Five years ago, we embarked on an experiment to run an “unplugged, café style” worship service. This was going to be church for people who don’t like church. (How many times have we heard that statement in the past year?) Nine months later, we scrapped the whole mess. Our highest attendance figures came at the opening service. In the lead up, we had some interesting planning sessions. Some wanted a forum in which people could stand up to read their poetry or swear at God if they were angry with him. Others envisioned a throwback 60s style gathering with people sitting on the floor, someone strumming a guitar and children running around naked, like Woodstock (without the drugs and mud).

As we began to launch into this experiment, watching closely to see where it might take us, it became apparent that we were going nowhere. You see, many of the people who were drawn to this service from our midst described themselves as “burnt-out” with church. They were tired and bored with traditional concepts of church and wanted to do something “out there”. These people were confident that the “unchurched” would warm nicely to this project. As this service continued not to find an audience, a question crystallised in my mind, “We know that there’s a difference between the make-up of the ‘churched’ and the ‘unchurched’ but are we assuming what is true of the ‘over-churched’ is true of the ‘unchurched’ as well?”

Many of those angry, disillusioned, and burnt by the church thought not only was this service appealing to their sensibilities but that it would attract unchurched people as well. It occurred to me that the unchurched aren’t bitter toward the church. For the most part, they’re indifferenct. Most of the unchurched I knew didn’t view the church with hostility, but they saw it as irrelevant and valueless. The change in format didn’t mean a thing to most of my unchurched friends. In fact, when they do rock up for Christmas or Easter services, many of them enjoy the traditions and hymns as something quaint and familiar. One of the cardinal errors in our thinking was to associate the over-churched values and thinking with the unchurched.

The critical issue is one of relevance. While we tinker with corporate worship services and making everything contemporary, my hunch is that the average unchurched person is asking questions like: Why should I give my life to this? What is following Christ going to offer my life in the twenty-first century? We can tinker all we want, but if we don’t address this issue somehow people will remain unresponsive. Sure, there are people who don’t like church but I believe that most people have no idea what they’re missing. Many have rejected a caricature of Christ and the gospel; how many have really been exposed to the real thing? So, how effective does it appear to place unchurched people in a room full of disgruntled and embittered church goers? Remember, people come primarily because someone invited them; someone who cares and someone who has experienced a meaningful change in their lives..

I’m all for re-thinking our strategies but let’s be clear about this: One, but we’re not the same. Do you know who you’re trying to reach?