Unchurched Friend #1

http://developingoutreach.blogspot.com/


Addison Roberts
CRL 233 Developing Outreach and Discipleship Programs
Instructor Gerry Stoltzfoos
1/24/2009

Interviewee profile
Name: Joe
Occupation: Military
Lifestyle: Working father with two children and a stay at home wife who is attending school

Joey helped me to see how most people who don't attend church feel about the church in general. I think that maybe we have become too good at not worrying about what people think of us. We quickly dismiss people who just don't like the way we do things and say that they are just hard hearted or stubborn. Maybe, but we would do better to examine what we can do better to change the image we put out.

For example, Joey feels that the greatest need in his area is love and good will. This is such a good point. I think almost any area has a desperate need of love in general. I personally wonder how many of my interviewees will repeat this answer. The church needs to respond to this need by meeting temporal needs in the name of Jesus and just being nice. What if it became known that the church as a whole loves helping and caring for people? I understand that we do this already but maybe doing it more regularly would make us known as a body of people who loves helping and caring for people. This might break down the walls around peoples hearts and allow them to hear the gospel.

Another thing that Joey helped me to realize was that the church still needs to work on being an accepting group. He pointed out that open-mindedness and accessibility is incredibly key to reaching out to people. We as a church need to focus like crazy on making sure people feel loved and accepted just as they are.

It seems the old stigmas of how people view the church are not dead. We still at times come off like an aloof and arrogant people that is not meeting real needs. We need to continue to work on redefining our image so that it will not be a stumbling block to future generations.