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Through some of my reading I came across an interesting article in Outreach Magazine by Dan Kimball.  Dan is a pastor and author and has a heart to reach out to people who have yet to connect with God and the church.  You can check out the entire article here.  This article hits home for me because my passion is to connect with and reach the people that are the least likely to go to church and the people that seem to have been neglected by much of the church in our culture.  Here is a summary of the article and thoughts on what I am learning:

Unchurced or de-churched people would like:

• A church that offered a continual conversation exploring issues of faith rather than a sermon with nicely wrapped conclusions.
• A church that places as much emphasis on relationships and conversations taking place during the week in smaller groups as they do on church services during the weekend.
• A church that focused less on programs and more on relationships and internal spiritual disciplines.
• A church that affirms love for all people rather than for people who think just like them.
• A church that focused on the teachings of Jesus and taught about the life of Jesus.  Most people outside the church are respectful and open to Jesus, it is people in the church they have a problem with.
• A church that simply has people that would invite them to join in the conversation.  They want to be invited through a trusting relationship rather than through a strange encounter on the street.

I would love to hear your comments on some of these thoughts.  Feel free to agree or disagree and offer your personal opinions on how we can relate to and connect with people that are outside the church.  If you are someone that has yet to connect with the church, I would love to hear your comments as well.

Go ahead, share a comment!

Let’s pray for how we can authentically, accurately, and genuinely reflect Jesus to a world that needs hope!

Most people come to faith in Christ on the arm of a trusted friend!

Part two coming NEXT TIME!

Yesterday (Tuesday 4.24.07) I had the privilege and opportunity to ride with Bryan Hoover to a workshop led by who I think is one of the top leaders in local church ministry in the country.  Tim Stevens is the Executive Pastor of Granger Community Church and authors a blog called Leading Smart.  We attended a workshop at Westridge Church in Dallas, GA put on by wiredchurches.com.  These are the guys from Granger Community Church in Granger, Indiana.  For a point of reference, they are very close to Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana.

Here is a few things I learned:

• We must focus on reaching the unconvinced!  These are people that have not yet turned to follow Christ.
• We must provided accessible “on-ramps” for people to enter their spiritual journey.  What are the easy steps a church provides people to join others in the journey to follow Christ.  The steps must be simple.  Sundays, Community Groups and inviting friends are easy “on-ramps”. 
• We must be creatively redundant!  Saying and repeating the same biblical principles in fresh ways help lead people to follow Christ.
• Bigger is better!  It’s not the size of the church that matters but a church must be unapologetically committed to grow through reaching people for Jesus!
• We must be cross-cultural missionaries in order to reach people effectively with the message of Jesus.  Basically we must understand the culture we live in and bridge the culture to reach more people.
• Pop culture is the language of the culture in America!
• We must take the greatest message ever given and communicate it to people in GREAT ways!
• It is a sin to make the gospel of Jesus boring!
• We must make sharing the message of Jesus our focus!
• We must share the message in ways and manners that are fun!  People love to laugh and it is ok to have fun in church!
• Changed lives is our measurement for success!

Check out Tim’s blog ‘Leading Smart’.  He offers great insight to business leaders as well as church leaders. 

I am committed to being a learner and growing in my faith and my ability to lead.  Join me on the journey of following Jesus and becoming a more effective leader of people!