Evangelism in the
Post-Modern World
David Schoen
Evangelism Ministry Team
Local Church Ministries
United Church of Christ
Including material used with
permission from Rick Morse,
V.P. New Church Ministry,
Christian Church (DOC)
Church Extension © 2007
All rights reserved
IT‘S A WHOLE NEW
WORLD
Taxes
done in India
McDonalds
order taken 2 states
away
Hundreds
of marketing choices
in any area
Instant
44% of
communication
Christians change
traditions/denominations
Congregational life has
changed too:
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Mimeograph
Yellow pages
Volunteers
Hospital visits
Organ
Stairs
Committees
Budgets
Churches are stressed today:
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Generational
Challenges
Population shift
Birth rates
Numerous cultural
factors
More generations today than ever…
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Gen Z (0-2)
Millennials (3-22)
Survivors (23-43)
Boomers (44-61)
Silents (62-79)
Builders (80+)
Each generation has
unique events that
formed it, and a
different view of life.
For church development purposes we
tend to think of two main cohorts:
Boomer +
The rest of
those
youngsters…
Dominant values and behaviors of
older boomers and older groups
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Whatever is right for the group is right for me
Appreciate sameness (i.e. Traditional liturgy)
Committee structures that are tried and true
Deferred pleasure until you have what you need
to make the purchase
Spirituality of place
Organize as a group to form a block (tenacious
about position)
Circle the wagons; get people on your team to
protect what’s important
35% of the US
Get it done!
Population
Dominant behaviors of young
boomers and younger groups:
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Ask first, what is good for the individual
Individualized style and differentiation
Appreciate Difference/multiple choices
Trained to look for segments of population so
that one size never fits all
See themselves as the correctors of the previous
generations
Spirituality of journey…find spiritual insight
wherever they are and in relationship, not
primarily place
65% of the US
Population
Tribal
Churches didn’t use to worry
about generations…
A few
transplants
Founders
Their
children
Grandchildren &
families
Stephen Compton
Many Churches have Lost a
generation or 2:
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Churches do not anticipate
loosing youth…(even though that
has been the pattern for 40
years)
Young adults report:
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Relocation after college or school
Difficulty in assimilation because
church style
IF they visit—little generational
affinity
Most mainline youth become
unchurched
Roof and McKinney
Another part of the issue is
“membership orientation”
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Pay dues…sign line
EXPECT care, access, privilege,
control, service by staff…etc.
Loses vision for a mission that
can be characterized by God’s
love in Christ for the world.
It is Exclusive
The post-modern world has little
interest in membership
organizations
POWER SURGE,
Michael Foss
The result is aging
congregations
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While the
younger cohort
equals 65% of
the population,
they are only on
average about
30% of existing
congregations
Growing Gaps in
understanding
Beloit Mindset: Typical 28
year old…
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They can never think of a time without computers in the home
They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever
been shot.
They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart, and do not remember the Cold War.
They have never feared a nuclear war. "The Day After" is a pill to them—not a movie.
Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
Bottle caps have not always been screw off, but have always been plastic. They have no
idea what a pull top can looks like.
The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.
Star Wars looks very fake to them, and the special effects are pathetic.
They may never have heard of an 8-track, and chances are they've never heard or seen
one.
They have always had an answering machine.
Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black &
white TV or a TV without a remote!
There have always been VCRs, but they have no idea what Beta is.
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They were born the year Walkmen were introduced by Sony.
Roller-skating has always meant in-line for them.
"The Tonight Show" has always been with Jay Leno.
Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI and WWII
or even the Civil War.
They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
They don't know who Mork was, or where he was from.
They never heard the terms "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile
for a Camel" or "De plane, de plane!"
They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
The Titanic was found? I thought we always knew where it was.
Michael Jackson has always been white.
McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.
There has always been MTV, and it has always included nonmusical shows.
Another cultural factor is
Population Shift:
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The majority of housing
in the US was built since
1970.
Population has moved to
metropolitan areas
Migration to South and
coasts
Population has moved
away from existing
congregations!
Birth Rates:
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Since “the pill” Anglo birth rates dropping
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1960 24/1000
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2000 13/1000
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2002 11.7
Mainline Anglos
have a very low
birth-rate due to
aging populations
VERY Little Biological Growth!
There has been significant change
in our racial-ethnic population
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Racial ethnic
composition of most
neighborhoods has
changed since
1960
Many
congregations have
little or no affinity
with their neighbors
Racial ethnic growth must be
recognized
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Ethnic growth:
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In the next 50 years the
US Pop. Will grow by
50%. 90% of that growth
will be people of color
In 2000, Hispanics
became the largest racial
ethnic minority
The US has the 3rd largest
Spanish speaking
population
By 2050 there will be no
majority racial group
By 2100 Hispanics will be
the largest group
Did you know?
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More people of African
descent live in America than
any country except Nigeria
More Cubans live in Miami
except than in Havana
In the 90’s the Asian
population grew by 107%,
Hispanics by 38%, Native
Americans by 38% while the
general population grew by
just 6%!
Racial Ethnic Birth Rates:
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African Am.
Native Am.
Asian Pac. I.
Hispanic
(Anglo 11.7)
16.1
13.8
16.5
22.6
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Per 1000
Most future growth will
be in Racial Ethnic
congregations
There is also a shifting attitude
towards “organized” religion
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65% of the US
population cannot
remember a time when
clergy were respected.
Denominational loyalty
means nothing to most
people.
The average person
believes that no
particular religion has
claim to truth.
Shifting attitudes towards faith
1990, 2000 & 2004 Percentage of the Population Attending
a Christian Church on Any Given Weekend
25.0%
20.4%
18.7%
17.7%
20.0%
15.0%
10.0%
1990
2000
2004
9.2% 9.1% 9.0%
7.2%
6.2%
3.9%
5.0%
5.5%
3.4% 3.1%
0.0%
Evangelical
Mainline
Catholic
Total
•Since 1991 adult population
in the US grew by 15%.
•During that same period the
unchurched population grew
by 92%! 75 million US
adults do not attend church
'Unchurched' Americans
say church is 'full of
hypocrites' consider
Christianity to be more about
organized religion than
about loving God and
people, according to a new
survey.
44 percent -- agreed that "Christians get on
my nerves.“ But 78 percent said they would
be willing to listen to someone who wanted
to tell them about his or her Christian
beliefs.
Vast majority of young non-Christians view
Christianity as anti-gay, judgmental and
hypocritical.
Many of those surveyed believed in God but
don't feel the need to express those beliefs
within a church building. Almost
three-quarters -- 72 percent -- agreed that
God "actually exists“ and an even larger
percentage -- 86 percent -- said they
believed they could have a good
relationship with God without church
involvement.
It’s a Whole New World
UCCvitality.org
21st Century Culture and Church
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Post-Modern – It’s a Whole New World
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“Big Five” of hallmark modern values:
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Anthony Robertson
reason
optimism
universality
objectivity
“the grand story”
21st Century Culture and Church
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Post-Modern - Modern World is crumbling
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Reason
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Optimism
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Where moderns wanted their preachers to explain
mystery, post-moderns want to experience mystery.
Post-moderns are not so sure that salvation is
around the corner or that science and technology are
our saviors.
Universality
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Post-moderns revel in the local and the particular.
21st Century Culture and Church
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Post-Modern - Modern World is crumbling
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Objectivity
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“Everybody is coming from somewhere,” say postmoderns. “What you call ‘objective truth,’ we call the
interests of the powerful and privileged.”
“the grand story”
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Post-moderns tend to be skeptics about this big
story. Small stories, particular stories, and different
versions of reality appeal to the post-modern mind.
21st Century Culture and Church
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Post-Modern – It’s a Whole New World
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Note contrast between eras by paying
attention to the popular television show
Star Trek. Think about it. In the original
mid-twentieth century version of Star Trek
the hero was Spock, the ideal modern
man, completely rational and without
emotion. The crew included people of
various nationalities working together for
the good of humankind. The mission was
objective knowledge of space which
loomed as “the final frontier.
21st Century Culture and Church
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Post-Modern - Modern World is crumbling
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Star Trek: The Next Generation. Spock is gone,
his place taken by Data, still perfectly rational
but longing to be human, to experience emotion.
New to the crew is Counselor Troi, a woman
gifted with the ability to perceive the hidden
feelings of others. The crew is more diverse
than last time around, including species from
other parts of the universe. The mission does
not rely on human intelligence alone and the
mission statement has changed. Once it was “to
go where no man has gone before,” but now it is
“to go where no one has gone before.”
21st Century Culture and Church
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Post-Modern – It’s a Whole New World
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While modernity was liberating and
powerful in many ways, it was also and
especially for Christianity, reductive.
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highly moral, but not especially spiritual
modern Christianity explained miracle
and mystery (away) and proposed moral
values and lessons as universal truth.
What was missing was spiritual
connection and experience, the
experience of a sacred, numinous,
transcendent Other.
21st Century Culture and Church
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Post-Modern - Modern World is crumbling
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In the last thirty years while interest in
“spirituality” has been huge
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People felt yet church was not the best
place to pursue their “spiritual”
interests.
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Transformation was lacking
We are all at a threshold, a
‘kairos’ moment:
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God is Still Speaking
has shown that the
harvest is ready.
There has been a
great response of
people looking for a
church like the
United Church
of Christ.
Evangelism in the 21st Century
Missional, Relational, Conversational
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Missional in purpose
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Relational in outreach
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experiential
cultural
Conversational in witness
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spiritual
Vital Churches are
Relational in Outreach
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Post-modern ministry is relational
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Bridge the gap by building
relationships
Relational in Outreach
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What do you think when you hear the
word….
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EVANGELISM ?
Celtic Evangelism
In The Celtic Way of Evangelism:
How Christianity Can Reach the
West . . . Again, George Hunter
writes about the difference between
what he describes as the evangelism
approach in Roman and Celtic
Christianity.
Celtic Evangelism
Roman Model
Presentation
Decision
Fellowship
Celtic Model
Fellowship
Ministry and
Conversation
Belief, Invitation
to Commitment
Belonging and Believing
Christianity is more caught than
taught!
As Professor Robin Gill observes,
belonging comes before believing.
For this reason, evangelism is now
about helping people to belong so
that they can believe.
Vital Churches are
Relational in Outreach
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The days of waiting for people to come
to church to welcome them are over.
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Instead of waiting inside, we go
outside
Relational in Outreach
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“I stopped wondering about how to
draw younger folks into my church
and started focusing on how to
draw my congregation out of its
building and into relationship with
the world outside its doors.”
“Help me make it through the
week…”
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Seekers that come will not be asking
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Am I saved?
How do I become a member?
They will be asking…
How do I make it through this week?
Conversational in Witness
The postmodern world calls evangelists
to be conversational in witness and
invitation.
Count conversations,
……….not conversions.
More Ready than You Think,
Brian McLaren
Conversational in Witness
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Buzz Marketing
Evangelism
One beggar telling another where there is
food
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Come and See!
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Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism
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Martha Grace Reese
Conversational in Witness
Good evangelists are People who engage others
in good conversation about faith, values, hope,
meaning, purpose, goodness, beauty, truth, life
after death. Life before death and God.
Good evangelism is the process of being friendly
without discrimination and influencing all of
one’s friends through good deeds and good
conversations. Engaging in spiritual friendship
will not only help others become Christians, it
will help us become better Christians, who love
God more than ever.”
Brian McLaren – More Ready Than You Think,
Conversational in Witness
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Spiritual Seekers want to talk.
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We are the ones not talking.
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Reverence for God – silence and service.
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Holy Conversations – Richard Peace
Tell it Like it is: Reclaiming the Practice of
Testimony - Lillian Daniel
An unchurched world doesn’t know
why we do what we do.
Witness and Invitation
UCC-Style
“Tricking” the church into Evangelism – Taking it back!
What do you say when
someone asks you about
your comma?
“For us it means God’s not stuck.
God still has more light and truth for
us today.”
“My church believes that God is still
speaking to us today.”
“It means that no matter how bad
things are in my life or in the world,
God is in the midst of it.”
V ITALITY
Are You Ready to Talk?
Conversational in Witness
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Who are conversation partners?
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Audiences for conversation
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Outsiders Become Insiders
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Forgetters made Rememberers
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Beloved Children become Belief-ful Adults
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Biblical Perspective on Evangelism
W. Brueggemann
Are You Ready to Talk?
Why do you love your church?
What impact has knowing Jesus made
in your life?
What Bible text has made a difference
in your life?
Eight Challenges
Richard Peace
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We need to learn how to talk about Jesus
We need to create spaces within which both
seekers and committed Christians can
explore together their spiritual journeys.
We need to learn how to invite others
We need to move beyond our stereotypes,
fears and negative experiences of
evangelism for new creative and wholistic
ways of outreach.
Eight Challenges
Richard Peace
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We need to heal the split evangelism and
justice issues so it is a both/and and not an
either /or.
We need to find the energy to engage in and
to sustain an outreach ministry.
We need to stay open to conversion, our
own conversion even as we invite others to
be converted.
We need to learn how to discuss all of this in
non-theological terms.
God is still speaking,
Through you and me!
Go Forth…
into the Virtual World
 We seek to build Christian community
online because that’s where we can
encounter members and potential
members of our church:
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1.1 billion Internet users worldwide
100 million on MySpace
70 million bloggers
34 million students on Facebook
4-8 million on SecondLife
Go Forth….
Into the Virtual World.
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In Asia, Europe and North America—an
entire generation has experienced the
Internet as a means for maintaining
relationships with family and friends.
The Internet is a lifeline for users whose
mobility is limited by disability, chronic
illness or advanced age.
The Internet is where we can find and
engage seekers.
i.UCC.org
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Outreach to spiritual seekers
Create Virtual Community online
Foster online network and relationship
Provide opportunity for discussion,
information, spiritual development,
questions and prayers
Serve as teaching tool and
opportunities for congregations,
V ITALITY
conferences and national ministries
V ITALITY
Vital churches in the 21st Century
Missional, Relational & Conversational
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Missional in purpose
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Relational in outreach
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experiential
cultural
Conversational in witness
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spiritual
In Five Parts
If the Church is our “product” then we need . . .
Step 1: Select a team
Step 2: Know thyself- Know thy product
Step 3: Know the marketplace
Step 4: Be clear about your congregation’s
strengths
Step 5: Plan for desired and measurable outcome
V ITALITY
V ITALITY