In their book Renovation of the Church, co-pastors Kent Carson and Mike Leuken tell the story of the journey of their church from an “attractional model” to a more transformational and missional model of ministry.
Their church was enjoying what many would consider a very successful ministry. They had adopted the popular seeker-oriented approach to church ministry—the “seeker” being the person who is not a believer or a church-goer but who may be seeking for something more in life. And the church was experiencing rapid numerical growth. The church was founded in 1994 and by the late 1990s church attendance had increased to 1,700 every week.
Yet, they began to realize that “the attractional model … is fundamentally flawed and will not produce in any significant way the kind of Christ-followers church leaders want to produce.” In other words, the very approach to ministry that brought in the crowds—amazing numerical growth—was also a major reason why the spiritual growth of church members was hindered.
The seeker-oriented ministry tries to make the gospel attractive to seekers so that they would start to “come to church.” Such an approach makes the perceptions and expectations of a seeker the major consideration for ministry. This presents the danger of adjusting the message and the methods of ministry to the point of inconsistency with the gospel and biblical truth. The experience of church becomes more a gratification of existing desires which are formed by the world. And the church becomes caught up with trying to find ways to keep seekers (and even members) attracted or entertained so that they will continue to come.
But the ministry of the church is about transformation and mission, not attraction. It’s about the truth of the gospel addressing the falsehoods in human life, that people may be transformed by Christ. It’s about bringing this truth of the gospel to the people, that it may impact their lives and not merely attract the people to come to church.
This is not to say that the church should not consider at all the sensibilities of the seeker. It would be unwise to ignore what the seeker at the church’s door is thinking about, or asking, or going through in life. However, what the church should offer is the gospel that brings about transformation, not some temporal answers that only serve to make people feel good about themselves and never really touch the deep and eternal issues of life.
—Keith Y. Jainga