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What’s Up:
The average unchurched person isn’t looking for a church because they don’t think the church has anything to offer them. People don’t go to church anymore … at least, not very many people.
So What:
If we’re serious about growing the church, then it can’t just be about singing hymns and preaching sermons and hoping they come. We have to radically reframe how we use Sundays to actually connect with the disconnected.
The Point Is:
They’re Not Curious
We keep acting like the unchurched are secretly waiting for a reason to walk through the church doors. They’re not. They’re not bored. They’re not lonely. It’s just that they don’t believe there’s anything of value inside your sanctuary.
Hell Isn’t a Hook
The old fire-and-brimstone approach doesn’t land anymore. Most people under 30 have never even been to church … and they don’t believe in hell (and if they do believe, they’re not worried about going there). Period.
Expository Preaching Isn’t Working
Let me be clear: Educating people from the pulpit hasn’t resulted in life transformation. Teaching doctrine to people who aren’t applying it is just noise.
Make It About Them
Your sermon should inspire, connect, and offer hope to the people who showed up. It’s not a seminary classroom … it’s the one shot you get to help them believe Jesus might actually matter.
And … ?
The Enlightenment gave us the printing press and a worldview that said education is the answer to all our problems. That worldview hijacked the pulpit. Pastors became teachers. Worship became lecture. And Sunday became a weekly theology class. It was a nice theory … but it didn’t work. If Christian education made disciples, our Sunday schools would have produced a nation of missionaries by now. What we got instead was a lot of well-informed pew-sitters who can quote Bible verses and still manage to live as practical atheists.
Discipleship is about training … and training demands action, not just understanding. My childhood pastor, Dan Anderson, got this. He preached sermons that a 12-year-old could understand and a 14-year-old could apply. That’s why when I felt called to ministry as a teenager, it wasn’t because I was educated. It was because I was inspired. The message hit me where I lived. That’s what our preaching has to do. Not lecture. Not impress. Inspire. Connect. Transform.
Action!
Join this week’s free Catalytic Conversation and discover how to transform your Sunday services: Maximize Your Sundays – How to Get and Keep Your Visitors — Register Here.
