Rick Richardson shared about his recent trip to Burning Man, with an article called, “Re-Engaging the Dechurched: Lessons From Burning Man.” Here’s a bit from him:
A team from the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism (BGCE) journeyed to Burning Man earlier this year to learn more about this community, research the dechurched and share God’s love. Many of the 70,000 people who attend Burning Man attend the event in order to express their creativity, find community and seek spiritual encounters. Ninety percent of the people the BGCE team interviewed were from mainline Protestant and Catholic backgrounds. They are, at this point, very dechurched. Most attended church in high school and earlier, but were never captured by the church. They are not hostile, just disinterested. They are spiritual, but not religious.
Here are three themes that emerged as we interviewed “Burners.” We believe these can help us better reach out to the younger, dechurched, spiritually seeking generation.
1. Many Burners are looking for the opportunity to express, in a context of radical acceptance, sides of themselves they have ignored, repressed or discounted. The church is not often perceived as a place of radical acceptance (or radical grace) toward people as they are. The church for Burners will have to practice a radical grace and acceptance that will be surprising for people who long to express “new” selves.
So, evangelism IS going on. I could list a dozen other leaders passionate about gospel proclamation.
Yet, and I think most of us feel it: evangelism has fallen out of style in much of evangelicalism in America the last decade or so. Today, too many of us roll our eyes at evangelism strategies, calling them hokey and ineffective, and, instead of coming up with other evangelism strategies, we just don’t evangelize.
This is a problem, and we need to fix it.
Goals
I’m convinced that a lot of people are noticing this fact and are concerned. So, this summer, we are going to do a conference and convocation where people come and learn about mobilizing the church to evangelism.
We will do it this summer, June 28-30, 2016.
We don’t expect thousands, but I am bringing key evangelism leaders together for a conference to ask, “How can we help the body of Christ get on mission and share the gospel like we once did?” In other words, tools and conferences aside, “How can we get focused on the goal?”
We already have some amazing speakers lined up (and will start releasing names soon) and it will be on the campus of Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. (That means dorm lodging is available if you need inexpensive accommodations.)
I hope you’ll plan ahead. We won’t be promoting the creation of new tools, but learning about what others are doing (including new tools), but also a lifestyle of showing and sharing the love of Jesus.
To get on our list for more information, you can email info@amplifyconference.tv.
Both this event and the 2016 GC2 Summit on the Church and Refugees are events being hosted by The Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton College. Be sure to check out our website and learn more about what’s going on.
Ed Stetzer holds the Billy Graham distinguished chair of church, mission and evangelism at Wheaton College and the Wheaton Grad School, where he also oversees the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism.