wfn.org | Successful evangelistic churches target youth, speaker says

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Jan. 11, 1999  Contact: Thomas S. McAnally* (615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{013}

NOTE:  This story may be used as a sidebar to UMNS #012.

By Joshua Lewis*

NEW ORLEANS (UMNS) -- The most important target audience for evangelical
churches is youth, said George Barna, a market researcher and author of
books such as Evangelism That Works and most recently The Second Coming of
the Church.

"The greatest impact we can have is trying to reach kids," he said.

Realizing the importance of evangelism to youth changes the nature of a
church's youth leaders.

"They no longer become your day-care people, which is what so often happens
in our children's ministries. What they become are the primary evangelists
of the church -- a whole different way of looking at youth pastors and
children's teachers and other youth leaders," Barna said.

Barna made his daylong presentation at the 1999 United Methodist Congress on
Evangelism in New Orleans Jan. 5-8.

He stressed that simply reaching out to youth isn't enough. Church leaders
must do so in a way compatible with the younger generations' different
thinking styles and shorter attention spans, wrought by a computer- and
video-driven culture.

"It takes a whole different style of communication to penetrate their minds
and their hearts," Barna said. For example, breaking worship services up
into shorter sections of about six to eight minutes can keep youth from
becoming distracted, he said.

And in those worship services, music is vital in getting through to youth.
However, they are unlikely to relate to the music that appeals to older
generations, he said.

Furthermore, youth employ a more non-linear learning style than their
elders, and they learn best by hearing stories, followed by a
question-and-answer session that gives them a "dialogical experience," Barna
said.

Apart from targeting youth, he said, successful evangelistic churches work
to infuse every aspect of church life with the spirit of evangelism.

In his presentation, "What Evangelical Churches Do," Barna outlined 12
characteristics of successful evangelical churches:
1. The church environment and culture are evangelistic. The senior pastor
champions evangelism and all church leaders, from lay leaders to office
staff, are evangelistic.
2. The philosophy of ministry is evangelistic. The churches develop a
holistic ministry with an emphasis on evangelism. Everyone in the church is
an evangelistic agent.
3. They engage in serious evangelistic prayer. They believe in its power and
necessity and perform it in a sincere, urgent manner.
4. All church activities are appropriately evangelistic.
5. Evangelistic events are strategic and frequent.
6. They steal their best ideas from other ministries. They are networked
with other churches and identify concepts that are transferable, customizing
them to their particular needs.
7. They spend serious money on outreach. They spend five to 10 times more
than the average church in this category and they spend it strategically: on
youth.
8. They are always evolving evangelistically. As the culture changes, so do
their methods of evangelism. They are constantly experimenting with new
techniques.
9. They do a good job of preparing people to share the Gospel. They work on
developing long-lasting relationships with people they evangelize,
especially youth. "The American church is the champion of hit-and-run
evangelism," Barna chided.
10. They are connected to people outside its walls. 
11. They set and hold themselves to significant outreach goals.
12. 	They cooperate with like-minded churches in the area. They exploit
synergies and are not protective of turf. As Barna asked, "Whose Kingdom are
we trying to build anyway?"

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*Lewis is a free-lance writer and communication consultant based in Baton
Rouge, La. He can be reached at jglewis@premier.net .

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/