Seeker-Sensitive to Sinner-Sensitive

Both Warren and Schwarz address being a seeker sensitive church in their respective books, The Purpose-Driven Church (1995) and Natural Church Development (1996). Is it important to be seeker-sensitive? Yes!

I have heard and read opinions from those who think it is a bad thing because it tends to compromise the order and respectability of what they think a church service should be. Their attitude is that visitors need to come in a behave themselves. If they behave, they must be Christians. If they don’t behave, they are going to hell and they do not belong in church. This is the seeker insensitive model, which is grounded in centuries of tradition. The Pharisees and scribes did church this way two thousand years ago.

Then came Jesus, who drew quite a crowd. The Jewish leaders growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends" (Lk 15:1, MSG). Perhaps they complained that Jesus is too “sinner-sensitive.” According to Warren, it is important to be seeker-sensitive like Jesus. He said:

At Saddleback Church we do not expect unbelievers to act like believers until they are. We do not expect visitors in the crowd to act like members of the congregation. We expect very little from the seeker who is investigating the claims of Christ. We simply say, as Jesus did in his first encounter with the disciples, "Come and see!” (Warren, 54)

The seeker-service is perceived by the visitor that, not only is this church a safe place to attend without feeling judged or being hassled by pushy, zealous members, it is a place that they can come to find out more about God. After all, if fellowship was the only criteria of the visitor, the local sports bar or Starbucks, might do as well.

Though Schwarz posits that being seeker sensitive is not a church growth principle, he does find that there is indeed “a strong correlation between an inspiring worship experience and a church's quality and quantity” (Schwarz, 31). He further states, "it can be demonstrated that there is a significant connection between laughter in the church and that church's qualitative and numerical growth" (Schwarz, 36). In other words, being seeker sensitive impacts the environment that is attractive to the visitor. And Warren states, “No one becomes a church member without first being a visitor” (Warren, 253).

Can we be seeker-sensitive and not quench the operation of the Spirit? Again, there may be a preconception that for the Spirit to transform, the environment has to be quiet and somber. This is truly a misconception. God works when our hearts are open and receptive to his word, as the good soil was in the parable of the sower (Matt 13:3-8; Mk 4:3-20; Luke 8:5-8). A seeker sensitive service provides that environment. Is there possibility for church growth? Look at the result of the good soil. Jesus said, “Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matt 13:8).

--Al