Man of Depravity - Tyler Braun's posts on Church Ministry, Worship, Seminary, and Theology.

7th Inning Stretch

2010 October 28

by Tyler

Rose and I went to a Twins/Mariners game a couple months back. It was the first professional baseball game she had ever been too. In the middle of the 7th inning everyone stood up and started singing along to a song she had never heard in her life. It was quite humorous seeing how confused she was about what was going on (and for those of you who don’t know baseball stuff, this picture above probably makes no sense either).

It is scary to me to begin thinking about how many of those experiences an unchurched individual has while going to church for the first time. Most churches around the world aren’t growing, and I think a major reason for this is because we do church to reach the churched believer, not the unchurched unbeliever.

There are parts of the seeker-sensitive church movement that need to die, but there are parts we need to keep around. Thinking about how church would feel to the unchurched is one of those things we should simply never stop thinking about.

Here are two of my favorite Andy Stanley quotes on this topic:

“Evaluating our churches through the eyes & ears of the unchurched is both necessary & painful.”

“One of the reasons churches see decline is because they love their model more than the unchurched & unsaved.”

What does your church do that likely doesn’t make any sense to the unchurched?

Filed under: church Tags: church

http://www.shallowfrozenwater.blogspot.com shallowfrozenwater

she had never heard Take me Out to the Ballgame? really?

your unchurched thoughts here are on the money i believe.
http://www.unfetteredbloke.com Nathan

Great thoughts here Tyler – love that last quote by Stanley – I’ve never really thought about it that way, but it’s right on. I can’t help but think our churches have become more of an “event” than a way of life. And I’m not sure that’s what Jesus ever intended. Great post.
Rose Braun

yeah….i know- i really hadn’t heard it. i always blame those “firsts” on growing up in a small town in Alaska. lol
http://www.contentunderpressure.net Josh

“Haaaaay evrabudy!”

Good words today, man. I love the last quote.
http://theycallmepastorbryan.com B.D.

Interesting though in that what we usually think is, if someone would come into a church and be uncomfortable, we would want to change that. But I wonder… Does baseball need to adapt and get rid of the seventh inning stretch because it’s unfamiliar to those who’ve never been to a game before?

Or is it the need of those who are veterans to explain what something is and where it came from.

There are times to reinvent things, but even the most reinvented thing will be awkward to those who aren’t already in the church, because the Jesus story is contrary to the American/Canadian/European/etc story.

Also, one nitpicky comment… it’s really only the western world where churches aren’t growing… There are plenty of places in Asia, South America and Africa where the church is explosively growing.
http://manofdepravity.com Tyler

Great comment Bryan. I really don’t think I can disagree with anything you said. When I said most churches aren’t growing I was thinking of my context in the USA. Is there an easy answer to this subject? Not at all.
http://topsy.com/manofdepravity.com/2010/10/28/7th-inning-stretch-unchurched/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention Man of Depravity: 7th Inning Stretch — Topsy.com

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tyler Braun, Tyler Braun. Tyler Braun said: New blog post on the 7th inning stretch and how churches are awful at reaching the unchurched: http://bit.ly/bTpvqV [...]
http://theycallmepastorbryan.com theycallmepastorbryan

Thanks, Tyler. I figured it was an oversight the way you stated it. And it’s certainly true for us in the US. Even in my missional circles, I don’t know a lot of places that are explosively growing. Seems to be a bit the symptoms of the times-what with the whole post-christendom thing happening more and more in the us. Anyways, the Seventh inning stretch is a fantastic illustration about how somethings we do seem absolutely crazy without the context.