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Churches becoming more seeker sensitive on Sunday morning is old news. But now at least one church has become more believer-sensitive: Several years ago, Christ Community Church, in St. Charles, Illinois, which was started in the eighties specifically to reach spiritual seekers on Sunday mornings, decided to switch strategies. Now Sunday mornings at Christ Community are targeted at believers, though the church is still known for attracting nonbelievers to its worship services.

Dave Goetz, executive editor of PreachingToday.com, spoke with Jim Nicodem, pastor of Christ Community Church, about the effects of the change and what he has learned about preaching well to seekers and long-time members in the same sermon.

Q:When you made the shift, how did your preaching change?

A: It didn't.

Q:Nothing changed?

A: Preaching well to seekers and sheep in the same sermon comes down to good principles of communication—not targeting a particular audience. There's no fundamental difference between a message that connects with a seeker and one that connects with a long-time believer.

When we called our Sunday morning services "seeker services," believers complained, "We want deeper stuff." We announced our transition and told our people, "We will be addressing believers on Sunday morning, but we will still be conscious that seekers are present and will present the gospel to them periodically."

Pastors may be shooting themselves in the foot by saying to believers: "You're not whom we're aiming at." That only insults people, and even when pastors go deeper, their people still write them off.

Q:What motivated the change?

A: One factor was the idea that you need to come up with new words for biblical terms to make them understandable. But doing that can empty the terms of their content.

For example, some churches speak of Jesus as Forgiver and Leader. But the Lord says he must have sovereign control over your life. The word Leader is just too wimpy for Lord.

I would rather use Savior and Lord and then define them. Pastors can be as deep as they want in their preaching. To connect with seekers, our preaching simply needs to be in Peter Rabbit English.

Q:But wouldn't you begin a message for seekers differently than you would one for believers? Aren't they starting at a different place?

A: Behind your question is the assumption that if I'm speaking to believers I could just open the text and say, "Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 4," and move into it.

But if I do that, believers won't listen to me.

Good communication says you've got to hook people in the first two minutes. I almost always start my sermons with a question or an outrageous statement. Yesterday in a sermon on blame, I started with, "Have you ever been blamed for something you didn't do?" That's not a seeker technique. That's a communication technique.

I aim at presenting biblical truth with the understanding that an unbeliever is listening in. So many of the life concerns we face-whether a seeker or a believer-are the same. Life hits the fan for both of us.

Q:What might make believers think a sermon is not for them?

A: Long-time members get frustrated when every sermon is a how-to message—pragmatism taken to the nth degree.

A couple of years ago, we began looking for someone to share the teaching load with me. Every time I got in my car, I flipped on a tape of a sermon from one of the candidates. Before we began the search process, I thought I'm going to find a bunch of Bible-scholar types who have depth, but it's going to be tough to find someone who can relate to our more contemporary style of ministry.

What I found was just the opposite. I received tape after tape of guys who were pretty decent communicators, but there was no content to their sermons. Most messages felt to me as if they had been put together on the fly. A lot of the sermons have the same themes, as if the candidates had been circulating the same how-to messages about marriage, life on the job, self-esteem. Even the illustrations all seemed the same.

Q:So do you still present the gospel in every sermon?

A: We make certain that every six weeks or so, people are invited to respond.

Q:How do you get seekers to the service?

A: I ask seekers to do evangelism. I'll say, "If you're still on the seeking side of the fence, you're here because you sense there's something in your life that's missing. I'll bet you've got friends in the same boat. What I'd like to challenge you to do is to reach out to those friends, bring them along."

Jim Nicodem is founder and pastor of Christ Community Church in St. Charles, Illinois.