From Seekers to Disciples: Seattle Church Grows by Extending Reach

Cynthia Gadsden

While most congregations set out to welcome seekers to their ranks, many discover that the greatest problem is not in attracting seekers, or even in getting them to join their churches. The greatest challenge is making them disciples.

A seeker is someone without a church home, but who is searching for deeper meaning and greater purpose in life. Seekers make up about 40 percent of the nearly 100 million people identified as "unchurched" by Barna Research, a firm that charts the movements of the Christian mainstream.

Steve Baber, pastor of Skyway Church in Seattle is against focusing solely on expanding church rolls when working with seekers. Instead he emphasizes that we "tell people we want you to join God, and hope you will do that at our church."

Shortly after arriving at Skyway in 1996, Baber found that although the church had been a community fixture for decades, few neighboring residents or businesses were familiar with more than the church's outer facade. But the congregation has worked hard to change that relationship.

"We started with an annual community carnival in the summer as a way to open the church to the community. We wanted to make it safe for people to come to the church," says Baber.

The church wrote a grant that won financial support from the county, asked local businesses to help sponsor and support the event and invited the community to come enjoy the entertainment, fun and free food.

Skyway offers a broad base of entry points into the church including tutoring, a computer center and two worship services.

The 9:00 Sunday morning service is more traditional, geared toward toward older members.

Baber says the 11:00 worship service is for "the unchurched, rechurched and dechurched. I want this to be a seamless service with prayer, music and the preached word. I don't wear a robe, but usually a polo shirt, and we have a PowerPoint and video presentation."

Once a traditional, all-white congregation, Skyway's membership hovered at 70 in 1996. Since then the number has mushroomed to about 150 members with a more diverse makeup: 49 percent white, 32 percent black and the remaining 20 percent Filipino, Asian, Korean and Hispanic.

Moreover, Skyway is intentional about maintaining ongoing relationships with people who have come through the church in some capacity, such as their rites of passage program, school supply give-away night or prison ministry.

The church has compiled a database of about 2,000 names and routinely contacts people about workshops, ministries and other programs.

Baber says the church is inviting to seekers because "We are concerned about family and kids. We have a strong outreach, [with] enough ministries and programs. We want people to be involved, and our focus is on congregation in-reach and in-growth—spiritual deepening."

Churches wanting to move beyond just reaching seekers would do well to follow Skyway's lead in making disciples of Christ.

--Cynthia Gadsden , Nashville, Tenn., is a freelance writer and editor