Should we bring unbelievers to church?

Welcome to our Wednesday “Ask Beau” post. The purpose of this weekly feature is to provide you, our readers, with biblical responses to questions you have about practical issues that you face.

As always, you may submit questions for future “Ask Beau” posts by contacting us at frontier@gracepolaris.org or by leaving a comment on this post.

(Note: This post was originally published on thefrontieratgrace.com on December 7, 2011)

Maybe you read the title of this post and thought to yourself, “Is there any question? Of course we should bring unbelievers to church!”

I’d like to suggest that the answer to the question in the title is not as unequivocally “Yes” as we might think. In my opinion, we should be more concerned about getting the church to unbelievers than we are about getting unbelievers to church.

The verses that are perhaps most central to the mission of the local church are Matthew 28:19–20, which state: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (ESV; emphasis mine). Jesus’ charge, which is called the Great Commission, helps us understand that evangelism is an outwardly oriented endeavor. The basic model is for believers to go “out” to evangelize unbelievers, not for unbelievers to come “in” to be evangelized by believers.

If the church is really a body of believers and not a building or a service, then it is not only possible but advantageous to try to make our primary evangelistic contacts with unbelievers occur outside the walls of a church building—that is, to “get the church to unbelievers,” as I stated it above. When we think in these terms, each member of the body takes an active role in evangelism, and the task of preaching the Gospel becomes every believer’s privilege rather than one that is outsourced to the “professionals,” the paid pastoral staff, who cast the evangelistic net on Sunday mornings.

When we think of evangelism mostly in terms of bringing unbelievers to church, this puts pressure on us to make our gatherings of the church body less distinct from the surrounding culture than they should be. The divide between American culture and the Christian faith is as wide as it has ever been. Fewer and fewer unbelievers feel comfortable in a church service. Yes, a church could try to address this issue by seeking to make the central gatherings of the church body as inoffensive as possible to unbelievers, but I think a better tack is to maintain the Christian distinctiveness of these gatherings, recognizing that our unbelieving friends and acquaintances will feel more comfortable in these services once we have had good discussions with them about Christianity and once they have at least wrestled with, if not accepted, the need to place their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.

All believers should ultimately be connected with a local church body (see our prior post on this), but when it comes to evangelism, we would do well to seek to make our primary contacts with unbelievers happen outside the walls of the church building, on their “turf,” so to speak. May our efforts be pleasing to God, and may they increase the number of those who belong to His church.

—Beau Stanley

Should I bring unbelievers to church?

Welcome to our Wednesday “Ask Beau” post. The purpose of this weekly feature is to provide you, our readers, with biblical responses to questions you have about practical issues that you face.

As always, you may submit questions for future “Ask Beau” posts by contacting us at beau.stanley@gracebrethren.org or by leaving a comment on this post.

Maybe you read the title of this post and thought to yourself, “Is there any question? Of course we should bring unbelievers to church!”

I’d like to suggest that the answer to the question in the title is not as unequivocally “Yes” as we might think. In my opinion, we should be more concerned about getting the church to unbelievers than we are about getting unbelievers to church.

The verses that are perhaps most central to the mission of the local church are Matthew 28:19–20, which state: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (ESV; emphasis mine). Jesus’ charge, which is called the Great Commission, helps us understand that evangelism is an outwardly oriented endeavor. The basic model is for believers to go “out” to evangelize unbelievers, not for unbelievers to come “in” to be evangelized by believers.

If the church is really a body of believers and not a building or a service, then it is not only possible but advantageous to try to make our primary evangelistic contacts with unbelievers occur outside the walls of a church building—that is, to “get the church to unbelievers,” as I stated it above. When we think in these terms, each member of the body takes an active role in evangelism, and the task of preaching the Gospel becomes every believer’s privilege rather than one that is outsourced to the “professionals,” the paid pastoral staff, who cast the evangelistic net on Sunday mornings.

When we think of evangelism mostly in terms of bringing unbelievers to church, this puts pressure on us to make our gatherings of the church body less distinct from the surrounding culture than they should be. The divide between American culture and the Christian faith is as wide as it has ever been. Fewer and fewer unbelievers feel comfortable in a church service. Yes, a church could try to address this issue by seeking to make the central gatherings of the church body as inoffensive as possible to unbelievers, but I think a better tack is to maintain the Christian distinctiveness of these gatherings, recognizing that our unbelieving friends and acquaintances will feel more comfortable in these services once we have had good discussions with them about Christianity and once they have at least wrestled with, if not accepted, the need to place their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.

All believers should ultimately be connected with a local church body (see our prior post on this), but when it comes to evangelism, we would do well to seek to make our primary contacts with unbelievers happen outside the walls of the church building, on their “turf,” so to speak. May our efforts be pleasing to God, and may they increase the number of those who belong to His church.

—Beau Stanley

Follow @beaustanley

What Christians can learn from rock stars

I have been captivated in the last few days by a post on Mack Collier’s blog. In the post, Collier builds off a recent study undertaken by scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The study concludes that people in a group who fervently hold a minority belief will sway the majority if the fervent minority represents 10 percent of the group or higher.

This alone is worthy of our consideration. Yes, the study was strictly scientific and does not take into account the working of the Holy Spirit, which cannot be quantified scientifically. Nonetheless, the study shows that, excluding other factors, even a relatively small number of Christians in a group will exert a powerfully persuasive influence on the group if the Christians are unwavering in their faith and loyalty to Jesus.

What I am even more interested in, though, is Collier’s application of this study. For some time he has suggested that companies should market themselves not like companies do, but like rock stars do. Collier explains that companies tend to focus their marketing efforts on new customers, who are relatively large in number, but low in loyalty. In contrast, he says, rock stars focus their marketing efforts on brand advocates, who are relatively small in number, but high in loyalty. Collier believes the study by Rensselaer demonstrates what rock stars already know: a few passionate fans will “evangelize” and win over the majority (the word “evangelists” actually appears in the post and is a term used in the marketing world).

In other words, reach a few people deeply, and you will ultimately reach the masses. Does this sound familiar to any of you?

Our last Frontier Men’s Bible Study session covered The Master Plan of Evangelism, by Robert E. Coleman. One of Coleman’s main points in this book was this: Jesus’ strategy of mass evangelism was to concentrate his ministry on relatively few men who would, in turn, reach the masses as they multiplied their own disciples.

The implications for ministry are staggering. As Coleman suggests, our ministry priorities may be way off. It is very tempting to try to evangelize or minister to the masses directly, but this strategy all too often breeds superficiality and tends to be unsustainable. On the other hand, Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, Mack Collier, rock stars, Robert Coleman, and Jesus all agree—reach the few deeply, and you will eventually reach the many effectively.

And it was Jesus’ idea first.

—Beau Stanley

Follow @beaustanley

Being “time-greedy”

On Sunday night I was skimming through an article by Larry Moyer and I realized that I am guilty of a sort of greed that most people don’t think about.

In the article, Moyer lists several “roadside bombs” that detract from evangelism. He lists greed second. Since I don’t consider myself to be an ultra-frugal hoarder of Benjamins (or, perhaps more accurately, Washingtons), I might have been able to slide by this roadside bomb had it not been for this pesky statement: “Greed encompasses attitude, energy, time, resources—all of which are used to promote ourselves, rather than reach out to others.”

Wait a minute. Is Moyer saying, amongst other things, that we can be “time-greedy”? He is, absolutely. And unfortunately, my experience tells me that he’s right, absolutely. I have a virtual time savings account, and I make a lot of deposits into this account, but I don’t make many withdrawals.

Those of you who know me would not consider me to be lackadaisical about most things. I’m interested in being productive. Maybe too interested. Moyer’s challenge hits me, and perhaps some of you, right between the eyes.

It would be good to ask ourselves some questions. Do we hoard time? Do we subject everyone and everything to our task lists and calendars—which, of course, are valuable to us because they are our task lists and our calendars? Do we view unplanned encounters with people as divine appointments, or as interruptions? Has productivity become a sort of idol for us?

What are your thoughts on the non-financial forms of greed?

—Beau Stanley

Follow @beaustanley

Earning “Double Dividends”

This week in The Frontier Men’s Bible Study we covered chapter 2 in Robert E. Coleman’s book, The Master Plan of Evangelism (lesson notes available here). The chapter, entitled “Association,” discusses Jesus’ practice of influencing people by spending time with them.

Coleman makes the simple but powerful observation that Jesus brought the disciples with Him while ministering to the masses. “In this manner,” he writes, “Jesus’ time was paying double dividends” (pp. 42–43). In other words, Jesus influenced His disciples while He served people, because the disciples got to watch Him in action.

Our response aim from the study was “to list specific activities from our regular routines in which we could include other men in order to invest in them.” What is your list? Whether or not you attend the study, what are some activities in which a person could include someone he or she is discipling?

Please leave a comment with your response so we can share ideas and “best practices.”

— Beau Stanley