Synonyms: *seeker-friendly; *seeker-comprehensible.
The intended audience of a church service that is seeker-sensitive, seeker-friendly, or seeker-comprehensible is a mix of both Christians and unchurched potential converts. By contrast, the intended audience of a church service that is *seeker-centered, *seeker-driven, *seeker-directed, *seeker-focused, *seeker-oriented, or *seeker-targeted is primarily unchurched potential converts. (See *seeker-driven for more information about this second group of terms.)
The format of a typical church service is virtually the same for all nine of these “seeker” terms: the service features a casual dress code, minimal audience participation, multimedia presentations, skits and dramatic performances, upbeat contemporary music by a live band, and short, practical sermons. There is no pressure on attendees to become members of the church, to convert to Christianity, or to give money to the church. Speakers and presenters all make a conscientious effort to avoid using Christian religious jargon and figures of speech (i.e., *Christianese). Even the building in which the church service is held is usually free of traditional Christian fixtures such as crosses, altars, pulpits, pews, and stained glass. The goal of these efforts is to remove as many hindrances to conversion as possible.
The seeker-sensitive methodology is often associated with *megachurches and with evangelistic efforts to reach “baby boomers” (people who were born between 1946 and 1965).
See also *blended service; *feelianity; *felt need; *purpose-driven; *Saddlecreek; *seeker-sensible; *sinner-sensitive; *Willowback.
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1989 Voce Evangelica XXVIII. 46 : For dynamic preaching with the anointing of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven they would find services that are “seeker sensitive” with a form of entertainment, seminars and lectures. They would hear that the Church has need of a better marketing strategy.
1990 Logan
Beyond Church Growth 65 : CBC [=Community Baptist Church] recently decided to gear its five public worship services more intentionally to meet the needs of the unchurched. This meant more skits, drama, an dother creative forms of communication; a greater dependence upon quality musicianship and uplifting, easy-to-sing choruses; and continued focus on simple but dynamic teaching…. CBC strives for an appropriate balance of quality for believers that is “seeker sensitive.” Previous to this, under my leadership, we already had designated the last two Sunday-morning services as being intended more for the unchurched.
1993 Towns
10 Sunday Schools That Dared to Change 21 : Pastor Larry Lamb saw the explosive multiplication of condominiums and houses for baby boomers north of San Diego, California, and knew the traditional American church would not reach them. He envisioned a nontraditional church that was seeker sensitive and user-friendly, yet evangelical in doctrine and evangelistic in thrust.
1993 New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (TX) (15 Oct.) 7 : The big thing in church growth now is to be “Seeker Sensitive.” This means that we have to speak the language of those we are trying to reach.
1994 Baptist Bulletin LX. 9 : The point is that church leaders must be seeker sensitive; our activities in worship should not necessarily alienate the “unchurched” who visit us. The seeker-service church is a positive example for us in terms of its evangelistic commitment and its sensitivity to the concerns fo the lost.
1994 Martin, McIntosh
The Issachar Factor: Understanding Trends That Confront Your Church and Designing a Strategy for Success 39 : Seeker-sensitive churches include older and newer congregations which have chosen to use a worship style more user-friendly to the unchurched, but not exclusively targeted toward them.
1995 Warren
The Purpose Driven Church 80,245 : The church should be seeker sensitive but it must not be seeker driven. We must adapt our communication style to our culture without adopting the sinful elements of it or abdicating to it…. Seeker-sensitive services focus on needs common to both believers and unbelievers.
1995 Hybels
Rediscovering Church 175 : But whatever course you take—whether it’s a monthly seeker-sensitive event, a quarterly outreach breakfast, or some other approach—every church needs to figure out, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, how to fulfill the front end of the Great Commission.
1995 Rainer
Giant Awakenings: Making the Most of 9 Surprising Trends That Can Benefit Your Church 135 : Because they [=non-Christians] may not understand traditional liturgies, hymns, or sermons, an intentional effort is made to be “seeker-friendly” or “seeker-sensitive.” Hymnals may not be used. Sermons may be couched in easy-to-understand, practical-living principles. Anonymity is always provided. Every possible effort is made not only to hold the seeker’s attention, but also to avoid offending him or her at all costs.
1995 McIntosh
Three Generations: Riding the Waves of Change in Your Church 191 : In the seeker-sensitive model the Sunday morning worship service is planned to meet the needs of the believer but with great sensitivity to the unchurched person who may attend.
1996 Hybels
Evangelism: Becoming Stronger Salt and Brighter Light 87 : Start getting creative. Discover anything and everything you can invite seekers to attend. It might be a small group, a seeker-sensitive worship service, a Christian concert, a money management class, a dramatic presentation.
1996 Covenant Companion LXXXV. 20 : Following the model of prominent megachurches many churches have developed “seeker-sensitive services.” Such services reduce or eliminate ecclesiastical language, liturgical practices, and even symbols like the cross or communion table.
1996 Sloan
Mass Communication in the Information Age 568 : The controversial seeker-sensitive movement or what theologians call the megachurch is a product of our media culture…. The movement claims to be more sensitive to the spiritual needs of the unchurched among baby-boomers, busters, and generation Xers.
1997 Arn
How to Start a New Service: Your Church Can Reach New People 100 :
Seeker-sensitive service and
seeker-friendly service are often used interchangeably. These two terms, however, should not be confused with
seeker-targeted service or
seeker-driven service. The first two terms describe a church service in which the assumption of the service planners is that a predominant number of attenders are Christians and are present for the purpose of worshiping God and enhancing their spiritual growth. The last two terms describe a service in which the assumption of the service planners is that a predominant number of attenders are non-Christians and are present for the purpose of evaluating God and enhancing their spiritual exploration.
1998 Evangelicals Now (Dec.) : In many churches in the SFC [=seeker-friendly church] movement … there is only one main weekly service which serves believers and the unchurched. This is called “seeker-sensitive” worship.
1998 Chandler
Feeding the Flock: Restaurants and Churches You’d Stand in Line For xix : Seeker-sensitive churches are those that tailor their main services and programs to appeal to persons either unfamiliar with—or turned off by—traditional church worship. The chief concerns about seeker-sensitive churches are that the essential Gospel is compromised by secular approaches and adapting messages to appeal to non-Christians.
1998 Moeller
Exploring Worship Anew: Dreams and Visions 2 : “Seeker-sensitive” worship aims to attract the unchurched by using the aspects and resources of modern society such as the sounds and techniques of popular music, motivational speaking, and the like.
2000 Sargeant
Seeker Churches: Promoting Traditional Religion in a Nontraditional Way 74 : The vast majority of pastors (94 percent) said the terms “seeker sensitive” or “seeker friendly” described their church’s services “very well” or “fairly well.” The terms “seeker targeted” or “seeker driven” were noticeably less popular…. The preference for the terms “seeker sensitive” and “seeker friendly” over the terms “seeker targeted” or “seeker driven” reflects the fact that less than half of all seeker churches devote a distinct service to seekers.
2000 Orange Coast Mag. (Sep.) 131 : Megachurches pride themselves on being “seeker sensitive,” that is, providing an environment that is welcoming and attractive to the first-time churchgoer. That “seeker-sensitive” environment usually includes a large facility that may look little like the traditional image of stained glass and a church steeple.
2001 Jones
Postmodern Youth Ministry: Exploring Cultural Shift 153 : The evangelical church took a similar turn in the 1980s and ’90s, led by some seeker-sensitive megachurches. In this model, words like
sin and
justification were avoided in worship and entry-level classes on the assumption that those terms will be a turnoff to Joe and Jane who are not versed in Christianese.
2002 Rima
Rethinking the Successful Church: Finding Serenity in God’s Sovereignty 34 : Many pastors and church leaders were drawn to the seeker-sensitive approach that has been so successfully employed by uniquely gifted pastors like Bill Hybels and Rick Warren.
2003 Kimball
The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations 25 : Currently in our culture, when someone refers to a seeker-sensitive worship service or approach, they many times are referring to … a strategy of designing ministry to attract those who feel the church is irrelevant or dull. This often involves removing what could be considered religious stumbling blocks and displays of the spiritual (such as extended worship, religious symbols, extensive prayer times, liturgy, etc.) so that seekers can relate to the environment and be transformed by the message of Jesus.
2004 Dever
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church 3/e 26 : We might find something of the same goal in the seeker-sensitive model, seen in the writing and ministry of Bill Hybels and his associates at Willow Creek and the many churches associated with them. The impulse has been, once again, one of evangelism.
2004 MacArthur
First Peter 234 : The seeker-sensitive philosophy of church growth, with its spirit of inclusivism and de-emphasis on doctrinal clarity and love for the truth, has imbibed the world’s marketing strategy and developed a kind of pop gospel that currently dominates the ecclesiastical landscape.
2005 Leonard
Baptists in America 250 : “Seeker-sensitive” ministry is a primary evangelical method of megachurches, an effort to bring sinners to faith and enlist them in the church.
2006 Stetzer
Planting Missional Churches 263 : A biblically sound seeker-sensitive church asks, “How can we conduct worship and communicate convictions in ways that welcome outsiders yet simultaneously honor God, his Word, his directives, and Christian practices?”
2007 Carter
Rethinking Christ and Culture: A Post-Christendom Perspective 202 : We have had the church-growth movement, the seeker-sensitive movement, the ancient-future-church movement, the emerging-church movement, and the missional-church movement, and the last thing we need is another movement.
2012 Williams
Falsified: The Danger of False Conversion 6 : The term
seeker-sensitive refers to putting more importance on the “needs” of un-believers than on the need to teach the Word of God to believers, thus equipping believers to obey God’s Word.
2012 Peverall
It’s Not Too Late: An About-Face for Local Churches 162 : Let us not, however, demonize the term “seeker sensitive.” The very nature and purpose of the church includes seeker sensitivity.