The population of the unchurched is growing across the nation. Much research has been done on this group in order to understand them, in order to reach them. But it seems that while we have been busy forming strategies based on research to bring the unchurched to Christ, their numbers continue to increase while church numbers, for the most part, remain the same.

It could be that we have formed most of our strategies from the wrong research. It could be that instead of asking people who do not go to church what we could do to get them in, that we should be asking the formerly unchurched, those that actually made the move into our churches, why they came.

This is what we have done. More than 350 men and women who were formerly unchurched spent hours answering our questions, helping us to understand what strategies or methodologies were effective in reaching them. Their responses yielded many surprising insights and shattered many popularly held myths about this group we call the unchurched. We have already discussed five of these myths, and today we will examine two more.

Myth #6: We must be careful in our teaching and preaching so that we do not communicate deep and complex biblical truths that will confuse the unchurched.

"You know what frustrated me the most when I started visiting churches?" Susan M. asked us. She was a lifelong unchurched person living in the Cleveland area until a life crisis prompted her to seek God and his truth in churches. "What really frustrated me was that I had a deep desire to understand the Bible, to hear in-depth preaching and teaching," she continued, "but most of the preaching was so watered down that it was insulting to my intelligence.

"I went to one church where the message was on fear. I was eager to hear what the Bible had to say about a subject that described my state of mind."

But Susan was sorely disappointed with what she heard. "It was more of a pop-psychology message. The biblical view was never explained. Bible texts were hardly mentioned," she lamented.

One important lesson we learned from the formerly unchurched is that we should never dilute biblical teachings for the sake of the unchurched.

Jennifer K., a Minnesota resident, expressed similar sentiments: "You know, I have watched CNBC [a business cable network] for years, since I follow my investments closely," she said. "I remember the first time I watched the program. They used a language that contained some strange phrases, like stock splits, PIE ratio, and NASDAQ. Sometimes they explained them, and other times I had to go to the dictionary or the Internet to learn, but I enjoyed the learning experience."

Jennifer continued, "Now that I am a Christian and an active church member, I have been telling the pastor and the church staff that meaty teaching and preaching attracts the unchurched. I think they're listening."

Similar comments were repeated by many of the formerly unchurched. When we asked if the doctrine or the beliefs of the church they eventually joined was important, the responses were surprising and overwhelming. Ninety-one percent of the formerly unchurched indicated that doctrine was an important factor that attracted them to the church.

Perhaps equally surprising was the fact that the unchurched were more concerned about doctrine than Christians who had transferred from another church. Almost all of the formerly unchurched responded that doctrine was important. Nine out of 10 of the transfer churched responded likewise.

The implications of these findings could be significant in our attempts to reach the unchurched. How would our strategies change if we considered the teaching of doctrine to be a major issue in reaching the unchurched?

Myth #7: The Sunday school and other small groups are ineffective in attracting the unchurched.

Over the past decade or so a worship revolution has begun to take place in many churches across America. The revolution is sorely needed. In thousands of churches, worship has become stale, ritualistic and uninspiring.

This worship revolution includes the seeker-sensitive movement, a movement that reminds the church that what we say, sing and do in worship is often confusing and irrelevant to the unchurched who may be visiting our churches. Again, many of the contributions of the seeker-sensitive movement were sorely needed.

Almost forgotten in these new emphases in worship was the 200-year-old program called the Sunday school. I was among many church forecasters who thought that the Sunday school was a program that belonged in antiquity, a dinosaur headed for extinction.

To many, Sunday school evokes mental images of a dimly lit room with old furniture, walls painted most recently in 1972, and an 84-year-old teacher who sleeps through his or her own lessons. But our research has shown the resurgence of Sunday school in the more effective churches in America.

Furthermore, we learned through this study that the formerly unchurched are positive about and attracted to Sunday school or small groups. In fact, the formerly unchurched were more likely to be active in Sunday school than the transfer churched. In a majority of our interviews, it was the formerly unchurched who indicated the greatest allegiance to Sunday school.

We were amazed to find that nearly seven out of 10 formerly unchurched were active in Sunday school at the point of our interview. Approximately six out of 10 transfer churched were involved in Sunday school. Those in both groups were much more likely to be in Sunday school than any other small group.

Chris R., a formerly unchurched 42-year-old man from Oklahoma, expressed the views of many whom we interviewed: "Look, I'm a new Christian. I've got so much to learn; What better place to learn and to fellowship with other Christians than a Sunday school class?"

Interestingly, we did notice a slight transition from the nomenclature "Sunday school." Almost 20 percent of the churches in our study called their Sunday morning small group "Bible study." This shift was made because of the churches' perception of how the name "Sunday school" is received. No formerly unchurched expressed concerns about the name.