Outreach

 

Characteristics of the Unchurched

What we've discovered about the people we're trying to reach by going door to door…

While "door-to-door evangelism" has been out of season recently, most churches having abandoned it for other more productive forms of "winning the lost" it is still a fine method for polling. By polling I mean finding out about the people we're trying to reach--what they are like and what they think. "Knowing the customer" is the secret to "making the sale" of course. While we may reject the selling image of evangelism, the notion that we should know who we are trying to reach is still a sound principle. So, in the interest of helping us all make our own lists, here is the list I propose based on door-to-door and conversations with the unchurched. How would you make the list different from your own talks with people who don't go to church?

 

  1. They are busy. These people are not bored and desperately looking for more things to do. Rather, their life is a jumble of busyness -- packed with work, home, civic, and educational activities. They often have several places they are supposed to be on any given evening and they believe they are already "stretched too thin." They are like the thorny ground in Christ's parable -- they are trying to grow too much on their plot and religious pursuits just get choked out by the "cares of this world." The notion that we can provide them with something exciting and fun to full up their boring lives won't work for most people.

 

  1. They consider church boring. Most of them have been to church somewhere along the line and they consider the experience to be eminently unmemorable. They think church is boring. Now where in the world would they get that idea?

 

  1. They are searching but not seeking. Many have a general overall interest in spiritual things, but it is not intense enough to be termed "seeking." It is more like low-grade searching. They have a quiet gnawing doubt about their unfaith, but that doubt is not greater than the average Christian's own occasional doubt about their faith. How often have you thought quietly to yourself, "Maybe this whole Christian thing isn't even true?" That's about how often they have thought Maybe this whole Christian thing is true." The assumption that the world is full of hungry people who are just looking for "the answer" is simply not true. Mild interest, yes. Serious seekers? Not most of them.

 

  1. Almost all have a religious background. Just about everyone has a religious background -- or at least believes they do. Most tell about their religious heritage that they eventually grew out of. Totally secular people who have never been to a real or televised church in their life exist, but they are rare around here--not more then 10%.

 

  1. They have doubt, but not guilt. By and large they do not feel like sinners, even though they recognize the church considers them to be so. They are not embarrassed about what they've done and are doing. Doubt is a bigger issue than guilt-- they are "not sure it's true" and "not sure it would work for me." Thus, a guilt-relieving approach to evangelism often doesn't "take." Neither does a fear-reliving approach. They simply aren't that afraid.

 

  1. They insist on free choice for themselves. They react negatively to any kind of high-pressure salesman-like evangelistic techniques. They can spot a person "turning the conversation to spiritual things." One said, "Christians are like guys in bars trying to pick up women--they're always looking for opportunities to turn the conversation to make a conversion." However, many are open to hearing us lay out the facts, and give them information. But they want their own free choice to accept and believe, or wait and consider it more, and they can smell manipulation coming through when we let our 'training" show through in "closing the deal."

 

  1. They consider "evangelism" obnoxious. For as seldom as most Christians witness you'd think that few people around here have ever been exposed to evangelism. Not true. An amazingly high number think someone has tried to talk them into being a Christian. And they didn't like it. They of course count the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses as Christians, and why not--how should they be expected to see the difference? These past unproductive evangelistic attempts have often inoculated them against any subsequent high-pressure approach. You can "evangelize" them--but it better not look like it.

 

  1. Many believe they believe. The majority of these folk think they "have faith in God" and will answer yes to the question, "I think I am O.K. spiritually and will go to heaven." Younger folk will add, "if there is one" illustrating the increasing doubt of the younger generation. The world is not really as full of "unbelievers" as we think. Unchurched? Yes. Unbelievers? Not as many. Sure, among the young there is a higher incidence of outright unbelief, but not among those over 30. A typical adult response: "Sure I believe there is a God--I pray every day to Him." Every day is a better record some Christians! But they do believe in God, and they even pray (as most Americans do). So they already are "believers" in their own mind. This means "soul-winners" must first make their prospect an unbeliever before they can make them a believer! Most Christians take one of two tacks:: (1) Teach them their faith isn’t real faith--e.g. even the Devil has faith but not saving faith, or (2) fan the spark of faith already there into saving faith. The first approach is the "Four-Laws-crisis-decision" approach, and the second is the "Faith-Development-Assimilation" approach. Both popular approaches deal with this "residual faith" a different way.

 

  1. The media provides their dominant image of ministers. Their image of ministers is tarnished by television. They have four primary images of ministers. (1) A slick snake-oil salesmen manipulating the poor and ignorant to make a buck for themselves and their ministry. (2) A judgmental shouting prophet scolding people for their sins though the people largely ignore them. (3) A mealy-mouthed effeminate fat man who drinks tea with the ladies but probably has a sordid private life, perhaps abusing little boys at church. (4) A dangerous political activist bent on doing in America what the Taliban did in Afghanistan--eliminating abortion, pornography, prostitutes, romance novels, R-rated movies and returning women back in "subjection" to the "head of the home." It is not wonder they think this way--these are the prevailing ministerial images projecting from movies, sit-coms, the news, and Christian television itself. NO wonder they don't automatically trust a minister at their door!.

 

  1. They prefer private religion to "organized religion." Generally speaking, the people we are trying to reach consider organized religion to be of lesser quality than private religion. They are inclined toward some sort of "do it yourself religion." They suspect this personal and private religion is a purer strain of faith than "organized religion." They prefer "a relationship to a religion." By religion they mean things like going to church, or Sunday school, or tithing. "I'm not into organized religion" one young women offered, "I relate to God my own way while I am running every other morning." They prefer private and personal relationship with God the activities of "organized religion" like worship and Bible classes. And in this doctrine they agree with almost all other Christians in America. Since the Enlightenment, Protestants have elevated private and personal religion far above public and corporate religion. Face it, most Christians believe their private religion is superior to what is done at church--this is why we have promoted "personal devotions" above the Christ-ordained sacrament of the Lords' Supper. (Consider: How long has it been since you heard a "good Christian" defined as one who takes communion daily, versus the last time you heard the "good Christian" has devotions daily.) It's ironic--Protestant organized religion itself has taught our people that private and personal religion trumps public and corporate religion. It is no wonder that the unchurched also have this view.

 

So, what do you think? What would you add for the people you are trying to reach? What would you drop? What regionally differences might there be? Differences between rural to city people? Differences between genders or racial differences? Is it even of value to make such a list and what are the dangers of making a list like this?

So what do you think?

To contribute to the thinking on this issue e-mail your response to Tuesday@indwes.edu

Keith Drury February, 2002. Revision suggestions invited. May be duplicated for free distribution provided these lines are included.

Other "Thinking Drafts" and writing by Keith Drury -- http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday