Sign Post 3

Carey’s third sign that your church is ready to reach unchurched people is  Your attenders are prepared to be non-judgmental. 

"Unchurched people," he writes, "Do not come ‘pre-converted’. They will have lifestyle issues that might take years to change (and let’s be honest, don’t you?). Cleaning up your behavior is not a pre-condition for salvation, at least not in Christianity. What God has done for us in Jesus saves us; not what we have done for God. Is your congregation really ready to love unchurched people, not just judge them? One of Jesus’ genius approaches was to love people into life change. If your people can do that, you’re ready to reach unchurched people.”

This doesn't come naturally to me, maybe because of the bubble in which I grew up. (see Sign Post 2)  

Early in my ministry the church I was serving was positioned right next to "Job Corps" a place where people who struggled with conventional education could get job training. The place didn't have a great reputation, because some of the residents had been 'sentenced' to attend Job Corps as an alternative to serving jail time.  

A new Senior Pastor came on board and thought Job Corps would be the perfect place to go to grow our student ministry, much to my chagrin.   

"Culture shock" would be a mild way of describing what happened when you took a group of 12-16 year old church kids and combined them with a group of 16-24 year old people who had never seen the inside of a church.  As a 20 year old who had grown up in a bubble, I was WAY out of my league. Being overwhelmed only fed many of my stereo types of unchurched young adults.

Needless to say that a little more strategic planning might have made for better ministry.  Very few people, shared the pastor's vision for reaching the students at Job Corps.  Even though the bulk of the heavy lifting ministry fell to me, I was one of those who wasn't catching the vision...  But I did learn a great deal about judging a book by it's cover, and about letting people grow before asking them to change.  And in my next church, when the kids with the pink hair and lip piercings came through the door, I was determined to have a different attitude, and we had a very different outcome.

I’ve tried to steer clear of talking about my current church while discussing Carey’s sign posts.  But I have to brag on them just a little. 

One of the first things I noticed upon coming to church was a guy in his 40’s to 50’s with a bright pink curly Mohawk sitting among a see of suits and ties.  Observing him you could tell that he didn't feel a bit out of place, nor was he treated differently.  When a giant, purple haired, biker-looking guy showed up and sat in the front pew week after week, he was embraced and loved, even when he threw up during a service…  The folks at my church may generally look and act a certain way, but they don't judge other books by their covers.

I believe my church also does a good job letting at not expecting people to act like Christians until they actually become Christians, and even after they decide to follow Jesus they are allowed to ‘grow up’ before being expected to ‘clean up’. 

This doesn’t mean that sin is ignored.  It just means that you don’t start pruning before the seed has taken root, and had some time to grow.