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Radically changed aptly depicts the impact of the gospel on young Bill. His combination of wild hair, torn jeans, shoeless feet, and tie-dyed T-shirt manifests how recent was his conversion to Christianity. His appearance belies his unusual intelligence.
On a particular Sunday soon after his conversion, Bill determined to attend a local congregation for fellowship and nurture beyond his college Bible study. Across the street from the campus sat the college church, filled weekly with well dressed and conservative members. The church earnestly desired to develop a ministry to the students, but so far, failed to initiate such a ministry because of uncertainty about just how to go about it. One day, Bill decided to go there.
Picture the scene as Bill enters. He has no shoes. He is clad in his jeans, T shirt, and that wild hair. The service has already started, so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church has outgrown her worship center; so he keeps walking. By now, people are looking a bit uncomfortable; but no one says anything. Bill continues down the aisle, looking for a seat, but finding only perplexed gazes. When he realizes there are no seats, he simply squats down on the carpet. After all, at the college fellowship, this is perfectly acceptable behavior. The problem is that no one had ever done that at this church!
By now, the people are increasingly nervous; and the tension in the air is thick. About this time, the pastor notices a deacon rise from his seat and slowly make his way toward Bill. This particular deacon is in his eighties, has silver gray hair, a three piece suit, and a pocket watch. Known as a godly man, elegant, dignified, and courtly, his gait is accompanied by the tapping of his cane. As he walks toward this boy, everyone is thinking, “You can’t blame him for what he’s going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?”
It takes a long time for the man to reach the boy. Silence reigns, except for the clicking of the man’s cane. All eyes focus on him. You can’t hear anyone breathing. The people are thinking, “The minister can’t even preach the sermon until the deacon does what he has to do.”
Suddenly, the elderly man drops his cane on the floor. With great difficulty he lowers himself and sits down next to Bill to worship with him so he won’t be alone. Everyone chokes up with emotion. When the pastor gains control he says, “What I’m about to preach, you may never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.”
Sadly, in 90% of churches, the above account is not how most deacons or churches would have responded to young Bill. We have lost a sense of compassion for the radically unchurched in America; and this is why so few lost people, or even new believers like Bill, can be found in most of our churches. To state it simply, most Christians in America see the church as a hotel for saints, rather than a hospital for sinners.
What would stand as the single most pressing need for the church as it relates to evangelism at the dawn of the third millennium AD?
I would submit the answer has less to do with political clout or economic might, less about numbers and more about influence. And it certainly has less to do with a program that compartmentalizes evangelism and more about a passion that creates a missional culture. Does any other entity have as much visibility with a corresponding lack of influence in the culture today than the church? Could it be that many local churches could disappear from their community today and few people outside their fellowship would miss them?
I would argue the church needs a fresh passion for reaching the hardcore
unchurched. What do I mean by radically unchurched? I define them as people who live in the United States and who have no clear personal understanding of the message of the gospel, and who have had little or no contact with a Bible-teaching, Christ-honoring church. An analogy can best describe them. In the first century, the apostle Paul was called of God as a missionary to the Gentiles. The Jews were Paul’s people. They had a heritage of faith, a Scriptural underpinning, and a common cultural background. However, the Gentiles in the first century were those who for the most part knew nothing of the gospel message until someone like Paul told them. They had no heritage of Scripture as did the Jews. Some were religious, some were not. They are analogous in our day to the millions of people in our country who have almost no real knowledge of Christianity. Oh, they know what a clerical collar is, and they recognize a church building; but they have no functional knowledge of the gospel.
Whereas the “Jews” in our day could be described in this analogy as nominally churched, the “Gentiles” can be called the radically unchurched. They may be devoutly religious, as were some first century Gentiles; they may be irreligious. They may be Muslim or Hindu or New Age or Mormon; or they may be agnostic. The difference between them and the nominal Christians, the “Jews” to use the analogy, is that any idea they have of Christianity is obscure or totally flawed. Some of them recognize the golden arches of McDonald’s much more quickly than a cross as a symbol with meaning. It seems to me the church has been fair at reaching the “Jews,” but sadly ineffective at reaching the “Gentiles.”
Today I had lunch with a group of church planters at Vintage21, a new church plant in Raleigh connected with the Acts29 Network. The pastor, Tyler Jones, shared the story of the church’s birth and growth in only a few years from a few to now over 400 in three services. Unlike far too many trendy, postmodern churches I have encountered, this one actually has found a way to reach many unchurched people, not to mention that fact that about 30% of those attending currently come from that demographic. The thing that struck me about Tyler, in the midst of an obviously contemporary, contextualized ministry setting, was his constant reminder that all we do must be biblical. Now there is a novel thought: to consider that the best way to reach an unchurched culture today directly relates to our ability to understand how the early church reach out in an unchurched culture.
Here is how Michael Green in Evangelism in the Early Church argues the first believers spread the gospel in an unchurched world (p. 173): : “But as early as Acts 8 we find that it is not the apostles but the ‘amateur’ missionaries, the men evicted from Jerusalem as a result of the persecution which followed Stephen’s martyrdom, who took the gospel with them wherever they went. It was they who traveled along the coastal plain to Phoenicia, over the sea to Cyprus, or struck up north to Antioch. They were evangelists, just as much as any apostle was. Indeed it was they who took the two revolutionary steps of preaching to Greek who had no connection with Judaism, and then with launching the Gentile mission from Antioch. It was an unselfconscious effort. They were scattered from their base in Jerusalem and they went everywhere spreading the good news which had brought joy, release and a new life to themselves. This must often have not been formal preaching, but the informal chattering to friends and chance acquaintances, in homes. . ., on walks, and around market stalls. They went everywhere gossiping the gospel; they did it naturally, enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those who are not paid to say that sort of thing. Consequently, they were taken seriously, and the movement spread, . . .”
May God help us to catch the same passion to see the same impact on an unchurched culture today.
(this article is adapted from my book Radically Unchurched: Who They Are and How to Reach Them. Kregel Books)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.