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Gateway Country

"Tell me what's working."

That's a question I'm asked frequently. Pastors want to know what's working in evangelism, not theories or ideas from out on the fringe, but news from the front lines. We need insights that are new but tried, and transferable.

So here's a report from the front lines at Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Some quick background on Meck: Our church has grown in eight years from a single family to nearly 5,000 weekly attenders. More than 80 percent of our growth comes from those previously unchurched. Every person who has been baptized, every new member, and every attendee at a discipleship event is surveyed so we can verify that statement.

We know where they have come from, how they got to us, and we have a snapshot of the state of their spiritual life before attending. We're reaching the unchurched at a rate that has astonished even us.

And they're young. Mecklenburg is a church of young boomers and older busters, in their twenties and thirties, giving us a foot in both camps.

People have changed, too, but not in the ways you might think. From our experience, let's bust a few myths about reaching people in this new era.

We have found that once twenty-somethings get married and have a child, they begin to look and act very much like boomers. When they start a family, those who wanted the music café and coffee bars become much more interested in the nursery. I cannot overemphasize the massive change that occurs in the Gen-Xers' tastes and demeanor and schedule and priorities when they walk the aisle and start a family.

This shouldn't shock us. After all, it was the Woodstock generation that grew up and gave us the Reagan era.

The profound cultural changes that have shaped the mindset of today's spiritual seekers have less to do with their being Generation X than with society as a whole. The postmodern mind is real and here to stay. It is best represented by the Gen-X way of thinking. But there is a difference between the philosophical moorings and their sociological pilgrimage. We must understand the philosophical change, but hold loosely to what it takes to reach them stylistically at the various stages of life.

In practical terms, the music and worship styles of Generation X are not that far removed from those of younger boomers, and their ministry needs grow more alike as they age, get married, and have children. A lot of what we learned in the '80s and '90s still works.

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