UNTHINKABLE

Mother was a tough egg. We really found out what she was made of when she tripped on the bottom step going into the basement and fell, breaking her hip. She was carrying a dozen eggs at a time which flew in all directions, landing on the concrete in yellow, gooey globs.

A broken hip exudes excruciating pain, but that didn’t stop my Mother. She found a rag and a metal bowl on the floor, crawled to the drainage hole that housed the sump pump to get water, then crawled around the floor and cleaned up all the broken eggs. Only then did she crawl up the stairs to the phone in the hallway. Mother was over 80 at the time.

What possessed her to endure excruciating pain to clean up the eggs before she thought about getting help? Well, it was her house and her floor and to leave broken eggs lying around was just out of the question. It was unthinkable!

The Best Training

Before God called me into ministry, I spent about 25 years in the field of marketing and advertising. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was perfect training to do outreach events, which I had absolutely no premonition that I would do. What God had planned for me, who knows how long ago, I had absolutely no foreknowledge of. All I knew was that I was supposed to reach youth.

All of the years in advertising gave me a very precise knowledge of how to reach a specific group of people. The advertising term for a specific group of people is demographic. Because of the training God arranged beforehand, it was pretty easy for me to create effective advertising for our events, and it showed. Most of our events drew record-breaking crowds.

I have to confess that this training also gave me a huge frustration for the way the church went about trying to reach the unchurched. Bringing an evangelist to their church, expecting to attract the unchurched is a horrible idea, yet for a long period of time this seemed to be the extent of their evangelistic ingenuity. The unchurched have no interest in an evangelist and the church building is the last place they want to be. If they liked church, they would be there. I have a saying: “The unchurched don’t like church. That’s why they’re called unchurched.”

Other things the church was notorious for was creating terrible posters that were certainly not going to attract the unchurched, or creating an event that was nothing more than a great big church service, expecting the unchurched to show up in big numbers. All of these methods attract church people, not the unchurched!

The Billy Graham Model

I think perhaps the thought was to reproduce the Billy Graham model. What they didn’t understand was that Billy Graham was an international celebrity, ranking in popularity with the movie stars. That’s why he drew big numbers of unchurched.

The young speakers we use know full well that kids don’t come to hear speakers. They come for the music. That’s why we use music and dancers in our events . . . to draw teens. To those who want to criticize this approach, I say, “You first have to get them there. If you don’t get them there, they may never hear the Gospel.” Our objective is to get them in front of the speakers, but if you just feature speakers in your events, you would have a very poor turnout.

Madison Avenue

The advertising industry is often referred to as Madison Avenue because that’s where the largest and most prestigious agencies reside . . . on Madison Avenue in New York City. Madison Avenue is the best in the world at selling a product to a specific group of people, or demographic. Before they craft their presentation, they study the targeted demographic until they virtually know everything there is to know about this slice of the American population.

Then, guess what? They craft their presentation according to the needs and wants of the demographic, and bingo! The product sells like crazy! If it doesn’t, it means the presentation was faulty, that it missed the mark. If any agency misses the mark too many times they will be out of business.

Oddly enough, it is the same in the church; your performance dictates whether you will be around tomorrow. In Great Britain, the church’s performance resulted in the extinction of the vast majority of the churches because they were unable to attract youth.

Laughable?

In light of what the church in America has been doing in the last 50 years, Madison Avenue would laugh them off the map.

Why? The church has been trying to sell a product prepared for 55 and above to young people and young people for 50 years have not been buying it. They instead have been steadily leaving the church.

Why would Madison Avenue be roaring? Because they know it is absolutely ridiculous to try to sell a product prepared for 55 year olds to teenagers. If their industry did that, they would all go out of business. They would become extinct . . . because it doesn’t work, and they know it. But the church has been trying to do it for 50 years and they are still trying to do it!

Let’s Have Some Substance!

Just when I was writing about what a church should look like to attract youth, a friend was urging me to visit a church called Substance. I went and I was amazed. They were doing what I was writing about and was it working? Boy, was it working!

This is not a commercial for Substance, but Substance so perfectly illustrates what Madison Avenue knows so well . . . that if you want to attract young people, then you had better craft your presentation for young people.

During their period of rapid growth, Substance met on high school and college campuses, which is the first principal that works and works big. That building with the steeple on it scares away the unchurched. There is no question about it. We would never do a Reach For More event in a church when we are trying to attract the unchurched. It is a waste of time and resources.

Next come the elements of the service, which have to be relevant to the youth culture. Relevant, by the way, means “in step with, ” something I can relate to, something that is meaningful to me, something that helps me navigate life in some way. Though one of the pastors told me he thinks they are still three years behind the culture, to me they really appear to be on the cutting edge of the culture. The music, graphics and video are very top notch, I think cutting edge.

So many times, I have heard that the speaker is the key to a successful service. Well, there is no doubt that Pastor Peter is an incredible speaker, and he is also very tuned in to the culture. Just take one look at his hairdo and clothes. Before he opens his mouth, you feel this is a guy you want to listen to and you’re just waiting to hear what he says.

Still, you can’t build a successful service just on the merits of the speaker. You have to have the whole package. I have been amazed at how many excellent pastors I have heard, have very small congregations and they don’t grow.

So, there you have it. Meet in a non-threatening neutral environment, be cutting edge with your music, graphics and video and have a solid, energetic speaker who is full of the Word.

A footnote here: I am speaking entirely about the physical aspects of a successful youth service. Without fervent, effectual prayer you will still have nothing. The wheels of effectual ministry are driven by prayer.

Answering the Call of God

Pastor Peter Haas and his wife Caroline, never intended to have a large church. They came to Minneapolis because Peter had learned that less than 1% of the age group 34 and under attend church in Minneapolis. He and Caroline wanted to do something about it. In ten years, their effort grew to about 3000 people. Seventy percent of the congregation is 20 somethings, the hardest demographic to reach in America.

Substance has about a 70% serving percentage. That is to say, about 70% of the congregation is plugged into some ministry aspect of the church where they serve regularly. Why? Because they are excited about their faith! In the average church, this percentage is about 20%. About 40% of their congregation was not attending church two years previous.

Why don’t we do this kind of church all over the nation? It would solve our problem.

Well, you say, “It’s not that simple.”

Yes, it is that simple. So, let’s do it! C’mon, sleeping church of America. Wake up! Let’s do this! Let’s save our youth!

To do anything else should be unthinkable!

In His Service,

George and Lorraine Halama

Photo designed and taken by Lorraine

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