'Come to us' church often tries to make its worship attractive to
outsiders - perhaps more contemporary, or more reflective. Sometimes a new
congregation is planted in a more neutral venue, to help make the contemporary
worship easily accessible. But this is still attractional church. The team are
using an approach they have decided and now invite unchurched people to
attend.
'We go to you' church makes no decisions about the style of worship until
it has begun to form community with the people it is seeking to reach. That
comes at the end of a process which might take a long time. That process begins
with listening, develops into practical forms of service (no, not church
service!), forms community as it shares its faith and only sorts out worship at
the end.
Hopefully the worship will be attractive but what matters most is that it
is transformative within that culture. There is room in the mixed economy church
for both approaches, but fresh expressions of church will normally be
incarnational.
The problem with attractional church is that it is appropriate for only a
minority of the population. If, as we believe, at least 60% of the
population cannot be reached by our existing patterns of church, however
attractive, then even churches which follow an attractional model very
successfully need to ask the question, who can't we reach this way and what else
could we do? To reach the majority of our culture we will need an incarnational
approach.
We will have to stop designing church for ourselves and start designing
it with and for them!
The Fresh Expressions website has just added an example of this approach in the gypsy community.
