Academic source for understanding "seeker-sensitive" phenomenon?

Someone in a Facebook group I'm part of asked: "What's a good source (preferably academic) to give someone who wants to understand the "seeker-sensitive" phenomenon?"

I have a few sources to recommend that I found through searching online, but wondering if anyone else knows of a good one?

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MJ. Smith

The only "pro" source I am familiar with is Introducing the Uncommon Lectionary: Opening the Bible to Seekers and Disciples: Bandy, Thomas G.: 9780687496273: Amazon.com: Books but I understand that the author may have other works that fit the bill.

Christian Alexander

Here are a few sources I know of. I have not read these yet.

Sargeant, Kimon Howland. Seeker Churches: Promoting Traditional Religion in a Nontraditional Way. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000.

Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality from Emerson to Oprah. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.

I have read these though.

Dobson, Ed. Starting a Seeker Sensitive Service: How Traditional Churches Can Reach the Unchurched. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993.

MacArthur, John. Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World (3rd Edition). United States: Crossway, 2018.

Walls, Andrew Finlay. The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith. United States: Orbis Books, 2015.

David Thomas

to understand the "seeker-sensitive" phenomenon?

My understanding is that "seeker-driven" or "seeker-sensitive" is a sub-category of "Church Growth Movement". I sense that "Bigger is better" gave way to Bigger through Service Evangelism gave way to Bigger through (Spititual) Health gave way to "Possibly Bigger if we Make Reproducing Disciples"

Willow Creek (a matriarch in Seeker Sensitivity) did a deep dive in the ineffectiveness of their own strategy (that was adopted by hundreds of other churches) Their findings are published in https://www.amazon.com/Reveal-Where-Hawkins-Cally-Parkinson/dp/074419234X

Piggy backing on "Reveal" are https://www.amazon.com/Move-Churches-Reveal-Spiritual-Growth/dp/0310529948/ and https://www.amazon.com/Focus-Things-People-Want-Church

Christian Alexander

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1296857#Comment_1296857

That is a great line of thought to the seeker sensitive group. In an age where people self-select into groups of like-minded people, I worry that pastors and theologians, regardless of how conservative they may be theologically, have become, in their own way, “seeker sensitive” by never challenging this mindset in their sermons or, worse, by actively pandering to it. Pastors who earlier advocated for "just preaching the gospel" and advised against conflating spiritual remedies with social issues now pay close attention to issues that make the news on television news. The same leaders who formerly advised us to focus the church's ministry and mission on social justice causes rather than the cross of Christ today voice their opinions. Here is another source.

Church Growth Gone Mad by Clay Miller (2003 Shepherd's Conference

(‾◡◝)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1296866#Comment_1296866

You could always try the Bible:

"... as it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.'” Rom 3:10-12 [emphasis mine] See also Psalms 14:1-3 and 53:1-3

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1296884#Comment_1296884

Then there is also:

and

Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV:2016) —13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (using Logos' "Copy Bible Verses" tool)

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1296857#Comment_1296857

https://www.amazon.com/Focus-Things-People-Want-Church

This link was incomplete and went to an error page. The full link is: https://www.amazon.com/Focus-Things-People-Want-Church/dp/0744198682

David Thomas

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1296886#Comment_1296886

This link was incomplete

Thank you Rosie! I tried to edit out all the superfluous tagging in the URL and apparently took out too much.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1296895#Comment_1296895

This link was incomplete

Thank you Rosie! I tried to edit out all the superfluous tagging in the URL and apparently took out too much.

Very good of you to do that! I like to remove extraneous tagging in URLs too. Actually, in Amazon URLs, the words summarizing the book title are not necessary. The minimal URL for that book would be https://www.amazon.com/dp/0744198682. I have created a keyboard macro for myself in AutoHotKey that if I select the text from just after the / after .com all the way up to and including the / just before dp, and press my hotkey, it will delete everything else and copy just the https://www.amazon.com/dp/ + the SKU # to the clipboard. Very handy for posting links to the forums or for creating book suggestions on Feedbear.

Or, even easier, you can use https://linkcleaner.app. Just paste the URL that you want to clean up into that web page and it will clean it for you immediately (no need to click any buttons) and copy the result into the clipboard for you. Be careful because it sometimes isn't smart about leaving required parameters in the URL.

NathanL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1296884#Comment_1296884

You could always try the Bible:

"... as it is written, 'There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.'” Rom 3:10-12 [emphasis mine] See also Psalms 14:1-3 and 53:1-3

But it doesn't actually mean what it says [;)]