Seeker-Hostile: Church groups with this mindset view non-believers as a threat. Most in this mindset, of course, would say that individual believers must be kind to non-believers and look for ways to share the gospel. But they would insist that corporate life of the church is no place to involve a non-believer. Therefore, the study topics, conversations, and even jokes in the Bible study classes or worship services create an environment hostile to a seeker's questions or objections.
Seeker-Indifferent: Church groups with this mindset are indifferent to the concerns and questions that non-believers have of the faith. They believe the job of the church is to provide Bible studies and activities that meet the needs of believers. Churches that are seeker-indifferent may have evangelistic activities and support mission causes, and they may encourage the individual members to witness to non-believers. But it simply doesn't occur to these churches that they have a responsibility to engage the concerns and questions of spiritual explorers.
Seeker-Sensitive: Church groups with this mindset focus on building believers while connecting with the seekers that believers bring with them. In one sense, the aim of worship services and Bible study groups in these churches is the same as it is in seeker-indifferent churches: the church exists to build a strong community of believers. But seeker-sensitive churches pursue this goal with a sensitivity to non-believers who have begun to be attracted to the faith through their friendship with believers.
Seeker-Targeted: Church groups with this mindset direct everything they do toward reaching the non-believing world with the gospel. The music, the sermon topics, the approach to Bible-study . . . it's all done with the aim of catching the attention of non-believers and persuading them to embrace the gospel truth.
I want us to be a seeker-sensitive church. I do not believe that our only reason for our worship services and Bible studies is to reach non-believers--these events are gatherings for believers to lift up the Name of God and study the Word of God. But while Hillcrest worship services and Bible studies exist to build believers, they also exist to connect with earnest seekers that believers bring with them. I believe we should be a place where people find and follow Jesus together--that's a nice summary of our mission.
Among several of the speakers and writers I enjoy, the word for this kind of church is missional. In fact, the word "seeker" has fallen out of vogue in circles that prefer the word "missional" to describe a biblical church. For example, I viewed a couple of clips from Mark Driscoll belittling the "seeker" approach and contrasting it to the "missional" approach (here and here). And yet, the way he describes a missional church--and his call for "cultural immersion" in this clip and "relating to sinners" in this clip sounds exactly like my defintion of a "seeker-sensitive" church.
I'm reminded of one of my seminary professors who drolled that the pronunciation of the name "Augustine" changed with every generation of graduate students: one generation would pronounce it "AWE-guh-steen," and then the next generation would pronounce it "awe-GUH-stin." The professor drily remarked that it was simply an indication of young bucks trying to distinguish themselves from the previous generation of scholars.
I wonder if the same thing isn't going on among younger leaders like Driscoll. Maybe each new generation of leaders has to invent their own labels to express the biblical mission of the church.
At any rate, whether a church is labeled "seeker-sensitive" or "missional" isn't nearly as important as whether the label the church chooses is properly defined and accurately communicated.
These clips were prepared to promote John Piper's Desiring God National Conference in late September. Other video clips from interviews of the conference speakers can be found here. By the way, on the topic of being a church that is "missional" and sensitive to the non-believing world, you really should view the clip from the always-intriguing Tim Keller. Excllent!
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