+the Attractional Approach - this is the "get the church cleaned up, update the signage and deal with the nursery" way. This is usually important and a first step in turning a church toward vitality.
+The Incarnational Approach- this is "being the message," both as individuals and as a church. it is the dealing with dysfunction and confusion about what it means to follow Jesus and how that looks in the everyday Christian's heart. This is more work and more about cultural change than the attractional approach.
In this context, discipleship is discussed--how do we apprentice people, how do we create space for people to explore and belong?
One thing I have recently found is the power of asking for a big commitment. We are not only using a covenant as part of the membership process but have found people excited about reading the whole Bible in 90 days. In my suburban context I was thrilled to have 90+ people sign up (having 185 average worship attendance) to be part of our Bible in 90 Days--it has really pushed me to think about asking for more from people.
While this has been great, I do also have to admit that we had to cancel a very outside the box gathering that church folks could only attend if they brought someone with them who had no church. We canceled because there was trouble finding unchurched friends. One person said to me, "i don't know anyone in a way where I would know if they have a church----we don't ever talk about that and I don't want to." (We will give this event another try in June, so we will see...)
So how are you living an incarnational approach to conversion? Is there still a place for the attractional? How do we grow as congregations in today's world --do we ask a lot or as little as possible of people? How do we do this faithfully?
Rev. Nicole
