Small Group Models
Still, most secular-but-spiritual people come to Christ either in a church context or in some tangential ministry related to a church. But that does not mean avenues for gospel presentations cannot be found outside of the local church.
Most importantly, as Western culture becomes more secular, I believe that larger groups will still be most effective at first, but will decrease in effectiveness, while smaller contexts will become more and more effective.
Reaching secular people will increasingly require using smaller community groups where there are opportunities for safe conversation, where skepticism is embraced and secularism is challenged.
In such groups, the ultimate witness for secular people would be Christians modeling Christ and living in remarkably counter-cultural ways. The most effective churches are finding ways to empower their people to practice these kinds of communities and reach secular individuals where they are.
This calls to mind ministries like Alpha, Billy Graham’s My Hope campaign, Christianity Explored and others, where smaller groups meet to talk about spiritual matters.
We will talk about these church planting methods and other evangelism approaches at the Amplify Conference this summer.
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.