A recent Holy Soup blog from Thom Shultz of Group Publishing notes that though “much of the contemporary church has fashioned itself to be ‘seeker sensitive,'” an increasing number of unchurched people are not “seeking” the church at all, despite having spiritual interest. Thom then gives several suggestions for reaching such folks. Read his blog by clicking here.
GCI Church Administration and Development offers training videos and other resources at FaithTalk Equipper to help churches use small groups to connect with spiritually-interested, non-churched people.
This is a fascinating mini-report–more of a snapshot than a careful study but still intriguing. We are truly pastoring by the speed of light…or maybe tweet. In the 1990s Wade Roof started studying the Seeker phenom and Leonard Sweet was excellent ten years ago at Palm Springs on “what the church can learn from Starbucks.” But this latest rumor underscores that the Church must be the Church (Karl Barth) and bloom where God has planted it. We still need church growth strategies of course but its possible for a congregation to “lose itself” concocting Seeker Strategies that smack a bit too much of manipulation.
Lesson 10 of Church History Second Millennium which the guys are doing right now (a shameless GCS promotion, you will notice) covers some of this and Leonard Sweet’s definition of Postmodernism that “the center is everywhere” seems a propos. Never has there been a more atomized, individualistic audience for the Gospel. But local congregations have to keep doing what they are each good at it as well as being keen to the ever-changing reality–pastoring by the speed of light