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The local church remains the single most important institution in the world. It may have lost some of its luster over the past 20-to-30 years, but it is still irreplaceable. In fact, the future of our world and nation depends more on the church than on anything else at all.

The grass roots population understands the vital significance of the institutional church. Seventy-five percent of unchurched American adults still want their children to be actively involved in church.1 Fifty-eight percent of those same unchurched adults readily confess that personal involvement in a local congregation would decidedly enhance their personal lives and are open to such if made to feel welcome and wanted.

In short, the church is still of paramount concern to people -- even people who are functionally inactive with it. The task of the church is therefore to reclaim the spirit, power and influence that it can and should have within society at large. Any local church can do that if it remembers why it is in business.

Will Willimon and the late Dr. Robert Wilson say in Rekindling The Flame that "Each congregation needs to ask itself the questions: 'Who are we?' and 'What are we trying to accomplish?' "2 That is a logical starting place for the local church that is interested in growth. It is imperative to understand what God has created and called us to do -- why we are in business.

In Megatrends, John Naismith writes of the demise of railroads in America. He indicates the decline began to occur when railroad executives decided they were in the business of operating railroads. They forgot that they were actually in the business of transporting people. Richard Wilke has called that to our attention and likens the church to railroads. "Too many of us have come to believe that we are in the business of running the church; we are in the business of saving the world!"3 Ernest Fitzgerald tells the story of a beautiful gothic stone church in New York City which finally closed its doors. The lovely stained glass windows were boarded over. The once carefully manicured lawn was knee high. The massive oak doors were chained. On the front lawn, said Bishop Fitzgerald, was a "For Sale" sign. Beside it someone had placed a hand-painted cardboard sign with boldly printed words: "Our church went out of business because it forgot what its business was!"

As the church growth experts keep reminding us, local church revitalization begins when we remember what business we are in. According to Wilke, that is the business of saving the world. Evangelism is the heartbeat of that business. "Increasing numbers of people long for meaning in life, meaning not of their sole creation, meaning that gives their lives significance by joining them to some project greater than themselves."4 Where can people be more effectively connected with that sort of meaning than in the church (if a church actually remembers and practices why it is in business)?

For purpose of review, let us re-state at this point that the church is still vital to the masses in our world. People do hunger and thirst for what it alone can offer. And if a church remembers why it is in business and practices that faithfully, people will still seek it out (often in rather impressive numbers).

Certainly the responsibility of making it happen in the local church is bifocal. Both the corporate congregation and the ordained clergy have specific roles to play, and one without the other is (in Ben Franklin's words) "like half a pair of scissors."

Pollsters who do ecclesiastical studies indicate that church people basically desire two fundamental things of their ministers. In all honesty, clergy who are faithful to their calling owe their church people at least this much. The people in the pews desire (1) meaningful preaching and (2) attentive pastoring.

For ministers who would like to serve a growing church, here's how: preach with passion and pastor with compassion. When that formula is followed with discipline and determination, local churches almost inevitably grow.

Preaching
Joe Harding, one of Protestantism's foremost voices in church growth and revitalization, contends that there is "unanimous agreement that without effective preaching, no matter how promising the situation or church location, renewal simply will not happen."5 So far as breathing new life into the dry bones of a local church is concerned, there is no substitute for effective preaching.

Strong preaching, of course, requires work. Vital pulpits are rarely occupied by people who get started preparing the sermon on Saturday afternoon. Such practice insults not only the people ministers are called to serve but also the God who extended the call. There is no way to preach effectively without preparing effectively. Somewhere along the line, every minister makes his choices. If the choice is to busy one's self with 1,000 other issues instead of preaching, then the minister casts his lot with all the others who in Leander Keck's words "let sundry matters crowd out Sunday matters."6 When that happens, worshipers will soon begin looking elsewhere come Sunday. Jesus' words to Martha are pertinent to too many clergy: "You are anxious about many things," but sometimes "only one thing is needful (Luke 10:14)."

John Killinger, the creative and knowledgeable homiletician, has written: "We become caught up in administrative duties, committee responsibilities, an endless road of telephone calls and letter writing, and the inevitable trivia of day-to-day existence, and before we know it these ... lie squarely in the midst of our consciousness."7

The following poem was written about the structure of one of our leading denominations, but it could doubtless provide an adequate description of most denominations and our propensity for meetings:

Mary had a little lamb.
It could have been a sheep
Until it joined the ________________ Church
And died from lack of sleep.

Fill in the blank with the name of your own part of the household of faith, and it is a fair guess that the poem will lose none of its originally intended accuracy. Growing churches have preachers who refuse to get caught in that trap, pastors who know how to prioritize and who faithfully carve out sacred time to prepare for preaching. Should they have to let something else go, so be it! The average church member will be enthusiastically supportive. They will readily forgive the minister's absence at a board of trustees meeting if they know it will mean a better sermon come Sunday morning.

Preparation time varies from minister to minister, but Buttrick's old thesis of an hour's preparation for every minute in the pulpit is still a rather reasonable formula to follow. Powerful preaching doesn't just happen. It takes labor ... and time.

Though styles and methods differ, the following work routine for preaching provides solid results.

A -- Themes should be plotted seasonally. It is helpful if the preacher knows his thematic destination no less than six months in advance.

B -- When one knows where he is going, envelopes can be prepared for each upcoming sermonic theme. Appropriate illustrations, biblical references, observations, etc., can be placed in the envelope. Thus, when the week arrives for preparing that particular sermon, there will already be considerable fodder for the mill at one's disposal.

C -- Monday is an ideal day for prayer and scripture study. During this time no real note-making is necessary (though some will inevitably take place). The purpose is simply to immerse one's self in the Spirit and the theme from a biblical perspective. If one is preaching from a Bible story, live with the story on Monday. Stay back in that time, listening to the voices of generations past. Move mentally into Jerusalem or Damascus, and do not hurry out. There is plenty of time for bridging the gap between the centuries as the week passes. Let The Word penetrate. Only in so doing will the preacher be familiar enough with "The" Word to make it "our" word.

D -- Tuesday is the day to pick up one's pen and go to work. Most ministers find it advantageous to develop an outline. Outlines are like road maps. It is difficult to arrive at the proper destination unless a person knows where he is going. Ordinarily the Bible will provide all the outline the minister needs, if he has spent sufficient time with it. No one has to create an outline when preaching on the prodigal son (Luke 15). Luke gives us all the outline anyone could ever need:
1 -- He rebelled;
2 -- He repented;
3 -- He returned;
4 -- He was received.

Or take, for example, the parable of the neighbor at midnight (Luke 11:5-13):
1 -- Cries for assistance;
2 -- The hesitant helpfulness of humans;
3 -- The tender helpfulness of a heavenly Parent.

The Transfiguration followed by the healing of the epileptic child is its own outline (Matthew 17:1-21):
1 -- Fueled on the mountaintop;
2 -- Sent to the valley.

Paul's pastoral letters are similar. So far as sermon preparation is concerned, Monday's journey into The Word ordinarily gives the minister a head start when it comes time to develop a solid outline on Tuesday.

E -- Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings are spent writing, talking aloud, listening, re-writing and typing. The minister must grapple with a list of questions during the process:

"Am I moving from a written to an oral style?"

"Am I remaining true to the text?" (Always exegesis, never isogesis!)

"Is it thoroughly biblical?" Church growth experts know that people come to worship to hear the Bible's commentary on life, not the latest word from the fields of pop psychology or politics. They will go elsewhere for those commentaries. Lyle Schaller lists biblical preaching as the most important of all the characteristics he has discovered in growing churches.8 Of course, "merely quoting the Bible is no guarantee of doing biblical preaching."9 A text or biblical lesson should be employed, explored and applied helpfully to the world of the hearer. To blast the listener with verse after verse in shotgun fashion really accomplishes no significant end and, though sounding biblical, in the best sense really is not.

"Is my language accessible to all hearers, or am I too scholastic or too heavily theological?" Remember, we serve no noble purpose by preaching over anyone's head. To do so insults the listener and reflects poor preparation or excessive ego on the part of the preacher. This is why the sermon should be practiced aloud following the writing of the initial rough draft. As the preacher talks through the manuscript, he hears the places where editing should be done to make the sermon accessible (and to move it from the written to oral style).

"Am I letting the text speak or am I venting my own personal agenda items?"

"Is there good news in this sermon?"

"Is it properly illustrated?" The best way to bridge the gap between the centuries is to employ vivid, contemporary illustrations that place the biblical lesson within the framework of the listeners' world and experiences. Humor, references to theater, music or cinema, personal anecdotes in which the minister reveals himself as a fellow believer/pilgrim -- all these forms of illustration make sermons more listenable and dramatically enhance their impact upon those who worship. Proper illustrating, of course, requires hard work. Illustrations must be carefully selected that are consistent with the theological integrity of the text. Good preachers don't just find an interesting story and "fit it in." If a story does not fit, it is not used. A time will come later when it is appropriate. Wait for that time. Meanwhile, dig harder and farther to find the right story, the one peculiarly suited for this particular pericope and for this particular moment in the flow of the message.

F -- By Friday noon, the sermon should be in whatever form one will carry into the pulpit (manuscript, full notes, brief outline). At that point it is wise to put the sermon away and rest the mind a bit by doing other things.

G -- Most families seek uninterrupted time together on Saturday evenings. Preachers are better advised to schedule that time on Fridays. On Saturdays it is always helpful to cloister one's self to learn the sermon. This is done best by reading it aloud, penciling in corrections that enhance an oral style. Then the minister should continue to preach the message aloud until he is able to do so comfortably, start to finish, without consulting the manuscript or notes. It is hard work, but it pays off on Sunday mornings by offering to the gathered listeners a well-prepared sermon that sounds spontaneous. Few things are less engaging than to have a manuscript read to an audience. Few things are more engaging than a well-prepared preacher who seems to be talking from the heart, empowered by the Spirit alone. To take a text, reach into someone's heart and touch that person with the Word for their world takes time, time, time and work, work, work.

Of course, even the most industrious preacher still runs the risk of answering questions that people do not ask, and thus failing to tap into this greatest resource for church growth and revitalization. Considerable attention should be paid to addressing themes that people are hungry to hear addressed.

What seems to work best in preaching for church growth is pastoral homiletics -- in other words, concentrating on messages that address personal needs.

Listen to the voices:

From Will Willimon and Robert Wilson: "If you preach sermons that really relate to people's lives ... (you) will bring the new members in."10

From John Killinger: "Real preaching grows out of the counseling session, the board meeting, the parish call, the casual encounter in a restaurant or grocery store. It speaks of and to what the minister has learned in all of his dealings with people during the week. It relates the gospel to human situations and works back and forth between them like a weaver's shuttle ... . The preacher who is really serious about his or her calling should resolve early on never to preach a sermon that does not have the clear and statable aim of doing something for people!"11

From Phillips Brooks: "The preacher needs (always) to be a pastor!"12

From Evelyn Laycock and James Holsinger: "People whose lives are in disarray, whose souls need refreshing, whose thoughts flee to other times and places, whose spirits are despondent, all come to church at the worship hour in expectation. They expect that something transcendent may take place in their hearts and souls. They come hoping for a vital worship experience, a moment in which they meet a living God who can fill their inner emptiness with the fullness of purpose, hope and love."13

From Edgar Jackson: In How To Preach To People's Needs he wrote of a poll taken among church-goers. Of the nearly 4,000 who were interviewed, half felt that the major problems in their lives surfaced in such areas as futility, loneliness (75 percent of American adults will confess to experiencing loneliness at any given moment in time14), insecurity, inferiority, illness, sex, alcoholism, marriage and guilt. Approximately one-fourth were concerned with child training, separation, divorce, relational difficulties in the home, and other marital or domestic problems. Jackson estimated further that in any particular congregation, 20 percent of the people attending are dealing with grief, 33 percent of the married persons are unhappy at home, 50 percent are experiencing personal adjustment problems that threaten their security at school, work or in the community, 25 percent are depressed and 20 percent are so burdened with guilt or the fear of discovery that their peace of mind is seriously jeopardized. "There," he wrote, "are the people who come to our churches on Sundays seeking hope."15

In a meeting in Pawling, New York, in the autumn of 1989, Mrs. Ruth Peale was asked what, in her opinion, accounted for the enormous popularity of her husband, Norman's, preaching. Mrs. Peale never hesitated but offered the immediate reply: "That's easy. Norman's sermons touched lives because he steeped himself in the problems and pains of people."16

There is, without question, a noble place for prophetic preaching. But if church growth and revitalization is the topic, nothing has the impact of pastoral sermons -- sermons that touch the hurts of broken-hearted people who occupy our pews Sunday by Sunday.

John Sutherland Bonnell, addressing a convocation of preachers, told of the Sunday when, at the close of worship at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian in New York City, he was greeting people at the back door. One woman (a visitor) lingered. When all others had left, she introduced herself to Dr. Bonnell. "You don't remember me, I'm sure," she began, "but I visited here two years ago. My daughter (who was eight then) had a tumor behind her left eye. We brought her to New York to an opthalmologist. To remove the tumor, he had to remove her eye. Now there is a tumor behind her right eye. Tomorrow they will remove it. This is the last day she will ever look at me -- or at anything, for that matter." Then the mother began to cry. After composing herself somewhat, she continued: "I just came here today hoping to find the strength to face tomorrow." Then she walked away. Dr. Bonnell said that he watched her leave and thought to himself: "What in God's name ... literally, what in God's name did I say today that can help that broken woman face tomorrow?"17

Without fail, every Sunday someone in the congregation is living on the edge of despair, hungering for some word that can help in facing tomorrow. Perhaps the leading church growth experts are correct in their virtually unanimous assessment that worshipers do not long for (nor are preachers ordinarily equipped to offer) the latest word on the political or social scene. Karl Barth put it this way: "We cut a ridiculous figure as village sages -- or city sages. As such we are socially superfluous."18

Let us not misunderstand the point of all this: To ignore the social gospel is to ignore the gospel. The prophetic word is still required of preachers. Leonard Sweet observes that "authentic proclamation can never be personal at the expense of being prophetic." Dr. Sweet went on to say, however: "In like fashion, authentic proclamation can never be prophetic at the expense of being personal."19 Many preachers who have laudatory track records in church growth and revitalization make it a practice that every sermon will have a primary pastoral thrust to it. Prophetic or social statements are not infrequent but always remain simply one point among several. Should the pastor be preaching one of those "milk-stool sermons" (the sort that always has three legs to it), he will often make the first point a social, missional or political statement. That will be followed by two other points that are uniquely personal and deal with such themes as God's grace and presence with us in our hours of need. Obviously, there is considerable thematic overlapping (e.g., the anxieties created by the Persian Gulf War of 1991 provided entree into the social and pastoral arenas with hardly a noticeable thematic transition).

Every Sunday people come to church bearing heavy crosses. Week by week they come with the question in their minds and hearts: "Does God have a word for me?" If that word is faithfully and regularly offered, those people will keep coming back, and they will bring others with them.

There is one other word of significance before the topic of preaching is concluded: Let it be biblical!

"Within Protestantism vital biblical preaching is the most important characteristic of growing churches."20 Again to quote John Killinger: "Talking about God is more important than anything else we can do ... How frustrated people are when the preacher talks about world issues without any reference to biblical theology, or discusses some psychological disorder without grounding it in the biblical understanding of persons, or delivers a lecture on marriage or education or the human predicament without tracing its roots in the community's dealings with God." He continues: "The greatest preachers have always been lovers of the Bible ... The minister who would preach must come to love (the Bible), must live within its pages day by day, year by year, until it fairly saturates his or her being. He should pour over it the way people review old family albums, looking for their roots of existence in the faces and environments of days gone by, and reading the present and the future in light of the past."21

The Bible is our source of authority in the pulpit. Without it, preachers simply come off as the silly "village sages" Barth described.

If we wish to address prejudice, we can say: "Listen folks, this is what I think," and every hearing aid in the sanctuary will be turned off before we get to the second sentence. Is it not far better simply to let God's Word confront the people? "And Nathanael asked, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' (John 1:46)." "And Peter said, 'Lord forbid that I should eat anything unclean.' (Acts 10:14)." "And the Pharisee prayed, 'Thank God that I am not like other men!' (Luke 18:11)."

If we wish to talk about forgiveness, we can say: "I know how you people live. You have no right to judge others or hold grudges. We must learn to get along in this world." Soon the snores will begin. It seems more effective simply to remind one's hearers: "You shall forgive your neighbor not seven times but seventy times seven (Matthew 18:22)." "And when you pray, say ... forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us (Matthew 6:12)." "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 22:34)." "This is my commandment, that you love one another even as I have loved you (John 15:12)."

If the topic is grace, what could be more effective than simply to say: "Now a certain father had two sons ... And when he saw the younger son yet at a distance, he ran to him, embraced him, kissed him, put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet and said: 'Kill the fatted calf! Let's have a party! For this, my child, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found!' " And the father's gate was never locked against his prodigal child (Luke 15:11-32).

If we choose to address the theme of compassion, how appropriate it is to say: "A certain man was journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell among thieves who stripped him and beat him and left him for dead ... And there passed that way a Samaritan who went to him and bound up his wounds ... Now I say unto thee, 'Go thou and do likewise!' (Luke 10:25-37)."

Authority for preaching is rooted squarely in the Bible. Scripture is far, far more than a mere jumping off place so one can get on with the stories and jokes. It is instead the foundation out of which all illustrations flow so that our age is bridged to the Bible's age and God's Word becomes a personal letter mailed to us.

Pastoral Care
Of similar importance is the second issue: pastoral care.

Laycock and Holsinger write: "A pastor to whom the people can relate in an intimate fashion is far more important than any other factor."22 "Laypeople want pastors who are readily available when they are needed."23

All have heard horror stories of persons in intensive care units who waited for days for the pastor to arrive, only to be disappointed. Most have known persons who carried heavy burdens to ministers and received virtually no ministry. I personally recall a conversation with a friend who had been through the trials of cancer surgery. The attendant fears and anxieties were beyond measure. Before entering the hospital, he shared those fears and anxieties with his pastor and asked for special prayer and support. The minister told him quite frankly: "I will certainly keep you in my prayers. But, I really don't have the time to do visitation in the hospitals." Is it difficult to imagine why the patient went through a season of rather serious disenchantment with his church?

People in every parish are hurting. Forty-six percent of marriages fail. Countless others "stay together" but without thriving or any real mutual satisfaction. Parents tremble helplessly at the knowledge their children are experimenting with drugs. Children likewise tremble in fear of alcoholic or abusive parents. The economy struggles, and persons who have not missed a day's work in 20 years are suddenly pounding the pavement seeking jobs. AIDS, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes. The very words strike fear in even the stoutest of human hearts. People need to know there is someone accessible, someone who cares, someone who (whether or not he has the answers) hurts with them. Most turn first to their pastor.

Quite some time ago a member of the church where I pastor was hit by an automobile while crossing a city street. She went through long months of surgery, therapy and intense pain. On each occasion that our associate pastor or I visited with her, she would request that we hold her hand as we stood or sat at her bedside. During one of those visits the lady explained: "The touch of your hand keeps me from feeling so alone in my pain."

Church people need (and deserve) to know that they have ministers who are with them in their pain.

What, though, about corporate responsibility for making it work in the local church? Put another way: If the laity has the right to expect specific things of their pastors, what do clergy have the right to expect of their members? Consider five responses to that question.

1 -- Church members are responsible to create a functioning vehicle for "dreaming dreams and seeing visions (Joel 2:28)."

Most Protestant denominations have programs in place to assist local churches in this process (e.g. United Methodism's "Growth PLUS" or "Vision 2000" programs). Some vehicle is needed to help a church determine (a) where it wants to go and (b) where it can go in ministry as we prepare for the arrival of a new century.

Paula D'Arcy (quoted earlier) suggests that any church is wise to select a "think tank" committee that exists simply to listen to the Spirit's lead and project local church plans appropriately. That committee, she continues, should periodically conduct a "what if" exercise. It gathers and asks: "What if there were no church on this property? What if we were not a committee of an established church but rather a group of people planning to organize a new congregation? If that were the case, what do we think God would want a new church to do and be in this place during this time in history?" It is her contention (and a sound one) that when a committee answers those questions, it will know what God expects of its church, even if that church has stood on the same corner for the past 200 years.24

The membership of such a committee or task force (to be effective) should be chosen by the ministry staff. Any established nominations committee will continue to select "the old guard" or "favorite friends." A local church think tank group should instead be comprised of visionaries, newer members alongside members of long-standing who are not bound by the past. All should be committed to Christ and the local church. All should be responsibly evangelical. Recycling the same long range planning committee that has existed for 30 years will not suffice. Had they been pro-active, there would be no current need for such a committee to be considered. If this is to be a successful endeavor, let the make-up of the organization be new and fresh.

At an early meeting (perhaps the first following the organizational one), the following lists should be considered (with editorials appropriate to your local situation).

The "I Wish" List For The Local Church
The following questions must be addressed in visionary fashion. Thus, do not be concerned about our congregation's current ability or inability to finance your wishes. Dream big! Please feel free to use the back of the page to elaborate.

1 -- I wish our facility could include:

2 -- I wish the following position(s) could be added to our present staff:

3 -- I wish there were support groups meeting regularly that addressed the needs of:

4 -- I wish our church were more intentional in ministry to:

5 -- I wish our church conducted worship services at times other than Sunday morning.
Yes
No

If "Yes," what day?

6 -- I wish we identified prospective members in the following fashion(s):

7 -- I wish we assimilated/nurtured new members in the following fashion(s):

8 -- I wish our program of Christian education were more

9 -- I wish our program of Christian education were less

10 -- I wish our music program

11 -- I wish our service(s) of worship

12 -- I wish when people in our community heard the name of our church, they immediately thought of

13 -- I wish our church's leadership circle were

14 -- I wish God could get this one message through clearly to our church

15 -- I wish we could get the message about our church out to a larger segment of the community, and think the best way(s) to accomplish that would be

Once the "I Wish" lists have been compiled, the pastoral leadership and members of the think tank organization can assess results. It is a good idea to distribute the survey in two or three phases (first, to the small leadership team that will ultimately assess results; second, to a larger group such as the church's official administrative body; and third, to the church at large). The leadership team needs to gather the survey forms and begin looking for trends. Those that emerge can then be placed under the egis of appropriate program teams or chairpersons to be pursued as part of the church's local ministry. The point is that church members are responsible to "dream dreams and see visions," and a creative pastor will locate (a) groups of pro-active thinkers and (b) useful format utensils to enable the task.

2 -- Laity have a responsibility for taking the lead in the ministry of identifying and visiting prospective members.

Herb Miller suggests that the average American adult will drive up to 15 minutes to attend church. Anything past that length of time becomes uncomfortable. That is amazing (since anything up to four hours for an athletic event is considered reasonable), but true. In any event, given Miller's observation, local church evangelism committees are well advised to find a large city map and draw a circle around the church, 15 minutes driving time in all directions. Whatever area appears inside the circle is the prime target area for evangelistic visitation. The questions then become: "Who lives inside the circle, and what does our church have to offer them?"

Initially local church personnel may have difficulty determining what socio-economic groups are most densely represented. Any local city planner's office can supply reams of demographical data that will prove helpful. Certain questions should be aggressively pursued:

a -- Are there any baby boomers inside the circle? Baby boomers are those 77 million Americans born between 1946 and 1961. For a long time they have been conspicuously absent from mainline churches. But now, as a recent magazine article put it, "The Boomers Are Back."

"At one time or another, roughly two-thirds of the baby boomers dropped out of organized religion. But in recent years, more than one-third of the dropouts have returned. About 57 percent (43 million people) now attend church or synagogue. More than 80 percent of the boomers consider themselves religious and believe in life after death."25

Are they out there, within the circle? If so, what do those people need ... and seek? There are a few clear and simple answers to that question. They seek relationship. They are weary with going it alone, one night stands and singles bars. Their youthful independent spirits are aging into ones that seek connection and relatedness. Many have decided that church is a good place to find the sort of "other" that can positively fill the inner emptiness they have too long been afraid to confess. They seek meaning which has not been secured in an abundance of things. As Patti Page voiced in song several years ago, baby boomers have acquired and attained only to ask: "Is That All There Is?" They seek direction from beyond (i.e., a sense that this is a friendly universe and that they are not aimlessly wandering through a pointless maze). Life, to be full, has to be possessed of purpose. Those who are married (especially with children) seek a church setting that will enhance family life and values. They are more interested in clean nurseries, attractive children's wings and marriage enrichment retreats than in gothic sanctuaries and medieval baroque anthems. Church evangelism committees (if functioning properly) will determine if the baby boomer generation is represented inside the circle and what the church must do to offer them authentic ministry.

b -- Are there singles represented inside the circle on the map? Many contend that singles and single-agains comprise the most fertile ground for church growth and evangelism of any group in the '90s. They certainly represent a sizeable segment of the adult population in America (with estimates ranging from 35 to almost 45 percent). By the turn of the century well over half the adult population will be single, and currently almost half of our nation's graduating high school seniors come from single parent homes. Thus, any church that ignores ministry to singles is effectively shutting the door on its major field of prospective members.

The simple truth is, any church can provide a singles ministry. It only takes a room to meet in, a steering committee and a willingness to do a bit of public relations. More than any other group at all, singles tend to take the reins and manage the program themselves once it is established. Statistics prove that churches which offer any special opportunities for singles (be it Sunday school or week night fellowship) tend to reap the benefits in terms of increased membership.

c -- Are there senior adults in the circle? Too often persons assume that older adults have already made all the decisions they are going to make. Such is not necessarily the case, even as it has to do with religion and church affiliation.

One senior adult couple who live in a small Texas town had for years been inactive in church. He was an Episcopalian. She was a Roman Catholic. They compromised by staying home from both denominations. Today they are very active, rarely missing a Sunday at "their" church (which, by the way, is neither Episcopal nor Catholic). How did the change in worship habits occur? Very simply, a neighbor took the time to stop by and invite them to visit her church. That's all there was to it. Someone dared to believe that God is still able to do marvelous things with persons who preceded the baby boomers by several years. The couple in question told their new pastor that the woman who invited them was the first person in 14 years to ask them to visit in church."26 Often a simple invitation is all that is required: a willingness to ask and a genuine interest in the one whom we are asking.

Senior adults offer a wide variety of strengths to local churches. They have more free time at hand than their counterparts who have not yet retired. With advances in health care and longer life expectancies, they are frequently the beneficiaries of strength and energy that some find surprising (even enviable). Obviously they possess more experience than those who have not yet lived so long. Time, energy and experience add up to the potential to become unusually productive members of the church family. Most are waiting simply to be asked.

d -- Are there youth in the circle? Eighty percent of America's children are not in church on Sunday mornings. Seventy-five percent of our teenagers are involved in some fashion of sexual experience on Saturday nights. Roughly 40 percent get drunk or high as frequently as once per week. And alarmingly increasing numbers have so despaired of life that they are choosing suicide as an option to be pursued. On every hand there is evidence that children and youth, overwhelmed by and afraid of life, are checking out (some by physically or chemically anesthetizing themselves; others by pulling the trigger). Our young people need hope, and apparently for many it is hard to find. That's where the church comes in. We are stewards of hope. There is (as Elton Trueblood put it in the title of his book) an Alternative To Futility. The alternative is relationship -- with Christ and with a community of people who love unconditionally, even as we are loved.

Youth choirs, inviting Sunday night youth fellowships that effectively balance biblical study with recreation and opportunities for sharing in an environment free of judgment, scouting programs, caring leaders who can serve as listeners and friends and even facilities that indicate a place for and commitment to youth go far in salvaging desperate young lives as well as nurturing other ones. Likewise, this investment of time, love and money brings certain returns for the local church. It is undeniable that active youth and children tend to reactivate parents and grandparents who have grown ecclesiastically lazy. Are there young people in the circle? What does the church offer (or plan to offer) them?

Other target groups can be listed, many unique to the particular local church implementing a program of prospective member visitation. The point is that no church can reap much of a harvest if it does not know what is growing in the field. In some instances, for example, without doing our homework a church may go to great lengths to develop a ministry to singles when in fact it has a much higher density of senior adults living within minutes of its steeple. Examine the turf. Know the territory. Aggressively pursue the target groups. And be certain that once they attend, the church has in place some program of ministry tailored to their needs.

Obviously the laity carry the lion's share for doing the prospective member visitation. However diligent a pastor may be, he cannot do evangelistic visitation alone. In fact, laity do it far more effectively from a statistical standpoint. Most stats indicate that first time visitors who are contacted in person by lay church members tend to return in rather impressive numbers (roughly 80 percent if visited within 24 hours, 60 percent if visited within 48). Interestingly, if clergy make the initial visit, the return ratio is reduced by virtually 50 percent. Why is that? Very simply, that phenomenon exists because people expect clergy to visit. It is viewed as being their job. However, when a lay member of a congregation stops by to say "We were glad you visited in our church today," that is viewed as hospitality.

Let it be noted by all that visitation teams should visit! Telephoning prospective members is better than nothing but will never compare in results with the effectiveness of face-to-face contact. Cards and letters are even less productive. "Contact people in person -- not through the mail. Paper never substitutes for the influence of personality!"27

Encourage the visitors (who, by the way, should go out in twos -- husband and wife teams are usually effective, though by no means required) to be direct about who they are and why they have come. "Hi. We are Gerald and Iris Smith from Northport Church. We understand you visited with us this morning and would like to come in for just a moment to say, 'Welcome to Northport.' " It is genuinely important to enter the house. Screen doors that remain closed between resident and visitor represent barriers to relationship. Front porch evangelism rarely accomplishes much. George Morris suggests that 15 minutes in the living room is helpful and 15 in the den, even better. Five minutes at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, and one can almost certainly remove that person's name from the prospect's list and inscribe it on the church roll. Getting in the house (if such can be done graciously and non-aggressively) is of paramount significance.

Beyond debate is the value of having the visitation team carry with them to each home some printed material about the church. Those items give the prospect time to peruse what the church has to offer at his leisure after the visit is completed. Likewise, a memento of interest is a winning idea. In other words, have the visitors carry something that says "Welcome. You are important to us." Some visitation teams carry pies or home-baked bread. Equally effective (and less fattening) are potted plants with a card naming the church and including a catchy phrase such as "Come grow with us!" Placed on a window sill, every time the person passes through the kitchen and sees the plant she will think of the church it represents.

Visitors should be encouraged never to overstay their welcome. Fifteen minutes is ordinarily the optimum length of stay (10 is better). Past that the encounter tends to become counter-productive (and even produces decreasing results). Visitors should leave at the pinnacle of the encounter, not when it is on a declining curve.

Once the in-home contact has been completed, church visitors should immediately fill out a prospective member information card. Such a card should be done in duplicate (one for the committee's files and one for the senior minister or minister of visitation). On page 49 is a sample of how a three-by-five index card should be used.

Follow-up visitors should examine notes on the cards prior to making contact. This will enable them to address pertinent issues and not simply to re-plow introductory ground. Also, this proves an invaluable resource to pastors who are also making contact with prospective members (providing insight into personal pastoral needs or skills and abilities that would be of service to church or community).

Front Side of Card

Name(s): Visit made by:

Date:

How long in town:

Date when prospect visited our church:

Address:

Marital/Family status:

Current church affiliation:

(Over)

Back Side of Card
Notes: Use this side of card to include brief personal data. E.g., why did they visit our church? Who brought or invited them? Are they actively involved in another local church? Are there children in the home? What ages? Any information regarding personal needs (What are they looking for in a church family)? Any relevant information about former church background or areas of service.

There will be occasions, of course, when evangelism team visitors can assist the ministers to make more effective use of their time by editing the visitation list. A noted mountain wood artist (we used to call them "whittlers" before the trade became sophisticated) was asked how he carved such life-like canine figures. He answered simply: "Well, ah jest take mah knife and mah block a' wood, and ah whittle away ever'thing that don't look like a dawg!" Evangelism team visitors serve a valuable purpose by "whittling away" first-time visitors who are not legitimate prospects for church membership. For example, a notation on the back of the three-by-five card may read as follows: "This couple was in church on Feb. 9 because their son's scout troop was recognized. Ordinarily they attend First ________________ Church, where they are active members. No need to visit." The minister can then send a form letter/card welcoming the family to church and devote his attention to visiting in other homes where needs or potential are real.

Many churches find it effective to make evangelism team members visible on Sunday mornings. Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, for example, has their team members wear red carnations and stand at the altar at the close of the morning worship service. Visitors are encouraged to speak with team members to secure information about the church. Boone United Methodist (NC) stations its team members near all exits from the sanctuary. They, too, are identified by the use of carnations. Visitors naturally pass by their stations, whereupon they are given printed information (church profile booklets and recent newsletters) about the church. Ben Hill Church in Atlanta has visitors stand up during the service, and evangelism team members go to them in their pew with the outstretched hand of fellowship. In each of those cases (as with virtually all growing churches), the evangelism workers secure information about the first-time visitors so that follow-up can be made.

What About Evangelism Committee Meetings?

Q -- How often should evangelism teams/committees meet?

A -- Monthly

Q -- What is a helpful format?

A -- Begin with prayer. A brief devotional based upon a lesson that is essentially evangelical is also a plus. This is, after all, a spiritual endeavor that must have a strong spiritual base in order to be successful.

The meeting then turns to a review of contacts made by visitation teams over the past month. Current status of the prospects contacted is discussed (e.g., Are they still attending? Have they become involved in any church activity other than worship?) Based upon these reports, decisions are made regarding the advisability of visiting the person/family in question again during the following month. If they are to be re-visited, responsibility for making contact is passed along to a new visitation team.

Persons who have initiated contact with the church are considered next. This may include individuals/families who have visited in the church at worship, Sunday school or for other special events. It may also include persons newly involved in ongoing church activities (e.g., scouting, day care, senior adult fellowship, etc.). Assignments are made linking those persons to a visitation team which will make personal contact prior to the next meeting.

Third, the committee will consider any referrals from the pastoral staff or church members at-large. Once it is known that a person is involved in evangelism/church growth ministries, frequently he is stopped in the hall of the church (or business or grocery store) by someone who says: "If you ever get the chance, would you mind putting __________________ on your list of folks to be visited? He works with me and isn't involved in church anywhere. I think he might be interested if someone reached out."

Finally, the committee will deal with its own personal circle of relationships. The FRAN Model28 is a helpful and reasonable approach. "FRAN" is an acronym for friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors. It simply means that committee members will brainstorm about functionally unchurched persons in their own close circle of relationships. Those persons are strong candidates for membership in the church family. After all, they are already personally involved with active members. A trust level has been previously established. And probably (through contact and association) they have been appraised of what the church in question is like. The gardening has been done. It simply remains to reap the harvest. Assignments of visitors are made.

The evening should end as it began: with prayer. Prayer circles, hands held, are effective symbols of the business of the team (being one with Christ and one with each other, close bound in spirit and purpose). Many committee chairpersons use this closing prayer as a ceremony of commissioning (or sending forth).

A good rule of thumb: It should not take long periods of time to do lots of work. If properly organized, no committee meeting should require more than 90 minutes. Sixty is even better.

Q -- Are there effective evangelism programs currently available to local churches?

A -- Yes. Consult headquarters. Every denomination has a program. "Church Grow" (from the National Evangelistic Association in Lubbock, Texas) and "Vision 2000" or "Growth PLUS" (from the Board of Discipleship, The United Methodist Church) are examples that come to mind. All denominations have in-house local church evangelistic packages. With minor variations, most are strikingly similar. All are helpful to some degree. The committee should examine resources and decide upon a program that seems uniquely suited to the local situation. Of course, many may choose simply to use the prospective member identification/visitation/assessment/follow-up format listed previously in the question-and-answer segment of this chapter. If aggressively pursued, this format is almost certain to insure church growth.

Two Do's And One Don't
1 -- Do practice observational evangelism. This simply means training the laity of the church to be aware of new persons in their circles of relationships who are functionally unchurched. It is fundamentally more a matter of mind-set than effort. A new family moves into a house down the block, a new person takes a position in the office, a child begins dating a youth new to his school. Inquiry is made regarding how long the person has been in the community. If the person/family is a new arrival and thus has not yet established a church home, word is passed along to the Evangelism Committee and contact is made. Many individuals find this sort of evangelistic commitment less threatening than going out and knocking on doors. It only requires keeping one's eyes and ears open and then passing along information to others who do not mind making personal contact.

2 -- Do practice hospitality evangelism. Basically this is just a matter of making certain that first-time (or repeat) visitors to one's church are not lost in the shuffle. Greeters, ushers and the deployment of easily identifiable evangelism committee members at entrances and exits makes "hospitality evangelism" one of the church's simplest tasks. It requires nothing more strenuous than to offer gestures of warmth and welcome to strangers in our midst. (Note: Greeters should not wear badges that read "Greeter." That indicates to a visitor that the man/woman with the badge has been assigned a Sunday to be friendly. Far better is to wear lapel identification that reads "Host" or "Hostess." Ken Kroehler of First United Methodist Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has his greeters wear badges that ask" May I help you?" The object is to aim for warmth, inclusiveness and hospitality.)

Herb Miller writes: "People are looking for a place where they can find a warm relationship with other people. They are looking for people who care about each other and will give them an opportunity to become part of the group. Everyone wants to be wanted."29 Provide visitors with the sense that here they are cared about, here they are wanted and here they can belong, and those visitors will become the beneficiaries of a fashion of Christian hospitality that generally will lead them to unite with the church.

Hospitality evangelism also obviously includes what many refer to as decision calls. Simply put, that means issuing invitations to attend church as well as to unite with it. Whereas the latter may traditionally be more the work of the clergy, the former is more effectively the work of the laity. Growing churches have lay members who are not timid about inviting persons to attend church. Should that not be the mind-set of a particular congregation, moving the church's personality from introversion to extroversion will require a systematic and determined approach on the part of minister and evangelism committee. Sermons, church school lessons, special studies and training sessions on invitational evangelism will need to be preached, taught and conducted. Be well assured that the return is more than worth the investment. As Joe Harding and Ralph Mohney have observed: "Churches that invite, grow. Churches that do not invite, decline."30 It really is that simple ... and that crucial.

3 -- Don't confuse the evangelistic agenda with any reclamation project regarding inactive members.

One of the first comments frequently made when evangelism committees meet is: "I think before we go out looking for new members, we ought to do something to get back the members we already have who do not attend." As soon as that statement is made, the evangelism agenda is ordinarily (a) diluted and/or (b) abandoned altogether. The reclamation of inactive members (an extraordinarily difficult task, since most members who left a church did so intentionally, with what they assessed to be a valid reason, and therefore are not likely to do an about-face) is not the business of the evangelism committee. It is the business of the membership care committee or the shepherding task force. Evangelism is to take the story to persons beyond the ecclesia and draw them in.

_________

1. Op. Cit., Miller (Evangelism's Open Secrets), p. 117.

2. Op. Cit.,Willimon and Wilson, p. 123.

3. Op. Cit., Wilke, pp. 120-21.

4. Op. Cit., Willimon and Wilson, p. 42.

5. Joe Harding, Have I Told You Lately? (Nashville: Church Growth Press, 1989), p. 15.

6. Op. Cit., Willimon and Wilson, p. 111.

7. John Killinger, Fundamentals Of Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1985), p. 189.

8. "Seven Characteristics of a Growing Church," Church Administration (October, 1975), p. 7.

9. Op. Cit., Killinger, p. 14.

10. Op. Cit., Willimon and Wilson, p. 112.

11. Op. Cit., Killinger, pp. 23, 25.

12. Op. Cit., Willimon and Wilson, p. 23.

13. Op. Cit., Laycock and Holsinger, p. 79.

14. Walter Underwood, Being Human, Being Hopeful (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987), p. 44.

15. Edgar Jackson, How To Preach To People's Needs (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1974), pp. 13-14.

16. "A Conversation with Norman Vincent and Ruth Peale," recorded at the FCL School of Practical Christianity (Pawling, New York, October, 1989).

17. John Sutherland Bonnell, "Preaching" (lecture delivered to clergy conference at Mannasset, Virginia).

18. Op. Cit., Killinger, p. 163.

19. Leonard Sweet, keynote address, "1990 Finch Lectures on Preaching" (Greensboro, North Carolina, 1990).

20. Op. Cit., Harding, p. 17.

21. Op. Cit., Killinger, pp. 10, 13.

22. Op. Cit., Laycock and Holsinger, p. 33.

23. Ibid., p. 36.

24. Op. Cit., D'Arcy (lecture).

25. "A Time To Seek," Newsweek (New York: Newsweek, Inc., December 17, 1990), p. 51.

26. Op. Cit., Miller, Evangelism's Open Secrets, p. 64.

27. Ibid., p. 17.

28. See "FRANGELISM" model brochures prepared by Discipleship Resources (Nashville, Tennessee).

29. Op. Cit., Miller, Evangelism's Open Secrets, p. 50.

30. Joe Harding and Ralph Mohney, Vision 2000 (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 1991), p. 86.