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    Larry Osborne on Closing Your Church’s Back Door

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    I think I would say more that most churches seem to focus on either informational discipleship or front door evangelism and the missing component is long-term sticky relationships. Because you can focus on discipleship through programs that you run and material that you want them to experience, almost a discipleship curriculum, if you will, but it is the significant relationships that keep people. We’ve all met people who have stayed in a really terrible church. You finally ask them “why are you staying there?” There’s all kinds of maybe disunity, disfunction going on. And they always say “my friends are there.” That’s why I call it a little Mayberry USA in a highly mobile culture. Mayberry is the old town from a sitcom long ago, it was just this cute little rural town where everybody knew everybody. We just don’t have that in our culture anymore and yet people do need that long-term stability in their life.

    You can read the whole article at The Christian Post here...

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    In an interview with The Christian Post, Larry Osborne explains why some churches aren’t aware of their back door being open, how to keep people in church, and why a “Mayberry USA” culture can help Christians grow. Osborne says, "As long as the front door is larger than our back door or even equal we often think things are okay, and if the front door is larger we’re all excited that we’re growing. But in reality when we keep people for only a short time, what we’ve done is more likely inoculate them to Christianity rather than help them get the real disease.

    Once someone’s been to church for a while, kind of connected and then fades out, it is really hard outside of a major crisis in their life to reach them again. Rather than reaching 100 people, 20 of which we keep, I’d rather reach 50 people, 40 of which we keep. The way I like to put it is fulfill the second half of the Great Commission, instead of just the first half. The Great Commission says to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them, but the second half says teaching them to observe all things that I have taught you. You cannot teach people to observe all things that Jesus taught if you’ve got them for six months or they come at three special seasons a year.

    As I hear in some churches, as much as one-third or more of the church comes once a month. It’s pretty hard to disciple people and finish the job. One thing I want to clarify, to me, the sticky church concept it’s not about church growth. It’s about discipleship. The church growth that comes is a secondary component. But the whole goal is to fulfill the second half of the Great Commission and not just inoculate people. And the side benefit is, the church gets bigger...

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    1. CS on Wed, October 15, 2008

      Interesting.  Wasn’t it Spurgeon who said that the front door of a church should be harder to enter, and the back door easier to exit?


      I know this will sound harsh, but doesn’t this sort of mentality also wind up trapping a large number of people in church who normally would not want to be there, and who have no desire to repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ?



      CS

    2. Jan on Wed, October 15, 2008

      We were at a church that had a great front door and a huge back door problem.  We stayed two years and then left, because we just couldn’t get connected.  The welcome was on the surface.  And we were involved and ready to serve.


      The next church we went to embraced us with open arms. 


      We attended an event for our Bible Study group there and were sitting around talking to people.  The group was really a small church, because there were about 50 who attended.


      So, we began to ask people where they came from etc. come to find out that over half of that group had attended our previous church and had the same experience… loved the church, were excited about being there and serving, but just couldn’t break in somehow.  They all left at about 2 years.


      We come into contact with a lot of people who tried church for awhile and didn’t click.  Sure some of those are consumer types.  But I think there are a lot of people who’ve experienced what we’ve experienced.  They just weren’t as solid in their determination to find a body to fit into.


      It’s sad how many claim to be believers and have a solid theological base, but do not attend any church.

    3. Peter Hamm on Thu, October 16, 2008

      Church should be a place where disciples are made, equipped and unleashed. Sometimes shown the door? yeah, I think so.

    4. Rich on Tue, October 21, 2008

      Jan, I would be interested to know why didn’t you feel that you and your husband connected with the previous church?  Interesting you guys were there 2 yrs but just didn’t feel connected… can you identify why there just wasn’t a connection?

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