Originally published in the May 8, 2008 issue of The Evangel.
Reaching People under Forty Without Losing People over Sixty by Edward Hammett (Chalice Press) is a book I referenced in a sermon back in January. The title arrested my attention along with that of several of our leadership teams, committees, and staff. In April it was our privilege to host Edward Hammett for a 24-hour coaching session based on the insights of the book and the questions we had for its application at First Baptist Nashville.
The challenge for any church today, and we certainly are no exception, is the cultural reality in which we find ourselves trying to be and do church. When most of our over-forty audience were growing up, about 70% of the culture knew something of the church. When we talked about pews, choirs, revivals, Sunday Schools, etc, most of our peers, (including our non-churched peers) knew what we were talking about. There was a respect or at least a toleration for the church. Today, somewhere around 30% of our culture is in this category.
This means about 70% of our culture does not have this orientation today and that percentage rises steadily. They don't know much about the church, and what they do know is often skewed by things like the negative press generated by church scandals, denominational conflicts, and an anti-everything reputation fostered by those from the extremes who become the non-official spokespersons for the rest of us.
Church has become pretty irrelevant to most of the under-forty crowd. Our students graduate with fairly jaded perspectives having seen the inconsistencies of steeple people while navigating their social environments with a growing population of their non-churched peers. By the time they graduate from college they will be in the minority if they seek a church once they begin their careers.
Hammett made it clear that this is not a discussion limited to the worship styles a church offers. It is much more than this. The church must find ways to meaningfully engage the culture. Instead of a "come and see" focused ministry (something most churches like ours have been good at in the past), he proposes a "go and be" focused ministry. In other words, the culture isn't coming to us like it once did. If we are going to reach people, we've got to go where they are and reflect the light of the world in ways they can see it.
Let me clarify my "take-away" from the twenty-four hours we spent with Edward Hammett. First Baptist Nashville needs to keep doing the things that nurture faith for our people, but we also need to start thinking more about ways we "go and show" if we expect to make a dent in the mission field that is now our own neighborhood. To make this happen, we need to become willing to drop things that prevent us from doing both of these things well. That's where a congregation's core values come into play.
Since attending a Building Bridges learning event last year in Little Rock, I've been wrestling with our core values. Deacons, Planning Council members, and Task Force leaders from Building Bridges have assisted me in looking carefully at these values. I'll begin the process of sharing them in May and June as we worship on Sundays. I hope you will join us and find a way to take the next step as we continue our mission to minister faithfully under this steeple to people of all ages!
Blessings!
