Churched vs. Unchurched = blech!

I think that the word implies that there are a significant number of people that are not familiar with the culture of Church. Many of the "unchurched" are not willing to even darken the door of a Church for a lack of knowing Church procedures or culture. The number of the unchurched are growing greater every day. We need to get back to the old way of Cottage prayer meetings. We used to go to the elderly that could no longer attend meetings and have a prayer meeting in their homes. It was a good way of getting into neighborhoods where people that would not come to Church but would be willing to come to a familiar home.

 

We could call them other names...sometimes I use outsiders...but not to their faces.

The term unchurched expresses that these people do not come from a background where they have ever been part of a local church community. It is key to understanding a rising cultural divide between the churched (also "over-churched") and the unchurched as we enter into a more post-Christian culture.

Additionally, the term dechurched refers to people who at one time were involved with a church but have since walked away.

We can use whatever terms we want, but to a degree we still need an identifying category to help us and others understand the need for reaching these people.

 

I guess we always need to be clear with our terms. Around here we use the term unchurched to refer to anyone who is not a member of or active in a church. This includes many believers as well as unbelievers. Many have been church members before and are familiar with church they are just not going right now. Some are lost but many may be saved. Some may have grown up without knowing the traditions of church but around here that is pretty rare.

It is important because these are the people we want to target with our evangelism efforts. I don't want to steal members from other churches I want to reach those who are without a church, saved or unsaved.

I don't remember who said that, but I heard it somewhere.

 

Good point NCTM. :thumbs:

 

Here, "churching" has a specific ecclesiastical meaning in Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, and other liturgical groupings. It refers to a specially ceremony of thanksgiving after the birth of a child, the so-called "Churching of Women". You can find the ceremony from the Book of Common Prayer, at: http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bcp1662/occasion/women.html
There, the service ends with an instruction starting: "The Woman, that cometh to give her thanks, must offer accustomed offerings;" I wonder what they were? Two turtledoves?

 

Same here... "unchurched" doesn't just apply to non believers... it applies to everyone that is not being discipled by a local church.

It could refer to:
1. the lost
2. believers that stopped going to church
3. believers that have been hurt by their church

All three need evangelized.

 

I looked at your signature video. I guess I got Rick Rolled, whatever that is. :laugh:

 

I guess I just dont see the point in classifying people. People are people whether they are saved or not or go to church or not should not matter. I love all my friends and family whether they love God or not is their thing. I am child of God but I dont make myself better than the next person.

 

Here we have the churched, the unchurced, and the unchurch.

The latter is saved folks fed up with bickering and power struggles and poor theology. They tend to avoid church but many have an excellent relationship with Jesus, or at least seem to.

 

Never mind. Self-edited.

 

The wicked?