Jesus commanded us to reach our world and most churches make a serious effort to do that. At the same time a recent Barna survey shows 91% of unchurched people feel the church is not sensitive to their needs. Why is that happening if our primary calling is to reach them for Jesus? I think part of the answer is in our church jargon in our publications.

An unchurched person walks into your church. Maybe a friend invited them, maybe they were simply lonely and wanted to be around people on Sunday morning. We know that they have a god-shaped vacuum inside. We know their hearts are restless until the rest in Jesus. We know the Holy Spirit is at work to convict them of their need for salvation. They sit down in the quiet minutes before the service and they will read anything we put in their hands.

What do we give them? The church bulletin.

What does it say? Try to put yourself in the place of a total stranger who may not have grown up in a church or ever read the Bible. Imagine your response.

Bulletin cover: often either picture of church, clip art, or color picture of scenery. Names of church staff, address, sometimes lists of other names of elders, board members, etc.

Possible response: Who are these people? I know what the church looks like, I walked into it, I'm sitting in it. Why a picture of it?

There may be an order of service…or maybe not, which means the person has no idea how long the singing will last, how long the service will last, what will happen, what they are supposed to do. 

Prelude songs or Introit

Congregational reading

Songs of praise

Hymns such as  “Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus”, choruses: “Open the Eyes of My Heart, and Be Magnified” no words or page numbers given

·        “We are so glad for those who were able to come to the licensing Service for Rusty. I know you received a blessing from the Lord.”

·        “AWANA GRAND PRIX RACES: Check in 11 am. Racing begins at 12 noon. There are racing divisions for: Chubbies, Sparks, Pals, Chums, Pioneers, Guards, and Leaders. “

·         “Moses had Aaron and Hur to hold his arms up. Would you be willing to join a pastoral prayer team to hold up our pastoral staff? Sign up on the Feedback Sheet.”

·        “Upcoming events: Friend Day with Cathy McBride—November 4; Greater than Rubies—November 13; Caring Hearts Luncheon—November 28”

We know we shouldn’t use terms like justification and sanctification when we are first talking to unchurched folks, but we don’t even see so much of our church jargon. The examples above are all out of real church bulletins and similar ones could be repeated thousands of times.

Our insider talk, terms and jargon permeates the initial printed pieces we give visitors telling them that this church is for those in the know only. We don’t even see it, but they do and they don’t come back.

Awareness is a good first step. Look at your bulletin and other publications that are first seen by visitors and ask the Lord to help you see them as a visitor would. One eye-opening way to find this out is to hire (that's right, pay them a decent hourly wage) to look at your church bulletin and simply ask them to put into their own words what you are saying.

Don't ask them if they like it or if it makes sense or anything like that--many folks are honestly nice and they will lie to you to make you feel good. But if you ask them to just resay it and you find them stumbling around and saying things like: "Well, I think here you are talking about...um....little kids? Or what is promise land again? Or what are the "Becomers" becoming?....or I think you're supposed to put a little key code (this really was the case in one church) on this slip of paper and then tear it off and put it into a box in the back if you want to participate in a beach clean up...is that right?...." If this is the sort of response you get, if what you want people to do, how and why aren't immediately clear, you might want to work on your publications.

At the least, welcome people, tell them what is going on. On pages of announcements for church people only, in addition to explaining as much as you can, giving complete information such as beginning and ending times, locations, contact phone numbers, etc., you might consider some sort of heading such as:

A brief notice such as that at least acknowledges that strangers might be in the congregation.

Follow up with some visitors—especially those who are new to church and ask them what would make them feel more welcome, what would they like to see in the initial literature they get when they come in the door.

Second, consider some radical revisions of your church bulletin. Redesign it with seekers in mind. Many churches have greatly modified their service, but what about your publications? A 5-minute skit does not a seeker-friendly church make if your bulletin makes no sense at all to someone unfamiliar with church terms.

Third, if you have a complete and always up-to-date web site, you can refer people to it. Your web site should contain a depth of information and background about your church and should answer all of the additional details that you honestly don't have room for in a Sunday morning publication. If you don't have a web site that can do that, consider changing it to an e-zekiel site (that is what this one is). I personally had a terrible time keeping my site up-to-date before I did this and it is a joy to be able to easily update things.

This is an area that needs great work in the church. We have incredible communication tools and technology and we need to revise our approach to publications so 100% of visitors feel the church cares for them as much as the Savior who died for them.