The Answer Is Yes

The answer is YES, and check out The Journey Church, led by Paul Urban and Matt Lewis, in Muskegon, Michigan for an example.

What’s the question?

Well, I speak at a lot of conferences and it’s usually about how to have a church that is passionate about helping people who are far from God get connected to Him. And one question I’m asked repeatedly goes like this, “Vince, do you think that pastors who grew up Christians can have the same passion to reach lost people, and the same effectiveness in doing so, as you do?”

And I will admit that I have seen VERY few churches that seem to truly be passionate about reaching people far from God. Most are way more interested in just getting big. And I’ve seen even fewer that are effective in reaching people who are far from God. So I think this is a decent question.

But this weekend I was with The Journey, and Paul and Matt are guys who grew up in church, but they are serious about reaching lost people, and they get how to do it. After the service they asked for feedback on what they could do better. Typically I dread that question because I feel like, “If you really want to reach unchurched people, you need to change EVERYTHING.” But with Paul and Matt, all I could do is offer a few little nitpicky suggestions.

So the answer is: Yes.