ANALYSIS: PROPONENT-PASTOR DEFENDS ‘SEEKER-TARGETED’ CHURCHES

by   James Emery White                                                                                                                                                               Vol. VIII, No. 5. May 1995

A label has appeared on the religious landscape that simultaneously draws both criticism and praise: the user friendly church. Popularized by George Barna's book, User Friendly Churches, the classification is often used to represent those churches that have moved toward a contemporary format in their style of worship in order to attract the unchurched.

A step beyond the "user-friendly" tag, and perhaps the most influential movement in local church evangelism today, is the "seeker-targeted" approach, modeled most clearly by Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL. Begun in 1975 from a youth ministry called "Son City," Willow Creek has become one of the largest churches in America, currently averaging 15,000 people per weekend. A remarkable 70 percent of those in attendance come from an unchurched background.

In July 1992, I resigned from my position as the leadership consultant for preaching and worship at the Baptist Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention to plant a similarly styled church in the growing northeast section of Charlotte, N.C. Since its first service in October 1992, Mecklenburg Community Church has proven to be one of the fastest growing new churches in the United States. After only two and a half years, our attendance is reaching 700. Eighty percent have come from an unchurched background, and of that number, 50 percent through conversion.

What is unique about the approach of churches like Mecklenburg and Willow Creek? What does it mean to be "user-friendly," or even more, "seeker-targeted?" The length of this article does not allow for a detailed discussion, so let the following three distinctives serve as an introduction to what set seeker-targeted churches apart from traditional approaches.

1) Most simply put, seeker-targeted churches target seekers. Every church, consciously or not, has selected a primary "customer." For most churches, it is the "already convinced." I'll never forget one pastor informing me that his Baptist church could not grow any larger because there were no more Baptist in the area.

Most denominational statistics would report that over 80 percent of their church growth falls into two camps: biological growth and transfer growth. Biological growth is essentially "winning your own." The children of members and regular attenders become believers and follow in their parent's footsteps. Transfer growth is when a Christian moves into the area and chooses to join a church or when a local Christian makes the decision to change from their present church to another church.

Seek-targeted churches celebrate both of these types of growth but, in terms of their own sense of mission, have consciously made a different selection. Rather than grow primarily through biological growth or transfer growth, seeker-targeted churches strive for prodigal growth and conversion growth.

Prodigal growth is reaching someone who has consciously given up on church, but may have a general belief in Christianity intact from their youth. Conversion growth is reaching the person who is not interested in spiritual things or who has rejected Christianity altogether.

Therefore seeker-targeted churches have consciously decided to grow by reaching out to a specific customer – the seeker. As a result, many "front-door" efforts, such as weekend services, are designed with the seeker in mind. This is the idea of being "seeker-sensitive." Rather than begin with the needs of believers, and letting those needs dictate the life and ministry of the church, seeker-targeted churches begin with the needs of the unreached. Believers in seeker-targeted churches have chosen to prioritize the lost in terms of their outreach.

Targeting seekers for church growth is far different than allowing seekers to set the theological menu for the church. This has been a frequent criticism, and it is a caricature. When you listen to the unchurched, you will find that they do not ask for or require a removal of commitment or a devaluation of truth. What they would like to experience in a church is simply a change in style and format. Seeker-targeted churches are not out to make the audience sovereign, nor do they let the marketplace become the barometer for which ideas are valid. They simply wish to target their method and style in such a way as to reach out to the unchurched context. Indeed, that is what the incarnation itself represents.

2) There is an understanding in the seeker-targeted approach that evangelism is both process and event. In other words, there is an adoption process that is present in every person's spiritual journey toward Christ. The "event" of accepting Christ as Lord and Savior is but the culmination of a spiritual pilgrimage as a "seeker."

As a result, seeker-targeted churches intentionally strive to cultivate and support this process. The most important dynamic of this conviction is an active effort to build relationships with non-believers in order to share a verbal witness.

The most publicized dynamic of this conviction, however, is that a context is created through "seeker services" to allow seekers to explore Christianity in a way that is conducive to the process leading to the event. Dynamics such as anonymity, time to decide, practical messages, the encouragement of spiritual question and even casual dress have been found to be helpful components for this seeking process.

In essence, a safe place is created for seekers to hear and explore a very unsafe message. The biblical basis for such an effort can be found in Jesus' parable of the soils and Paul's warning to the Corinthian church to be seeker-sensitive in their charismatic worship (1 Corinthians 14).

Churches that have developed this strategy into a full "seeker service" usually, and appropriately, develop a separate worship service for believers. Which diffuses another misunderstanding, namely that seeker services devalue authentic Christian worship. What is at hand is simply the strategic separation of emphasis in regard to evangelism and edification/worship within the church's services.

3) A third distinctive of seeker-targeted churches is the bias that the gospel must be contextualized in its presentation.

When Jesus spoke to the women at the well, he talked of water; when he dialogued with fishermen, he talked of fishing; when he conversed with tax collectors, he spoke of money. The apostle Paul, when confronted with Greek philosophers on Mars Hill, responded with a conversation rooted in Greek philosophy. His driving passion was to become all things to all men in order that some might be saved (see 1 Corinthians 9:22).

Seeker-targeted churches believe that the approach, method, and style of the contemporary church must be brought into the 21st century, else we will lose not only accommodation, but everything to do with contextualization.

While the message is timeless, the method is not, and the church has often confused traditionalism with orthodoxy. It is a conviction of seeker-targeted churches that one of Christendom's problems is that it is entering the 21st century with churches designed during the 19th century to work well in the 20th.

As a result, seeker-targeted churches attempt to convey the message of the gospel in a manner that is understandable and relevant to contemporary culture. This may entail the use of a modern translation of the Bible, up-to-date illustrations and vocabulary, multi-media, contemporary music, and drama. The key is to build effective bridges of communication and understanding between believers and nonbelievers in order to communicate the message of Christ.

The central criticism of the seeker-targeted approach is that inherent within such an innovative approach is theological compromise. In the process of contextualization, critics contend that compromise – almost by necessity – takes place.

Is this valid? Certainly there are churches and leaders who have overstepped the biblical parameters in their zeal for relevance. Yet many theologians forget their responsibility to find points of contact between their academic formulations and the life of ordinary people. Well-known evangelical theologian Millard Erickson, now professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, offers a helpful distinction in the use of the terms "translation" and “transformation”. By transformation he means changing the message of the gospel into something that was never intended by the biblical witness. Transformation of the message must be avoided at all costs. Translation, however, is necessary for a winsome and compelling presentation of the gospel of Christ. The mere use, then, of cultural mediums should not be unthinkingly dismissed as compromising with modernity.

Far too many observers of seeker-targeted and seeker-sensitive churches confuse the method with the message, and tradition with orthodoxy. This is a dangerous mind-set, for the willingness to be innovative in the translation of the gospel into the forms of contemporary culture has been in the vanguard of every great evangelical movement, beginning with the nontraditional methodology of Jesus himself.

Martin Luther translated the bible into the common language of the people and used "drinking" songs for hymns; Ira Sankey used contemporary music (the "waltz") to draw crowds for Dwight L. Moody's crusades; and Billy Graham bravely went forth with his New York City crusade in the 1950's that crossed Protestant/Catholic lines. Politically correct? Hardly. Misunderstood and roundly criticized by the religious establishment? Most certainly. Used by God? Without question.

At times, one cannot help but feel that the negative reaction to much of the seeker-targeted, user-friendly movement is not truly a matter of feared doctrinal compromise, but rather an emotional reaction to a method or style that is not understood and threatens favored methods and styles. Sadly, most critics have never even attended the type of church they roundly condemn. As a result, caricatures and "straw men" abound. While I am convinced that many of the critics are well-intentioned, they are not well-informed.

Seeker-targeted churches are not the only churches being used by God. It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. But there is a fresh movement of the Spirit that is prompting many churches and their leaders to explore innovative approaches to ministry, evangelism, and organization. And that is at the heart of the movement – not a devaluation of doctrine, and compromise of the gospel or a market-driven frenzy to be faddish. The goal is the transformation of culture through an effective translation of the message. Eschewing traditionalism while remaining captive to the authoritative Word of God, such churches reflect an unbridled passion and mission to seek and to save the lost. As such, they should be accepted, supported, and celebrated.

[White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church, a Southern Baptist church in Charlotte, N. C., and the author of Opening the Front Door: Worship and Church Growth and What is Truth?]