1. What myth about the Unchurched surprised you the most?

How will your new knowledge about

characteristics of the Unchurched affect your ministry?

The myth that surprised me is people are not turned off by the denominational names. In my area, we are predominantly some form of Baptist with the largest segments being Southern and Independent. I have heard many times from people whom I talk to about going to church that they are turned off by the Baptist church. My assumption is that it has just become popular, due to liberalism, to bash the Baptist churches. I often hear the complaint that we are fundamentalists of course in the minds of these people that is a bad thing. It is as if we are falsely teaching the Bible by holding to the concept of infallibility and ultimate authority. So I found it surprising that this was considered a myth. The subject quoted was from upstate New York, I would be interested in seeing more regional data. I do not believe that my new knowledge will change my ministry in any way, because I believe that we are called to share the Gospel with everyone we come into contact with, and I am not one to shy away from doing so. With my background in Sales Management and Law Enforcement, I am do not find myself fearful of what others might say or think as I share the Gospel. I am but a vehicle for the message, the actual work of conviction is done by the Holy Spirit.

2. Of the eight issues relating to pastors and the Unchurched, which one (or more) do you believe is most
lacking in pastors? Name at least two practical ways a pastor can improve in this area.

For me the issue is #1: Preaching that Teaches the Bible. The one thing that irritates me the most, is the fact that too many pastors have begun teaching prosperity gospel. While there is much in the Bible gives us expectations of prosperity by following a life of Christ, we must remember that this prosperity is largely contained to the afterlife. We see examples of the apostles and of Jesus himself that the walk with Christ and the earthly world is dangerous in fraught with peril; while it is the afterlife where we see the greatest rewards. The issue for me is that pastors are not teaching their congregations sound theology. It is for this reason that our congregations fall for the many heresies of today. The rampant liberalism that we see in many denominations including our own, I believe are caused by the lack of true biblical knowledge of our congregations. The solution to the problem that I've listed above is that we must return to teaching the gospel in every sermon. Demonstrating why an understanding of the gospel is necessary for salvation. And then teaching a correct and adequate theology, so that our congregations can recognize the heresies main counter for what they are. It is only after our commendations truly understand the correct theology, that we can turn our congregations into a force for Christ, who will then go out and fulfill the great commission. 3. Family relationships are the most influential factor in bringing the Unchurched into the church. How can a
church actively support family members in reaching their unchurched family members?

I believe the best way to help for family members reach out to their loved ones to bring them to the church and make them active church members can only come about by establishing a

committee whose responsibility is to support church members. What I mean by this is that we must establish a group of people who will accompany church members in the presentation of the Gospel to the family. One thing that I have learned in my 17 years in the sales industry, is the value of third-party validation. It is important for the unchurched family member to meet those members of the church that are influential in the lives of their loved one. When we can bring a group of people from the church to the home of the family members so that they can see that we are not a bunch of Bible thumping Jesus freaks, for lack of a better comparison, they may come to see that we are regular people just like them. A committee process is perhaps the best way of helping our church members reach out to their families. 4. Which First Impression mentioned in Rainer, chapter 4 do you believe presents the biggest challenge to
your church and why? Propose two or more solutions to overcome that challenge.

Perhaps the biggest issue that I have ever seen that pushes more people away from a church is lack of friendliness. A few months ago as I was changing churches, I had the occasion to visit a very large Baptist church in my town. The first thing that I noticed was that the people in the congregation were extremely unfriendly towards visitors. I heard one member of the church complaining that a visitor had parked in "my space. I personally was told by a woman, that I was sitting in her pew and that I needed to move. Additionally, I overheard many conversations were church members were speaking in a judgmental tone about other members. As you can imagine I never went back to that church again, because the people were simply not friendly. The two things that we must change to grow our church is first we must teach our congregations to see the value of visitors. We must welcome visitors with open arms and make them feel like they are part of the family from day one. Second, we must make the church responsive to the needs of the unchurched, and not make the unchurched feel as though they are a burden to us. To quote from a phrase used in a popular culture song, "where is the love?" 5. Rainer lists six issues in regard to retaining members and encouraging return visits. Which do you consider
most important, and what strategies would you/do you implement to address that issue?

First of all I think that there were two reasons that will keep people come back to your church. First is to clarify the doctrine of Christianity. We must correctly teach the theology and the Gospel, as well as clarify what is heresy. Those who initially become Christians, will later seek to have a better understanding of Christianity. We must feed both the mind and the spirit. Secondly, and equally as important we must give people an opportunity to be involved in the ministry. The unchurched or not I keep coming back for our churches just to help fill the offering plate. We must find a way to involve them in the role of the ministry. I found it very interesting that 62% of those who keep coming back to the church, cited that ministry involvement was their main reason. The reason I found this issue to be so interesting, was that it was amazingly obvious. People want to be able to take ownership in anything that is important in their life. And the best way to allow them to feel like they have a piece of the ownership, is to allow them to be involved. Now it is also important for the pastor to be the shepherd, and lead the congregation along the right path. While allowing the congregation to be involved, we still have to deal with the issues that arise from the involvement. Many of

you know what I'm talking about, while at the same time we want to allow people to take ownership, we must equally protect the church from members who may stray from the message. This is not easy, as any of us who've witnessed church splits, know all too well. But we still must allow our congregations to become involved in the ministry.
6. After reading McGavran, pages 40 - 71, what events in the history of the Church Growth Movement do you consider key to todays trends and developments in church growth and why? How do these apply to your own churchs growth movement?

What I gain from reading McGavran, is that the church growth movement is not so much an event in history, as it is the development of a better understanding of the role of missions. As we see from the reading, there are events in history that led to the church growth movement, but what I feel was the most important concept within this article, is the concept that the study of missions work has led to a better breakthrough of building effective missions. We must understand the culture, religion, and even to an extent the economic makeup of those groups who we wish to mission to. The fact that many schools of theology have added missions work as a degree field, points to the importance of learning about the work of missions. There's only two ways to improve in anything that we do. The first is practice, the more times we do something the better we become at doing it. Second, the more we learn about what we are doing, the better you become at doing it. Therefore I believe that the greatest effect of the church growth movement, is education of the missions workers.