Seeker Small Groups

Five Kinds of Christians?

In September, 2006 there was a national survey of self-identified U.S. Christians done by the folks that publish the Leadership Journal, Christianity Today magazine, in partnership with Zondervan Publishers, through Knowledge Networks, specialists in attitudinal and behavioral research The results are reported in the Leadership Journal Fall, 2007 issue and also found on the Christianity Today website in an article called "Leader's Insight: A Broad and Diverse Bloc." (see http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2007/cln71105.html). I believe this can help us understand the disparity of those who call themselves Christian in America. There are basically five distinct categories in this survey:

1. Active Christians (19%) - believe salvation comes through Jesus, read the Bible, go to church, and feel obligated to share their faith.

2. Professing Christians (20%) - also believe salvation comes through Jesus Christ, focus on a personal relationship with God/Jesus, less involved with church (both attending and serving) and less committed to Bible reading or sharing faith.

3. Liturgical Christians (16%) - predominantly made up of Catholic and Lutheran backgrounds, who are regular church goers, have a high level of serving activity in the church and community and recognize the authority of the church.

4. Private Christians (24%) - this is largest and youngest segment who believe that if you believe in God and do good things that God accepts you; these folks own a Bible but don't read it, have spiritual interest but don't have an interest in church or leadership there.

5. Cultural Christians (21%) - aware of God, but little personal involvement with God nor hardly any outward religious behavior or attitudes; they believe there are many ways to God and don't view Jesus as essential to salvation.

The article in the Leadership Journal provides some excellent advice to believers on how to respond to this new information. It says "instead of trying to win underchurched people back to a traditional church context, leaders say the approach to bringing private, cultural and non-Christians in the church is relational and outward-looking rather than programmatic and inward-focused....many Christians who are not involved in traditioanl churches are much much more interested i personal connection. The ways in which they nourish their faith are through home churches or one-on-one Bible study or non-church related small groups." This is yet more example out there that points to the increasing demand for small groups for spiritual seekers. I hope this article and research is an encouragement to you. - Mary

Our Country's Christian Heritage Defended

The U.S. holiday celebration of Thanksgiving is one of the most telling signs of America's Christian heritage of all the national holidays. Although you can read of its origins back at the time of pilgrims giving thanksgiving to God dating back to 1607, the first actual celebration is historically commemorated in 1621. The practice of giving thanks to God spread throughout the colonies and in 1789 President George Washington started a national tradition of offering a day of Thanksgiving to God with his proclamation:

"WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me 'to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.'....Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation..."

In 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave this speech: ""It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God: to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon: and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

And yet, back in August 2007, there was a L.A. Times Op-Ed article entitled: "America's Unchristian Beginnings?" subtitled "Founding Fathers: Despite preachings of our pious Right, most were deists who rejected the divinity of Jesus."

Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason ministries wrote an excellent article to address this unproven claim that is worth checking out at http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5097. I would encourage you to put a bookmark on your browser to regularly check out Stand to Reason's website for contemporary apologetic issues that are addressed well from a Biblical Worldview. Isn't it good to know that we have excellent partners in the gospel that can help us think through some of these common attacks on Christianity and rewrites of history? - Mary

Conversational Evangelism

"Conversational Evangelism" may be this year's newest buzzword in outreach circles of the church at large. At the National Outreach Conference last week, there was a special workshop track by that name which included workshops with Garry Poole, Lee Strobel, Mark Mittelberg, Alpha, and Richard Peace, as well as a panel with all of them on the first day. Todd Hunter, the head of Alpha USA, introduced the panel with a primer on the postmodern culture and how things have changed from a world in which we loved and listened to experts (like pastors or other specialists) to a world in which community and comversation are the venue in which people are most apt to grow and change in their faith. The most effective evangelism is that which involves dialogue (conversation) between a believer and unbeliever, where each person is learning from the other and listening is the most effective way to build a relationship with someone that is far from God.

If conversations with unbelievers are a challenge for you, I would suggest you take a look at Richard Peace's book, "Holy Conversation: Talking About God in Every Day Life." It's ideal for use in a small group of believers who are interested in learning how to have holy conversations with unbelievers. It's a twelve week study that provides opportunites to safely practice having dialogue with unbelievers that gets them talking rather than clamming up. And you can learn how with others that have that same desire. I hope churches all over the country will consider using it to get folks ready for holy conversations with their unchurched neighbors, friends and co-workers. Richard Peace is an author of over 150 books, and a professor of evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary. For those of you who have been around awhile, he was the one that wrote all of the questions (and edited) the Serendipity Bible.

Alpha has become a leader in promoting conversational evangelism. In that regard, they hosted a Conversational Evangelism Conference last spring in southern California with Becky Pippert, Lee Strobel, Garry Poole, Mark Mittelberg and Alpha. There's another one in the SF bay area schedule for Friday, Feb. 29 and Saturday, March 1st at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church. I'll be providing more details in the upcoming weeks about this. But mark it on your calendars now. Dan Kimball and John Ortberg will join the faculty for this one. In the meantime, keep having those holy conversations with your unchurched friends both one-on-one and in your small groups. - Mary

Innovative Leaders

Craig Groeschel, senior pastor at LifeChurch.tv in Edmund, Oklahoma was one of the key note speakers at the National Outreach Conference last week. I'd encourage you to check out their church website at www.lifechurch.tv to get a glimpse of what this innovative church is doing. In his talk, Craig talked about three qualities of innovative leaders, which I think fits all of you that are launching and leading seeker small groups. Here are the three qualities and the questions that arise from these qualities:

1. Innovative (Christ-following) leaders care deeply about people that are far from Jesus. (Question: Who is God calling you to reach that no one is reaching?)

2. Innovative leaders break some rules. (Question: What is God calling you to attempt to do that hasn't been done before?)

3. Innovative leaders offend some Pharisees. (Question: What new thing that God is calling you to do today, that will be hated today by some, and accepted by most tomorrow?)

Craig used a passage in Mark 2 when a group of four men lowered the paralytic man through the roof of a house to bring their friend to Jesus. Think about it. They were innovative leaders just like you bringing their friends to Jesus. Good food for thought! - Mary

National Outreach Convention Nov. 7-9

I have been attending the National Outreach Conference in San Diego the last few days, which is sponsored by Outreach, Inc. and attended by a few thousand people from churches all over who are interested in innovative new ways to reach people who don't know Jesus. The CEO of Outreach, Scott Evans, says "when it came to reaching out, Jesus was 'The Great Innovator.' He knew how to get people's attention. He broke out of the religious boxes to reach the hearts of those helld in spiritual bondage. He crossed the chasm between heaven and hell. Fast foward 2000 years and notice The Great Innovator still at work through his Church. Yet, while we see churches trying to fulfill the same mission, they are at times out of touch with the people and the culture they are trying to reach. How do you reach people whose primary forms of communications are blogs, cell phones, films, and YouTube videos? How does a church take the unchanging message of the gospel and reach a culture that is ever changing?"

Over the next few days, I'll highlight a few of the things that I learned from the conference. In the meantime, I am learning a great deal from each of you! Keep sharing your stories! - Mary