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How God Uses Worship to Reach Unbelievers

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Pastor, you’ve likely heard this question again and again: How can a service be both a worship service and seeker friendly? At Saddleback, we learned you can have both without compromising either. A clear message paired with genuine worship will not only attract unbelievers. It will also open their hearts to the power of the gospel.

When we talk about worship, we’re talking about something only believers can truly do. Worship is from believers to God. We magnify God’s name in worship by expressing our love and commitment to him. Unbelievers simply cannot do this. They can attend. They can observe. They can even be deeply moved. But worship itself is the response of a redeemed heart.

Here is the simple definition of worship we operated on at Saddleback: Worship is expressing our love to God for who he is, what he has said, and what he is doing. We believe there are many appropriate ways to express our love to God—by praying, singing, obeying, trusting, giving, testifying, thanking, listening and responding to his Word, and through many other expressions.

In worship, God—not people—is the focus. He—not the congregation—is the consumer of worship. Our role is to offer him our praise and obedience. And even though unbelievers can’t truly worship, they can watch believers worship. They can see the joy we feel. They can notice how we value God’s Word and how we respond to it. They can hear how the Bible speaks to the problems and questions of life. They can see how worship encourages and strengthens us. They may even sense when God is moving in a service, even if they don’t know how to explain it.

When unbelievers watch genuine worship, it becomes a powerful witness. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, God’s presence was so evident in the disciples’ gathering that it attracted the attention of unbelievers throughout the city. A crowd came running to see what was happening. By the end of the day, 3,000 people had been saved. Why did those 3,000 respond? Because they sensed God’s presence and they understood the message.

Both of those elements are essential if worship is going to be a witness. God’s presence must be sensed in the service. More people are won to Christ by experiencing God’s presence than by all our apologetic arguments combined. Very few people come to Christ on intellectual grounds alone. It is the sense of God’s presence that melts hearts and breaks down mental barriers. Worship without this rarely produces evangelistic fruit.

There is also an intimate connection between worship and evangelism. The goal of evangelism is to produce worshipers of God. Jesus said the Father seeks worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. When we recruit worshipers, that is evangelism. Worship also creates the motivation for evangelism. It inspires us to tell others about Christ. Isaiah’s encounter with God moved him to say, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8 NIV). True worship leads us to witness.

In genuine worship, God’s presence is felt, God’s pardon is offered, God’s purposes are revealed, and God’s power is displayed. That sounds like an ideal setting for evangelism. When unbelievers see believers relate to God in an intelligent and sincere way, it creates a desire to know God too.

Because worship can have such a profound impact on unbelievers, we should be sensitive to their fears, questions, and needs when they are in our services. This is the principle Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 14 when he limited the use of tongues in public worship. His concern was simple. Speaking in tongues can look like foolishness to outsiders. Paul didn’t say it was foolish. He said it could appear that way to unbelievers. His point was that if an unbeliever walked in and everyone was speaking in tongues, they would likely conclude that the church was out of its mind.

There is a larger principle in Paul’s instructions to Corinth. We must be willing to adjust our worship practices when unbelievers are present. God tells us to be sensitive to the hang-ups of unbelievers in our services. Being seeker sensitive in our worship is a biblical idea. Paul taught it long before we ever talked about it.

Making a service comfortable for the unchurched doesn’t mean changing your theology. It means shaping the environment of the service—the way you welcome visitors, the style of music you use, the translation of the Bible you preach from, and even the tone of your announcements. The message itself won’t always be comfortable. Sometimes God’s truth is very uncomfortable. But we must still teach the whole counsel of God. Being seeker sensitive doesn’t limit what you say. It simply shapes how you say it.

We must also make both the worship and the message understandable. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit translated the message into words each person could grasp: “We hear them telling in our own languages about the great things God has done!” (Acts 2:11 NCV). God’s presence was clear, but people still needed the message in their own language. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have known how to respond.

The unchurched are not asking for a watered-down message. In fact, they expect to hear the Bible when they come to church. They simply want to hear how it connects to their lives. They can handle a clear, biblical message when it’s delivered in language they understand and in a tone that communicates respect and care. They are looking for solutions, not a scolding.

Pastor, a clear message paired with genuine worship will not only attract unbelievers. It will open their hearts to the power of the gospel. As they sense God’s presence and understand the message, they will leave changed. When you design your worship services with God at the center and with seekers in mind, worship becomes much more than seeker friendly. It becomes a joy to God and a powerful tool for evangelism in your church.

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How God Uses Worship to Reach Unbelievers

Pastor, you’ve likely heard this question again and again: How can a service be both a worship service and seeker friendly? At Saddleback, we learned you can have both without compromising either. A clear message paired with genuine worship will not only attract unbelievers. It will also open their hearts to the power of the gospel.When we talk about worship, we’re talking about something only believers can truly do. Worship is from believers to God. We magnify God’s name in worship by expressing our love and commitment to him. Unbelievers simply cannot do this. They can attend. They can observe. They can even be deeply moved. But worship itself is the response of a redeemed heart.Here is the simple definition of worship we operated on at Saddleback: Worship is expressing our love to God for who he is, what he has said, and what he is doing. We believe there are many appropriate ways to express our love to God—by praying, singing, obeying, trusting, giving, testifying, thanking, listening and responding to his Word, and through many other expressions.In worship, God—not people—is the focus. He—not the congregation—is the consumer of worship. Our role is to offer him our praise and obedience. And even though unbelievers can’t truly worship, they can watch believers worship. They can see the joy we feel. They can notice how we value God’s Word and how we respond to it. They can hear how the Bible speaks to the problems and questions of life. They can see how worship encourages and strengthens us. They may even sense when God is moving in a service, even if they don’t know how to explain it.When unbelievers watch genuine worship, it becomes a powerful witness. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, God’s presence was so evident in the disciples’ gathering that it attracted the attention of unbelievers throughout the city. A crowd came running to see what was happening. By the end of the day, 3,000 people had been saved. Why did those 3,000 respond? Because they sensed God’s presence and they understood the message.Both of those elements are essential if worship is going to be a witness. God’s presence must be sensed in the service. More people are won to Christ by experiencing God’s presence than by all our apologetic arguments combined. Very few people come to Christ on intellectual grounds alone. It is the sense of God’s presence that melts hearts and breaks down mental barriers. Worship without this rarely produces evangelistic fruit.There is also an intimate connection between worship and evangelism. The goal of evangelism is to produce worshipers of God. Jesus said the Father seeks worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. When we recruit worshipers, that is evangelism. Worship also creates the motivation for evangelism. It inspires us to tell others about Christ. Isaiah’s encounter with God moved him to say, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8 NIV). True worship leads us to witness.In genuine worship, God’s presence is felt, God’s pardon is offered, God’s purposes are revealed, and God’s power is displayed. That sounds like an ideal setting for evangelism. When unbelievers see believers relate to God in an intelligent and sincere way, it creates a desire to know God too.Because worship can have such a profound impact on unbelievers, we should be sensitive to their fears, questions, and needs when they are in our services. This is the principle Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 14 when he limited the use of tongues in public worship. His concern was simple. Speaking in tongues can look like foolishness to outsiders. Paul didn’t say it was foolish. He said it could appear that way to unbelievers. His point was that if an unbeliever walked in and everyone was speaking in tongues, they would likely conclude that the church was out of its mind.There is a larger principle in Paul’s instructions to Corinth. We must be willing to adjust our worship practices when unbelievers are present. God tells us to be sensitive to the hang-ups of unbelievers in our services. Being seeker sensitive in our worship is a biblical idea. Paul taught it long before we ever talked about it.Making a service comfortable for the unchurched doesn’t mean changing your theology. It means shaping the environment of the service—the way you welcome visitors, the style of music you use, the translation of the Bible you preach from, and even the tone of your announcements. The message itself won’t always be comfortable. Sometimes God’s truth is very uncomfortable. But we must still teach the whole counsel of God. Being seeker sensitive doesn’t limit what you say. It simply shapes how you say it.We must also make both the worship and the message understandable. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit translated the message into words each person could grasp: “We hear them telling in our own languages about the great things God has done!” (Acts 2:11 NCV). God’s presence was clear, but people still needed the message in their own language. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have known how to respond.The unchurched are not asking for a watered-down message. In fact, they expect to hear the Bible when they come to church. They simply want to hear how it connects to their lives. They can handle a clear, biblical message when it’s delivered in language they understand and in a tone that communicates respect and care. They are looking for solutions, not a scolding.Pastor, a clear message paired with genuine worship will not only attract unbelievers. It will open their hearts to the power of the gospel. As they sense God’s presence and understand the message, they will leave changed. When you design your worship services with God at the center and with seekers in mind, worship becomes much more than seeker friendly. It becomes a joy to God and a powerful tool for evangelism in your church.

Your Church Needs to Reach the Most Receptive People

Pastor, you’re surrounded by dirt.To be more precise, you’re surrounded by soil—all kinds of soil. In your community, you have people who are ready to respond to the gospel and people who aren’t. Your job is to identify the good soil and plant your seed there.Jesus clearly taught this notion of spiritual receptivity in the Parable of the Sower and the Soils (Matthew 13:3-23). Like different kinds of soil respond differently to seeds being planted, people respond differently to the Good News. Everyone is not equally ready to receive Christ. Some people are very open to hearing the gospel, while others are closed. In the Parable of the Sower and the Soils, Jesus explained that there are hard hearts, shallow hearts, distracted hearts, and receptive hearts. If you want your ministry to maximize its evangelism effectiveness, you need to focus your energy on the right soil. That’s the soil that will produce a hundredfold harvest. Take a cue from those who work with actual dirt. No farmer in his right mind would waste seed—a precious commodity—on infertile ground that won’t produce a crop. In the same way, careless, unplanned broadcasting of the gospel is poor stewardship. The message of Christ is too important to waste time, money, and energy on nonproductive methods and soil. We need to be strategic in reaching the world. We should focus our efforts where they will make the greatest difference.If you look closely, you’ll see that even within your church’s target group, there are various pockets of receptivity. Spiritual receptivity comes and goes in people’s lives like an ocean tide. People are more open to spiritual truth at certain times than at others. Many factors determine spiritual receptivity. God uses a variety of tools to soften hearts and prepare people to be saved.So, who are the most receptive people? I believe there are two broad categories: people in transition and people under tension. That’s because God uses both change and pain to get people’s attention and make them receptive to the gospel.People in transition: Any time people experience major change, whether positive or negative, they develop a hunger for spiritual stability. This has occurred in America during the last few decades. The massive changes in our world have left us frightened and unsettled and have produced an enormous interest in spiritual matters. Writer Alvin Toffler said that people look for “islands of stability” when change becomes overwhelming. This is a wave the church needs to ride.People are also more receptive to the gospel when they face changes like a new marriage, a new baby, a new home, a new job, or a new school. That’s why churches can generally grow faster in newer communities where new residents are continually moving in than they do in stable, older communities where the same people have lived for decades.People under tension: God uses all kinds of emotional pain to get people’s attention—like the pain of divorce, death of a loved one, unemployment, financial problems, marriage and family difficulties, loneliness, resentment, guilt, and other stresses. When people are fearful or anxious, they often look for something greater than themselves to ease the pain and fill the void they feel. Based on my many years of pastoring, I offer the following list of what I believe were the 10 most receptive groups of people that we reached out to over the years at Saddleback:Second-time visitors to your church (unbelievers who come, regardless of the reason)Close friends and relatives of new convertsPeople going through a divorceThose who feel their need for a recovery program (any type: alcohol, drugs, sexual addiction, etc.)First-time parentsTerminal illness of self or family memberCouples with major marriage problemsParents having difficulty with their childrenRecently unemployed/major financial problemNew residents in the communityA great benefit of focusing on receptive people is that you don’t have to pressure them to receive Christ. I used to tell my staff: “If the fruit is ripe, you don’t have to yank it!”Your church might make a goal of developing a specific program or outreach to each of the most receptive people groups in your community. Of course, if you begin to do this, someone will likely say, “Pastor, I think that before we try to reach all these new people, we should try to reactivate all the old members that have stopped coming.” This is a guaranteed strategy for church decline! It doesn’t work. It usually takes about five times more energy to reactivate a disgruntled or carnal member than it does to win a receptive unbeliever. I believe God has called pastors to catch fish and feed sheep—not to corral goats! The truth is that some of your inactive members probably need to join somewhere else for a number of reasons. Growing churches focus on reaching receptive people. Non-growing churches focus on re-enlisting inactive people.Once you know who your target is, who you are most likely to reach, and who are the most receptive people in your target group, then you’re ready to establish an evangelism strategy for your church. So my suggestion to you is this: Start checking the soil.This article is adapted fromThe Purpose Driven Churchby Rick Warren.

Be Ready to Ride the Waves God Brings

Surfing is a big deal in Southern California. Many of the movies and television shows that have popularized the sport took place in our part of the country. In fact, many of our schools offer physical education courses in surfing.You can learn just about everything in surfing classes, including how to choose the right equipment, how to use it well, how to recognize a “surfable” wave, and how to catch and ride a wave for as long as possible. But you’ll never find a course that covers how to build a wave.That’s because you can’t build your own wave. Surfing is all about catching the waves that God gives you. No waves? No surfing that day. But if there’s a good wave rolling in, surfers won’t miss out, even if it means paddling out in rough weather. It’s a small price to pay to ride a good wave.The same is true for the growth of your church. Only God makes the church grow. Much of the books and training related to church growth fall into the category of “how to build a wave.” They’re all about how to use gimmicks, programs, and marketing to mimic the Spirit’s work. But that’s not our job as church leaders. Just like the surfer, our job is to recognize the waves God makes and ride them. How can we do that?1. Respond to God’s timing. Don’t bother trying to create waves. Stay on the lookout for the waves God sends your way—and ride those. That often means learning to discern when it’s time to move fast and when it’s time to move slow. Some leadership moments call for immediate action, while others require patience and endurance. God’s timing is perfect. Learning when to move fast and when to wait is essential for effective ministry.2. Focus on balance. Surfers need a well-attuned sense of balance, and so do church leaders. Balancing the biblical purposes of the church—worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism —is critical for healthy church growth. Balanced, purpose driven churches grow. Unbalanced churches eventually stagnate.3. Be prepared to keep going even when you wipe out. Even the best surfers wipe out, but they don’t give up. They get back on their boards and try again. Church leaders must do the same. Failure is never fatal in ministry. God often uses our greatest failures to grow our character and deepen our dependence on him.4. Stay flexible. No wave is the same. Just as surfers need to make adjustments to ride the waves God gives them, pastors must stay flexible to be ready for the waves God sends their way. You’ll likely change methods frequently in ministry, yet the message — the gospel of Jesus Christ—never changes. Leaders must be flexible in how they reach people without compromising the gospel. 5. Cultivate expectancy. Surfers are constantly looking for the next big wave. Church leaders should also learn to foster a spirit of expectancy, believing God is always at work and preparing to respond when he moves. That’s what faith is—expecting God to act. God works in our ministries according to our faith. Encourage your church to pray boldly and prepare practically for God to bring new opportunities for growth and ministry.  It’s easy to look around at our world and grow negative, but we’re living in exciting times. God’s Spirit is moving mightily in waves around the world.That’s why I pray something like this each day:“Father, I know you’re going to do some incredible things in your world today. Please give me the privilege of getting in on some of what you’re doing.”That’s a prayer God loves to answer.

Embracing Creative Outreach in Your Ministry

In 1992, Saddleback Church became one of the first churches on the internet. Back in those days, the internet was an uncharted frontier: no web browsers, no search engines, just a few tech-savvy pioneers exploring a digital wilderness. Yet, when we saw the internet as an opportunity to reach people in a new way, we jumped in with both feet, using FTP, Gopher, and Mosaic to share the gospel. Creative outreach is one of 10 values that we built Saddleback Church on, and that creative spirit has never left the church. I believe every church should embrace creativity to reach new people with the gospel. Any church can learn to do this if they live out these five principles. Adaptability is key to reaching the unchurched. In a famous passage in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul writes about how he adapts to the people he is trying to reach. He never changes the gospel, but he is always looking for fresh ways to put the gospel in a context people understand. He writes in verse 22, “I have become all things to all people. I have done this so that in all possible ways I might save some” (NIRV).That’s what creative outreach is all about—using any means necessary to tell people about Jesus. We should get creative in finding common ground with our neighbors so we can share the gospel with them. Creativity reflects God’s image in us. Each of us was created to create. We are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Jesus created everything seen and unseen in the universe (Colossians 1:16)—and we are designed to be creative too.Too often, we get the idea that only certain people are creative, but that’s not true. Every one of us has the potential to be creative. If we’re going to be faithful in reaching our neighbors for Jesus, we need to tap into the creativity of every one of our congregants. Learn to fail fast, fail often, and fail cheap. I used to tell my staff all the time that if they’re not failing, they’re not trying anything new. Doing the same thing over and over again isn’t being creative, and it’s rarely going to reach people.Think of it like this: You’re successfully discovering what doesn’t work when you “fail” in your outreach. It’s not a failure; it’s an experiment. You’ll never learn what is successful in evangelism if you don’t experiment, even if that leads to apparent failures. God-sized dreams fuel creative outreach. God’s vision for your church is far greater than anything you can imagine on your own. As Colossians 1:16 reminds us, Jesus is the Creator of all things, and his creativity is boundless. When you align your church’s outreach with his grand design, you tap into his limitless imagination.Faith-fueled imagination allows you to dream big—beyond your current resources or understanding. Embracing God-sized dreams for your church will lead to reaching new people with the Good News of who Jesus is and what he has done for us.Change is necessary for growth. When I was pastor at Saddleback, we constantly made changes to reach new people with the good news. New days required new methods so we changed programs, ministries, and styles.Jesus reminds us in Mark 2:22, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins” (NLT). You have to be willing to change to grow—that’s true for you as a leader and for your church. Everyone needs Jesus. Each of our neighbors, whom Jesus dearly loves, has a unique background and a unique story. Because of that, we need to be creative in how we tell the people in our community about him, so that, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9, “in all possible ways” we might reach them. Look around your community. Chances are, you’ll find what we found: Your neighbors desperately need Jesus. To reach them effectively, you’ll need to be both bold and creative in your approach. Think outside the box, and don’t be afraid to try new methods.

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