13: Faith, Future Tense
FAITH, FUTURE TENSE
The Faith Experience and Spiritual Journey Unchurched Adults Are Seeking
Because most are optimistic by nature, many church leaders believe that if they work long and hard at appealing to the unchurched, they will eventually succeed at attracting them to church services. Is this approach likely to succeed? One value of research is that it can provide a realistic assessment of opportunities and obstacles.
Overall, just one out of seven (14 percent) unchurched adults in the United States appears open to trying a new church. Yet, projected across the aggregate unchurched universe, this percentage represents nearly 16 million people —not a sum of souls to dismiss! And the figure may actually be more promising than imagined: only two-fifths of these individuals are born-again unchurched folks, the likeliest segment to target. This means that three out of five people open to trying church are not born again. Women, singles, and nonpracticing Catholics also emerged as more interested in the possibility.
Attracting unchurched people to the flock, however, demands a variety of entry points. About half of the churchless said they would prefer that their route to the church world be through exposure to a church’s worship service; the other half would prefer a different initial type of exposure.
Prime Touch Points
Churches have demonstrated tremendous creativity in seeking to attract churchless people to church. To estimate the current appeal of some of those strategies, we asked the unchurched to rate how much influence each of thirty approaches or components might have on their interest in attending a church. Keeping in mind that the quality of execution of a specific strategy is critical regardless of people’s predisposition, their responses provide a better understanding of their mind-set.
The three approaches that generally seemed to have the most positive effect on the potential for returning to church were developing relationships, sponsoring events, and cultivating a positive reputation and related awareness.
Relational Tactics
One out of every five unchurched adults would be much more interested in attending a specific church if a trusted friend personally invited them and agreed to attend alongside them. This approach has been the highest-rated tactic in the twenty-plus years that we have been tracking the unchurched and how to interest them in attending a church. Interestingly, the percentage of unchurched adults who expressed a positive reaction to this approach in our most recent study is the lowest we have registered during that time period. That is a reflection of how American culture is changing —and how important it is for churches to be informed about alterations in what does and does not work in reaching out to those who live completely outside the walls of the church community.
However, it is important to realize that while personal invitations from trusted friends put specific churches on the radar of unchurched individuals, they remain far from convinced that they should attend that church. According to a subsequent question about this progression, only 4 percent said they would “definitely” attend the church if accompanied by their friend, and the others would continue to do their homework about the church and determine how much they really wanted to enter the church world.
One other relational approach that drew a surprisingly strong positive response was receiving an in-home visit from the pastor or a church member to discuss the possibility of attending the church. One out of every six churchless adults said they would be much more interested in the church if they received such a visit.
Home visitation was the heartbeat of seeking unchurched people for many years. It fell out of style in the eighties and nineties as Americans became more protective of their time and space and actually took offense at such an intrusion. Now, however, in an increasingly depersonalized society there seems to be a somewhat greater openness to an in-home or other face-to-face conversation.
Event Marketing
One out of every five unchurched people indicated that they would be much more interested in considering a church if they attended an appealing event, such as a concert or seminar, that was sponsored by a nearby church. One of the challenges, of course, is to offer a high-quality event that intersects with the personal interests of a large enough number of unchurched individuals to justify the effort and the related costs. Unchurched people maintain high standards for such events; the competition is not other church events but all of the public offerings available in the entertainment and business worlds. Assuming that the event is professionally conducted, many churchless people see that adventure as a “safe” way of being introduced to the people, environment, and culture of the sponsoring church.
Reputational Appeal
Because the unchurched are skeptical about the value that churches have to offer, the reputation of the ministry plays an important role in attracting those who often feel burned, disappointed, or misunderstood by churches. The research shows that two of the most important ways to be positioned in the minds of the unchurched are first, as a ministry that regularly and effectively serves the needs of the poor, and second, as a church that understands young people and provides the kind of mentoring and development they need to thrive in life.
Notice that the unchurched show little interest in attending a church known for the quality of its worship music or even the quality of its sermons. Millions of churchless adults are very sensitive to the balance between teaching and street-level ministry; they fear getting connected to a congregation that is all talk and no action.
Moderate Potential
Two outreach alternatives held appeal for a significant, but not overwhelming, proportion of the unchurched. One of those was the possibility of participating in a house church rather than a conventional church ministry. This appealed to 15 percent of the churchless, but was of greatest interest to people under thirty, born agains, and blacks. Each of those subgroups showed twice as much interest in a house church as did other churchless segments.
Another possibility was inviting the unchurched to a gathering of people from the same age group and general lifestyle as the churchless adult, for a social time like a picnic or sports outing. This, too, appealed to about 15 percent of the unchurched. The catch is that such an event cannot be a veiled attempt to gather a captive audience for exposure to a church sales pitch. The objective of the unchurched is to get a sense of what the people are like. If the congregation passes the “test,” a positive experience at the event might lead to a visit to the church. The unchurched are in no rush to find a church home, and they do not want to find themselves in an uncomfortable situation as they scout out the possibilities.
Losing Strategies and Tactics
The research confirms what so many churches have learned the hard way: most approaches not only fail to attract unchurched people, but might actually discourage them from considering other church options in the future. The following approaches are likely to fall flat, with less than 10 percent of the churchless reporting they might be attracted by such efforts:
Since this list of activities contains a range of efforts often employed by churches, let’s take a minute to explore what this list does and doesn’t mean. First, just because most unchurched adults say they are not interested in a church website, for example, does not mean that churches should forgo having an effective web presence. When a churchless person decides to find a local church to visit, checking out the website is a common activity, and a church’s digital content is often its only opportunity to make a first impression. In some ways, websites and social media efforts have become the new “front door” through which the unchurched —especially Mosaic unchurched adults —come to experience church. It is absolutely necessary to be effective in the digital space, though this effort alone will not spell outreach success.
Second, most of the ideas on the list above fall flat because they are not what the churchless expect to find in today’s churches. They don’t need to go to a church to see a movie, listen to a celebrity speaker, participate in a book club, and so on. Yes, Christian leaders need to prayerfully and carefully consider innovative new ways to reach the unchurched —and redouble our efforts around classic relational forms of outreach —but we also need to be mission-minded above all else. In the end, people need Jesus —not spiritually oriented alternatives to the same activities offered by the local community center.
Finally, we have learned through our years of research that while some efforts, such as direct mail, may seem like attractive ways to reach the unchurched, there is potential for collateral damage to the reputation of our churches. Mass advertising efforts tend to work with a small minority of adults, leaving the majority with deepening skepticism toward Christians and faith communities. The message of Jesus and the invitation to participate in a local community are turned into a mere marketing campaign. Are there times when marketing should be employed, particularly in relational ways, such as giving people in your church invitation cards for their churchless neighbors? Yes! But every method should be adopted with the knowledge that what’s at stake is much more than what kind of numbers we attract each Sunday. We are stewards of the truest story about humanity and God. We must take care not to cheapen the gospel by relying on marketing prowess to attract attenders.
Short-Term Missions
One more possible approach is offering the unchurched an opportunity to join a group of people from the congregation on a short-term mission trip. Such an adventure might last anywhere from three days to two weeks. Because the unchurched seem to highly value demonstrations of service to the needy, as well as the chance to actively participate in such efforts, a mission trip seems as if it would reflect an interest and meet a need for some people whose life without church might not afford such an opportunity.
Our advice, though, is to enter this arena with caution. The research discovered that less than one out of every twenty churchless adults is willing to consider such an intensive exposure to the church through such a trip. Among those who have gone on a mission trip in the past —that constitutes only 6 percent of the unchurched —two-thirds of them said they would be open to another such trip in the future. But among those who have never been on a missions-driven journey, very few harbor the inclination to spend the time, money, and effort on the venture.
Reflections on Reaching Out
As in the marketing of any product or service, the challenging reality is that you can do everything “right” and still fail to appeal to the target audience. Thousands of churches across the country can testify to that heartbreak.
The unchurched admit that they are not much interested in seeking a church home —and that if they decide to do so, they are likely to explore a single church and then give up the hunt. Three-quarters of them contend that they are no longer willing to do a more extensive church search; if the one ministry they decide to examine meets their needs, they’ll pursue a relationship with that ministry, but they are not likely to visit and study other churches if the initial effort bombs.
Should this stop you from reaching out? Of course not. But choose your methods wisely. Instead of sinking significant money into paid advertising, which few churchless people seem inclined to respond to, consider how your resources might be better spent equipping church members to meet tangible and relational needs in your community. If young people in your neighborhood are without mentors or healthy friendships with older adults, how can you leverage your resources so your congregation is ready and able to meet that need? In-home visits are of increasing appeal to churchless adults. Is there a ministry group within your church that is already trained in this area, or will such outreach require new initiative, leaders, and resources? If event marketing is the way to go for your community, what will you do to ensure your church’s events are of the highest possible quality (so your efforts don’t have the opposite effect than what you’re hoping for)?
There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of possible ways to connect with the unchurched in your area. And what turns out to be most effective in your community probably won’t be exactly the same as what works elsewhere. But that’s okay —good, even. For the Lord has called you to a particular place inhabited by particular people who are seeking the meaning, satisfaction, and fulfillment only a life with God can provide. Your faith community is uniquely gifted to bring that good news. Figuring out how to do it well will require humility, courage, and a commitment to asking the right questions.
Forward Thinking
• How are your church’s resources currently deployed when it comes to outreach? How effective are these efforts? To use business-speak, what kind of return on investment (ROI) are you reaping?
• Assistance to the poor and mentoring the young are the two ministry areas that most impress unchurched people as essential to the heart of a church. Do you agree that these ministry areas are central to the church’s mission? Why or why not? How is your church doing in these areas?
• Relational appeal remains the most powerful incentive for churchless people to visit or connect with a church. How well or poorly are your members doing when it comes to inviting friends and family to church? What could make it easier or more natural for them to offer such invitations?