliefs and standards need not present barriers to secular post-modern people, church business as usual will not accomplish the task. Secular post-moderns need and deserve a whole new way of outreach. We also need to educate the church about the problem of horizons, to help our people understand that without a lot of listening and learning we will not be effective in reaching secular neighbors, friends, and family. In the process it is helpful to point out that the Bible does not offer a single, rigid model for outreach and evangelism. Since most human beings are uncomfortable with change, it helps a great deal when we can see that opening ourselves up to change in the area of outreach will bring us into conformity with Scripture rather than the reverse.
Multiply Ministries
As part of the process of education, we need to encourage a multiplicity of ministries. Secular people are as diverse as snowflakes. They tend to respond in unique ways and are not normally reached in large groups. The only way, therefore, to counter the pluralism of society is with the pluralism of the Holy Spirit, an explosion of all kinds of outreach ministries empowered by the Spirit (John 3:8). This will not come from central planning but from the members discovering the unique roles God has developed for each person. Nothing will energize the laity as much as discovering God's unique plan for each person's life and outreach. No pastor can reach the secular community by himself or herself. It takes an army of people working under the empowerment of the Spirit. When a church activates the energy of the Spirit, it is amazing the different kinds of ministries that will emerge. A spirit driven multiplicity of ministries is the perfect compliment to the incredible diversity of secular post-modernism.
The Role of the Workplace
I believe that in coming years the best place for evangelism is going to be the workplace. It is in the workplace that Seventh-day Adventists come in contact with the mainstream of society, not at church. But many opportunities are lost because the outreach possibilities of the workplace are either misused or go unnoticed. We must not allow misguided or unethical attempts to evangelize the workplace to steer us away from our best opportunity. The workplace provides opportunities for relationship with secular post-moderns. It also provides the context for demonstrating the difference that Christian faith can make in the nonreligious environment. If the work place is the best place for evangelism, then I would suggest that we need Seventh-day Adventists everywhere in the workplace. The possibilities are especially large in media, education, journalism, and the arts because these are the occupations that have the greatest influence over people. Adventists involved in media or the arts will face serious challenges and much criticism from fellow believers. But they will be acting in harmony with counsel we received many years ago. Men are needed who pray to God for wisdom, and who, under the guidance of God, can put new life into the old methods of labor and can invent new plans and new methods of awakening the interest of church members and reaching the men and women of the world. Ellen G. White MS 117, 1907 (quoted in Ev 105)ˆ Means will be devised to reach hearts. Some of the methods used in this work will be different from the methods used in the work in the past; but let no one, because of this, block the way by criticism. RH, Sept 30, 1902
Encourage Constructive Change in Worship
While public evangelism often succeeds in increasing baptisms, it does not always result in sustained church growth. One reason for this is that the people didn't join a Saturday morning church. They joined a church that met five nights a week, used lots of visual aids, and had exciting music performed by professionals. After baptism people are expected to settle for once a week, few visual aids if any, and a piano or organ played with a minimum of enthusiasm. A little reflection indicates that the quality of Sabbath worship is crucial to sustaining church growth, not just among secular people, but in general. Many Seventh-day Adventist churches, therefore, are now finding that a relevant and vibrant worship service has powerful, word-of-mouth drawing power upon the unchurched. Those who have fallen away from church attendance because the worship service seemed boring, manipulative, and out of touch with their lives, are often open to giving church another chance when the worship service is interesting and speaks powerfully to real issues in the real world. Part of this worship renewal includes a use of contemporary language and harmonic idioms. While this has appeared threatening to some, history teaches us that revivals of faith are usually accompanied by revivals of Christian songwriting. The need for fresh melodies, styles, and lyrics lies in the fact that faith must touch base with real life if it is to become the everyday experience that is needed to overcome secular drift. Contemporary secular songs, though often presenting messages that are contrary to the gospel, nevertheless express deeply the struggles of life in today's world. When Christian music demonstrates an awareness of those contemporary struggles it has a powerful influence in behalf the gospel's solutions to those struggles.
None of us are fully insulated from contemporary life. Though we may shun the television and radio, we are influenced nevertheless. When you call a bank, a store, or the credit card company they put you on hold and put pop music on the phone. When you go to the grocery store or the shopping mall to obtain items necessary for life similar kinds of music are playing in the background. It is impossible to live totally in a world other than our own. So when worship fails to speak to the world we live in, it is easy to live a double life. One is the life that we live when we are in church or associate with fellow Christians. The other is the life we live as we work and play. Such a compartmentalized life will neither save us from secular drift, nor attract secular people to our faith. Change, however, can be a very wrenching experience for church people, even when the positive results are dramatic. Many people do appreciate a more traditional worship style. Many of the great hymns of the church still speak powerfully. Radical changes in this area may do more harm than good in a traditional church. But there are a number of simple things that could enhance any church service to meet the needs of more traditional Adventists, on the one hand, while still providing a more "userfriendly" environment for secular people.
1) Everyday Language
A noncontroversial, yet significant enhancement to worship is the use of common, everyday language in prayer, praise and preaching. While it may take a while for people to learn how to do this, the goal would be to express all aspects of our faith in the kind of language that is understood on the street, rather than in the specialized language of Adventism. It is incredibly frustrating to be involved in a search for God only to discover that you will have to learn a new language in order to learn anything about Him from His people! God meets people where they are, so when we are using everyday language, we are following His example. But more than this, the use of common language expresses caring. When we go out of our way to communicate with people in a way that meets them where they are, it communicates that we care enough to understand where they are coming from. They matter to us. When people know that they matter to other humans it makes it easier for them to believe that they matter also to God. The use of everyday language make God real to people whose lived are lived in a world that is quite different from the insulated world of the church.
2) Take-Home Value
A second enhancement to worship in the secular post-modern context is to make sure that whatever happens on Sabbath morning has high take-home value, in other words, is usable outside of Sabbath hours. People need to be hearing something that they can apply on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. A demonstration of practical, living Christianity is an attractive force that invites others to inquire further into godliness. Yet Adventist worship often contains little that would change the world on any other day of the week. Perhaps the following painful indictment is relevant. It is a sad fact that the reason why many dwell so much on theory and so little on practical godliness is that Christ is not abiding in their hearts. They do not have a living connection with God. 4T 395,396ˆ We will become effective in presenting how a Christian copes with Monday morning when we ourselves have wrestled honestly with the issues people face at home, in the neighborhood, and on the job. When we ourselves know how to walk with God every day of the week, we will be able to learn how to teach others to do the same. The churches that are making the greatest impact on mainstream society today are emphasizing practical Christianity.
3) Excellence
A third area that makes a big difference with secular people is a concern for excellence, for quality in everything that we do as a church. Too often Adventist churches look shabby in the extreme. The choice of participants and the content of the worship service is clearly an afterthought. The sermon and special music seem thrown together at the last minute. Some Adventists may tolerate shabbiness, but secular people consider shabbiness to be an insult both to their intelligence and to their stewardship of time. Although we demand quality in the products we buy, the motels we stay in or the programming we may enjoy, we somehow expect an unchurched person to enjoy a halfhearted sermon and a thoroughly butchered song. Less than the best isn't good enough anymore. The music, the Scripture, prayer, and even the announcements are worthy of careful planning and skilled execution. One of the best ways to enhance excellence in any operation is to evaluate and critique on a regular basis. As threatening as evaluation may be, if we are serious about excellence, we need to constantly get feedback regarding the quality of our efforts for God. The ministries and services of a church should constantly be measured in relation to the Word of God and the needs of the people being served. No one should consider themselves exempt, not even the pastor. The evaluation process is always painful, but results in more effective ministry.
4) Grab People's Attention
A fourth area that can make a difference is directly related to the reality of the media. Worship needs to be more visual and attention-grabbing than before. In a media age people's attention cannot be taken for granted anymore. In today s world, we may only have five or ten seconds to make a case for people to take the sermon seriously, for example. To grab people attention is in harmony with the example of Christ who had a fascinating way of asking those little rhetorical questions like, "Which of these two sons really obeyed his father?"
Music, if it is done well, can enhance the attention quotient of a worship service. Equally effective is the use of visual aids to communication, such as computer presentations, and the judicious use of video and drama. The visual arts can bring home spiritual lessons with incredible power.
If the people in your church are deadset against the word drama, utilize a children's story instead. Coordinate it with the sermon, the hymns, and the Scripture reading; make the whole service one of a piece. Adults love the children s story, often more than the children do! It is possible to make the worship service more interesting without offending everybody.
5) Strong, Spiritual Tone
Critical to worship renewal is strong spiritual tone. Truth is not enough to keep people in church today. People need to experience a living God. When secular post-moderns decide to come to church it is because they sense that the living God is present there. They are drawn to churches where the people know God and know how to teach others to know God. Everything that is done, whether it is the sermon, the special music, or the prayer needs to be driven by the spiritual vitality of those who participate. Secular people are not easily fooled. If the spiritual life of the church is phony, it will fool no one, certainly not its own youth.
6) Authenticity
This brings us to the sixth area of potential improvement in Adventist worship, and probably the most important one. People today are crying out for examples of genuine, authentic Christianity; or to use street terms, being real. So often in Adventist churches, people are just going through the motions, playing church. But secular post-moderns seem to have a sixth sense about who is genuine and who is not. They can smell phony Christians a mile away. The most effective path to true authenticity is to cultivate genuineness each day in a devotional encounter with God. Christ can help you to see yourself as others see you. In Christ it is possible to learn how to truly be yourself. As we reach out to the secular people in our communities, we will discover that one of the best ways to find the point of contact in another person is through our own confession of need. People are reluctant to make themselves vulnerable to others. But if we allow ourselves to be vulnerable with them (at the appropriate time and in an appropriate way) they may feel comfortable to share their deepest needs and concerns with us. I have written at length on this important subject in my book "Knowing God in the Real World".
A Strategy for Reaching Secular Post-Moderns
How does the felt need principle operate on a large scale? How do you do this as a church? By expanding the idea of creative listening to the church as a whole, whether at the local level, the conference or the General Conference. We need to be as careful and attentive in our study of the church s environment as we are when we open the Bible or the Spirit of Prophecy. That is a major reason for the Life Development Project. The European branch of the General Conference recognizes the need for a deeper understanding of the challenges that face the church in the secular post-modern world. Both careful study and strategy are being applied. Increasingly, the same kind of study and strategizing needs to be put into practice at the local level. Local churches and conferences need to be creative about the ways they listen for the felt needs of their communities.
Demographics
A good starting point for the local church is to learn all you can from marketing and sociological studies of your community. In the United States, Madison Avenue advertising types have divided the country in to 47 socioeconomic groups, from the poorest of the poor to the riches of the rich. Once they have placed you in one of those groups they know what kind of foods you eat, what kind of car you drive and even what kind of toothpaste you use. We are learning also that these respective demographic groups have varying levels of interest in aspects of the Adventist message (as was discovered in the story about Revelation Seminars told at the beginning of this manual). Demographic studies (the determining of the ethnic and social makeup of a neighborhood, region or country) can give you the big picture of a community and are a good starting point for a local church creative listening to its community. After you have learned some things about the big picture of a community you can match that picture with the skill resources of the local church in formulating a strategy for outreach. If the church's resources are limited it is usually advisable to begin outreach by targeting a specific geographical area or a particular socio economic segment of the target area.
Visiting Community Leaders
It is extremely helpful for church leaders to develop relationships with the movers and shakers in the communities they serve. These are the people who have the pulse of the community. Talk to leading community individuals like mayors, chiefs of police, school principals, and the editor and reporters of the local newspaper. These individuals will be an invaluable source of information about the community and if you gain credibility with them, they can also open doors for community outreach projects later on. It is also a good idea to become a regular reader of the local newspapers which focus on the issues that drive the local community. In World War II, the forerunner of the American CIA got more useful information from local German newspapers than from all the spies in the world combined. We would do well to emulate the method.
Door to Door Listening
After doing as much of the above groundwork as possible over a few months, it is time to create a short survey that probes how the common people of the community relate to the demographics and how their leaders think. A carefully worded survey attempts to discover what particular felt needs are abundant in the target community. As early returns from the survey come in, it is important to modify the survey itself on the basis of the feedback. Where this is appropriate, the surveys should be taken door to door. Where that is not appropriate, phone, mail and internet resources can be the means of getting feedback on community needs and interests. As areas of interest emerge, the local church or group can assess which of the felt needs they are in a position to address. The intersection between a community s needs and a church s resources are a good starting point for programs or initiatives to impact the secular community.
Transitioning Secular Post-Modern People Into the Church
No matter how seeker friendly a worship service may be there is much about the corporate personality of traditional churches that makes it hard for secular post-moderns to feel at home there, at least while they are in the search process. A critical component to any corporate outreach to mainstream society is the provision of some sort of halfway house between the and the church. Other ways to express this idea are subcultures or a door into the church just for secular people. These subcultures could be found in small groups, distinctive worship services, or nontraditional gatherings (such as parties or focused seminars) in a neutral location. The spiritual subculture is a setting where secular post-moderns who are interested in the church, but don't quite fit socially or politically, can get the spiritual direction that they need. While church is usually designed with the needs and interests of traditional members in mind, the goal of the subculture is to do business in such a way that the needs and interests of secular post moderns drive everything that is done. A subculture aimed at the secular mindset would intentionally avoid the minor irritations that drive secular people away from churches.
By means of these subcultures, one can provide a door to the church for people who wouldn't feel at home in the church otherwise. Over a period of time many secular post-moderns will gradually make the transition from the subculture into the main body of the church. Others may attend the subculture for two or three years and indicate no further interest in the church. Patience will certainly need to be the watchword in this vital ministry to secular post-modern people. It takes time for people out of the mainstream to be integrated and grown into Adventist ways of thinking and doing. But when we realize how long God has waited for us to come around on one issue or another, we will want to deal with people the way He has dealt with us.
home | news | about | events | contacts | departments | churches | resources | gallery | links | help | search
© 2002 British Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists