"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, ...