Table of Contents

Sidebar to "Helping Outsiders Become Insiders" "Studies indicate that 17 out of 20 churches are not growing, yet Jesus' command to the Church was to "go and make disciples." There are three reasons why every church needs to be concerned with assimilation...."

1. Provide ministries of instruction.
   If secular people are largely ignorant of basic Christianity, then the ministry of instruction becomes necessary in reaching them.
   
   
2. Invite people to dedicate their lives.
   The average person in the pews has never been told how to make Christian experience a fact instead of an aspiration.
   
   
3. Help secular people find meaning.
   Churches that do not help people make sense of their lives and find meaning and purpose are neglecting their essential mission.
   
   
4. Engage secular people in dialogue.
   If you engage in honest open dialogue with people at the point of their honest doubts, you will give some satisfying answers…that can remove some barriers between them and the leap of faith.
   
   
5. Address secular people's doubts and questions.
   If secular people doubt the church's capacity to know and teach ultimate Truth, the church is called to clarify its truth claims and develop an apologetic that responds to people's questions.
   
   
6. Provide opportunities to meet credible Christians.
   Since the credibility of Christians and the church is a question for secular people, they need to meet credible Christians.
   
   
7. Engage in ministries of affirmation.
   Church leaders who know that many secular people are untrusting will engage in ministries of affirmation.
   
   
8. Help people discover their dignity and self-worth.
   If many secular people have low self-esteem, this means that the doctrine of creation–that people are created in God's image, with dignity and for significant responsibility–is part of the good news that the Christian movement must now communicate.
   
   
9. Offer people hope in the kingdom of God.
   The Christian doctrine of the kingdom of God–with its promised consummation and second coming of Christ…needs to be interpreted meaningfully to this insecure generation.
   
   
10. Provide support groups for people with addictions.
    More people are now experiencing the empowering grace of God in 12-step groups than in all of the more visible evangelism programs combined.
    
    
11. Identify and reach receptive people.
    Secular people experience receptive seasons in their lives when they are dissatisfied with their lives.
    
    
12. Reach across social networks.
    Secular people can be reached better by credible Christians in their kinship and friendship networks than by Christian strangers.
    
    
13. Offer culturally appropriate forms of ministry.
    Secular people…are reached more effectively through the people, language, liturgy, music, architecture, needs, struggles, issues, leaders, and leadership style that are indigenous to their culture.
    
    
14. Multiply "units" of the church.
    New classes, new groups, new choirs, and new congregations will disciple more secular people because secular people are more interested in getting in on the start of something, where everybody is even.
    
    
15. Offer ministries that meet needs.
    Secular people are more reachable through ministries that engage their struggles, felt needs, and driving motives.
    
    
16. Engage secular people on their turf.
    Finally, if secular people are lost and cannot find the door to faith, then the secular West needs a generation of many Christians willing to "stand by the door."
    
    

—Adapted from
How To Reach Secular People
by George G. Hunter
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992) 55-72.