Amazing Grace/Churches of Christ in Decline?: Transitional Issues, Part 5

We next consider how to transition to what makes a church plant work, as explained back in Rescuing the Churches of Christ, Part 2.

1. Very intentional, detailed, intense plans for getting the word out through community events, advertising, marketing, personal contact

Church plants make very careful plans for how they’re going to meet unbelievers. They plan a year or two ahead. They do mass mailings, reach out events, cook outs, classes for the community, etc. They have a plan and they work the plan.

More importantly, they don’t just go through the motions. If they advertise a financial planning conference, they meet and greet with vigor. They get names and phone numbers. They try to make friends. They explain what they’re about. They realize that the seminar is not the point. Building relationships is.

2. Emphasis on relationship building and personal evangelism but with additional methods used as well.

Now here is the key (I think). Friendship evangelism works but works very slowly. And the older we are, the harder it is, because we’ve made our friends and can hardly abandon our old friends. But any evangelistic effort has to center on friendship evangelism.

However, the church can help us by putting us in situations where we can meet the unchurched on favorable terms — through community service, outreach events, etc. This can accelerate the process if we see these events as opportunities to build relationships that will be evangelistic.

Then again, if we expect the event itself to save souls, we are seriously deluded! Few people will come to Jesus just because they’ve brought their children to an Easter egg hunt or attended a financial seminar. These events help show that we are generous, caring, nonjudgmental people, but they don’t bring the lost to Jesus. They just help the process.

I’m not trained in this sort of thing, but it seems we do a pretty lousy job of this. We put on an event for friends and neighbors and don’t even get a count. We don’t get names and numbers, so we can’t even thank visitors for having come. And sometimes we plan things that are so elaborate we are too exhausted from putting on the program to actually talk to the visitors.

3. Intense training of leadership

Here’s an idea: Send some of your leaders off to church planting school and then have them lead the planning for the next few years. You know, we may only need 12 or 15 highly committed people to pull it off. But as they set the example for the rest, the entire congregation just might change. It could happen …

4. A core membership committed to the vision of the church

Of course, this begins with having a vision for evangelism. Most churches have a vision for church growth — but most are satisfied with growth that comes from transfers — grabbing most of the Church of Christ members who move into town, picking up people unhappy with their Baptist congregation, that sort of thing … And this can be done by providing excellent programs, which we know how to do.

But evangelism is a whole lot harder. The numbers tell us that mere growth is no longer good enough. We have to have a vision to seek and save the lost.

We have to minimize the routine, internal demands so our most committed members can get involved with those outside the church. People are busy. If we want them making friends at the neighborhood Easter egg hunt, they can’t be inside punching out flannel graphs.

5. Utter rejection of legalism in all its forms

We will not have rejected legalism until we’re willing to have the occasional solo or instrumental piece in worship. It’s not that these things will suddenly make us evangelistic — it’s just that we won’t be free to do what we need to do while we are caught up in this kind of thinking.

It’s not the music, of course, It’s the hearts of the members who attract the lost. And the hearts that are most attractive are those that love as Jesus loved, who can love the prostitute and the leper. And who don’t mind healing on a Sabbath, even if it makes the legalists angry enough to kill.

6. Commitment to being missionaries — studying local culture, “language,” etc. and learning to communicate in those terms.

A missionary starting a work in Romania will learn Romanian. He will also learn the local culture — the sports teams, politics, etc. A missionary in Tuscaloosa, Alabama will learn about Alabama football. A missionary on the college campus will learn how college students relate — through video games, Facebook, text messages, parties, etc.

A missionary to college age youth will notice how very important relationships are to them and how they’re built on dialog, not authority. He’ll see that young people distrust authority but love to talk about just about anything nonjudgmentally. He’ll see that they detest racism and sexism in all their forms and feel strongly about environmental issues. And if the missionary knows his Bible, he’ll find lots of common ground.

Oh, and he’ll also notice how most students walk around with mp3 players, swap CDs of favorite tunes, and spend their weekends listening to bands. He’ll learn that music is very important to this generation, and he’ll figure a way to take advantage of that fact.

7. Instrumental music.

Every megachurch in the nation is instrumental. Most church plants are at least tolerant of instrumental music. Of course, there are also countless dying churches that have instrumental music. It’s no panacea. It is, however, a critical part of youth culture.

Us old folks don’t fully appreciate this. You see, we grew up in an age when music was available on records, which had to be played on a record player. Our kids carry their record players with them, and listen to music all day long.

We had to listen to the radio — someone else’s taste in music. Kids today listen to iPods, so they get to pick their own music.

I remember unpacking my oldest for his freshman year at Harding. As we walked the halls of the freshmen dorm, we couldn’t help but notice that at least half the students had brought guitars with them. This is at Harding, where all the kids grew up in a cappella churches, and yet they love instrumental music enough to have learned to play a guitar.

I attended a class at Pepperdine on singles ministry. One minister takes his singles barhopping. They go from bar to bar, listening the bands, while drinking Coke. They leave generous tips (so the waitresses aren’t hurt by their presence, as they’d normally make large tips off drinks) and talk about Jesus. They say they are always noticed!

Rather than declaring bars off limits, they see the bars as evangelistic opportunities. Rather than struggling with being different, they see being different as a way to attract the lost. And they see music as common ground with those they are seeking. Jesus would be very proud.