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

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 You invited me to give some feedback on "what you're doing right and where you could improve." That's always a dangerous thing to do! I have noticed that most people who invite feedback or evaluation really want affirmation and encouragement more than evaluation. Nevertheless, since you invited me to do so, and since there is so much stirring and discussion on the "seeker-sensitive model" today, I would like to collect my thoughts after this weekend and jot them down for myself...and if you are reading this, I suppose I'll share them with you as well.

Here are my preliminary thoughts following this weekend's services:

1. I compliment your commitment to excellence. I could see it in the printing, the folder, the music, drama, the entire approach to things, and even the new building. I know Tom Peters popularized the idea, but it is essentially a theological one. I affirm this in your whole approach.

2. You have done a great job at making things a team effort. I know you are an overpowering personality, but what I saw was a broad collection of lay people with strong commitment. We had about an hour between the two services (I think I preached shorter than you usually do!), so I got to connect with a lot of your people. I appreciate the depth of involvement many of them have--in drama, set-up, tear-down, music, leadership, intercessory prayer ministries, children's programming, and small group and home group leadership. I recognize this is a significant challenge of a seeker model church--getting people committed to serve. But you are doing a good job at it. Congratulations!

3. I like your clear NEXT STEP strategy. Bill Hybels has done this well, and so have you. You have clearly outlined in the bulletin what you expect people to do next if they want to develop their relationship with Jesus Christ--"attend a small group." One of the great dangers of the seeker model is to become so absorbed with the entry-level service that little attention is given to the next step. And your whole meeting midweek at the Junior High is commendable. If you do these clear "next step opportunities" with the same excellence and commitment with which the entry level service is done, you may be able to avoid the chief pitfall of the seeker "copy-cat churches," which is providing everything at the entry level, and nothing to pull people on to deeper commitment, sacrifice, tithing, giving, and serving.

4. I surely want to applaud the effectiveness with which you are doing outreach. In circulating among your people during the coffee break, I found a vast number of them who had been church dropouts, were attending nowhere, or simply were in "limbo" between churches. This is the great strength of the seeker model--it collects people who are unchurched or between churches, or are dissatisfied with the general format of other churches.

That is also its weakness in that people can gradually come to boast about "how different we are," how "relevant" we are (and irrelevant all other churches are), and they can always wonder if they are shocking traditional people with how "worldly we are." As you know, even being seeker-sensitive can become a tradition! But I am impressed by the number of people you have gathered together who probably would not be attending church if your church did not exist.

5. I really appreciated your emphasis on accountability along with authenticity. One of my concerns about home groups is most of the effort is about relationship, fellowship, and "being authentic," yet providing very little emphasis on accountability and commitment. I think this is the genius of Wesley's groups, and can be the genius of home groups, if they can move a step beyond fellowship and sharing. I know this is very difficult to do in today's culture, and people have such deep needs for intimacy and caring ministries, that accountability is shoved to the side. But I picked up your emphasis on accountability repeatedly, and appreciate it.

6. I think your strategy is sound. I strongly affirm your philosophy of starting with the believer as opposed to a general advertising approach. I call this whole thing the "commitment funnel" and see the first step as the edge of the funnel, each intervening step calling for greater commitment. I would just add my "amen" to a clear strategy which constantly pulls people "into the funnel, with deeper commitment."

As you can see I think you have done an excellent job leading your church on the seeker model. As with all approaches there are weaknesses, but these can be overcome with hard work. It appears to me that you are working hard to avoid some of the pitfalls of the seeker model. In general, these might be dangerous for the entire evangelical church today.

But, for what it's worth, here is what I see as some of our current dangers:

1. To allow outreach to replace evangelism. The seeker model is exceptionally good at outreach--getting unchurched people "in the door." One of the dangers is to be so absorbed with that work, that we forget to bring them "across the line" into conversion. In that sense, it is possible to allow evangelism to be displaced by outreach. Every time that has happened in history it has produced an immediate boom, and an eventual collapse. Outreach must always lead to evangelism where people are "genuinely saved." Watch out for this pitfall.

2. To allow the method to become the mission. This is true of any church--traditional, seeker-sensitive, or any other model. It is easy to allow our methodology to eventually become our mission. Churches can become so oriented to need-meeting, communication, and entertainment as a method of reaching people for Christ that eventually this obsession with method makes the real mission disappear, and the method itself becomes the mission. An example of this is the YMCA, which started by using recreation as a method of winning people to Christ, then gradually allowed recreation itself to become the mission, rather than the means or method. This is an ever-present danger in the church, and continues to be one with the seeker model. I affirm you in resisting the urge to position your church as "we're different than all the other churches" as if that is your goal. As long as you keep your goal evangelism--the actual winning of souls headed for hell--to Christ's Kingdom, you'll be O.K.

3. To replace evangelism with assimilation. This is also true of all churches, but especially true of newer, more management-oriented churches. Face it, it is far easier to "assimilate" people in a purely sociological sense than it is to evangelize and disciple them. We all have read the studies--if people connect with seven other relationships in the first six months, they'll stick with us. We have learned to devise clever assimilation techniques that make people feel wanted, liked, accepted, and loved in our church fellowships. People can come to love the church, yet never know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. The more unique or "different" a church is, the easier it is to accomplish assimilation. But it is always a danger to think we have succeeded just because people have become "a part of our church" even if they have not been truly converted.

4. To sacrifice commitment and discipleship. Of course, we all know you do not have to trade away discipleship and commitment in order to be concerned about evangelism. Nor do we have to give up on outreach and evangelism to emphasize discipleship. Both can be emphasized simultaneously--should be emphasized at once. At the same time, down through history usually one or the other is emphasized. If the traditional churches' "besetting sin" is ignoring growth, the seeker model church must be constantly aware of the temptation to ignore godliness. The nice thing about all this is, when it comes to a new church, sooner or later you get into a building program which requires far more commitment than simply attending a service and enjoying the fellowship! Commitment generally grows slowly, though occasionally it has leaps and bounds during a short time. Conventions, camp meetings, and revival meetings are pretty much efforts of the past for churches like yours. The seeker movement must find new means of providing for a "commitment time warp" in the lives of people. In my view, small groups, educational opportunities, and regular services often provide the consistent gradual growth but do not provide opportunities for "growth leaps." It is easier to pronounce dead an old method, than to invent a new one that accomplishes the same thing.

Well, I've rambled on long enough, and I suppose these thoughts are relatively incoherent as you read them. Nevertheless, these are my impressions of what you are doing. You may note that I have very little to say about the music or worship style. The reason for this, is that I believe those things are primarily a generational issue. You have simply targeted the twenties and thirties crowd and designed music, drama, worship atmosphere, and communication style for that generation. It has nothing to do with right or wrong, better or worse, but with older and younger. This is the generation that came through the seventies and eighties youth movement and what you do on Sunday mornings is very similar to what has been done for two decades in the national youth conventions of The Wesleyan Church, only for you it is every Sunday. This is the kind of experience they are used to--sound, lights, good communication, twenties-and-thirties music, video, drama, etc. I think these issues are irrelevant, for they are essentially generational in nature. We have always had to reposition our formats for new generations. These matters are largely issues of preference, and not right and wrong.

All in all, I guess what I would say is, I applaud your efforts so long as you keep on getting people genuinely saved from sin, and lead them into a life of commitment, surrender, sacrifice, and holiness. From what I could pick up, this is what you are attempting to do, and perhaps you have the capability of doing it well enough that the other seeker-targeted churches can copy your efforts to get people beyond the shallowness of most Christians today--to serious deeper commitment.

Keep on keeping on,

Keith Drury

1994

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So what do you think?

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