Ten Surprises About the Unchurched

I went to my Dead Pastor's meeting yesterday. I'm sure a lot of folks wonder what we do at those meeting besides eat. Currently we are working through Will Willimon's book Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry. We probably should have read this book during seminary, but Willimon hadn't written it yet . . .

Anyway, our discussion took us in the direction of what people expect out of church. One of the pastors in our group supplied us with an article entitled Ten Surprises About the Unchurched, printed in Christianity Today. Click on the link to read the entire article.

When I sat down today to read the article, I was frankly amazed at two or three of the premises they stated. I encourage you to read it.

Let me prime your pump with their first three "surprises." BTW - they classify someone as "unchurched" if they attend two or less times in a year.

Surprise No. 1 - Most of the unchurched prefer to attend church on Sunday morning if they attend.

Surprise No. 2 - Most of the unchurched feel guilty about not attending church.

Surprise No. 3 - Ninety-six percent of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if they are invited.

I genuinely hope our entire church will read this article.