Yesterday I talked about why 20+ year olds are scarce in churches. The number one reason they aren’t in our worshipping communities at its most basic:
“They don’t want to hang out with us.”
But, why?
Here are the usual suspects given for why “post-modern” young person aren’t connected to your churches. There are hundreds of books and thousands of conferences that are basically rehashing most of these “reasons” most of the time.
- Christians are too judgmental
- “Church” is irrelavent
- “Church” is boring
- “Church” is old-fashioned
- “Church” is filled with hypocrites
- Next generation young people are relativistic (‘there is no truth”), and so they don’t see why they need the exclusive Christian gospel
- Next generation young people don’t “join” anything anymore
You could add to this list, but you get the picture. We can make observations about every one of these “reasons,” (and who knows, maybe we will…) but they all miss two obvious points.
First, no matter what you do as a congregation, young people are probably not going to show up to your worship services (let alone on your church campus). They don’t wake up on a Sunday morning (or Saturday night, for that matter) and suddenly say, “I think I need to go to church.”
We do a disservice to the people of our church communities if our “evangelism strategy” solely consists of, “Invite someone to church.” We set people up for failure from the beginning, if success means, the people they invite show up.
Now, that’s not saying someone will never respond, “OK, I think I will,” and then come.
I’m not saying don’t invite.
I am saying we live in an age where going to church is not on too many people’s radar, let alone people in their 20′s! If this hasn’t become obvious to you where you live, it’s “coming soon to a theatre near you.”
No matter how awesome-
the church buildings/ campuses/ worship services/ preachers/ programs/ bands/ dance troupes/ high wire acts/ espresso machines/ manicures and pedicures/ miniature golf courses on campus
are…
no matter how annointed, and how they are the epitome of excellence-
everything you do “in house” is, by default, not going to be very condusive to connecting with potential followers of Jesus.
Again, you may get Christians from other churches to come to yours (even highly devoted young people in their 20′s), but real Kingdom expansion?
Not likely.
So, the first obvious point is this:
The “church” goes out to the people.
I mean, if Ariel can figure it out from “Little Mermaid,”
“I wanna be where the people are…”
so must we.
I’ve got lots more to say about this, and can even witness to what this might look like in your community, but not yet.
The second obvious point? Let’s get personal. It’s all about you. It’s all about me.
Ask yourself this question,
“Am I the kind of person someone wants to hang around with?”
Now, a tougher question,
“Am I the kind of person a non-Christian potential follower of Jesus wants to hang around with?”
Now, even tougher,
“Am I the kind of person a non-Christian potential follower of Jesus in their 20′s, wants to hang around with?”
It starts with you, personally. It starts with me.
Unless you are the kind of person someone actually likes, I don’t care what you say or do, most people aren’t going to spend much time with you.
And because the “church” consists of a bunch of “you’s”- that is a challenge.
The reverse is also true.
If someone authentically likes you, if you are someone they actually want to spend time with, that’s a huge Kingdom step.
So, how obvious can this be, huh? And how rare anyone actually starts right here at the source.
So, here is tremendous nugget I can give you that has the potential of being an influence for eternity on someone else, even in their 20′s:
“Go out to where the people are and be the kind of person someone wants to hang with.”
Unless we start with ourselves personally, and unless we get out more, nothing else is really going to matter much in the long run.
Now, give me your $500 evangelism conference fee.
Or, maybe I’ ll just give you this for free.
And I’ve got more…
