For years the debate over seeker sensitivity and seeker targeting created controversy in many churches and denominations. The formerly unchurched really did not care to enter the discussion. In fact, many of these new Christians thought that the conflict was much ado about nothing.

Janice T. is a relatively new Christian from New Mexico. She had never heard of the debate until after she became a Christian. She believes the issue is not one of seeker-sensitive or seeker-targeted services; she says it's one of common sense.

"I am new to the church, so I really don't know a whole lot of what's going on. I hear some of the church members fussing about this and that," Janice commented. "The more I hear, the more I'm convinced that churches need to practice common sense. I mean, it's common sense to have a decent and clean building. It's common sense to be friendly to visitors. It's common sense to help everybody understand the songs that are being sung. And it's common sense not to make visitors feel uncomfortable."

Indeed the comments that we heard from the formerly unchurched who had bad experiences at churches were typically related to common sense issues: clean carpets, good signage, adequate guest parking, excellent preschool and children's areas, friendly greeters, easy-to-follow music, decent landscaping, and successful executino of a lengthy list of other practical issues.

Responses to the Faith Stages Survey indicated very few unchurched people were turned off by churches because they found them irrelevant or boring.

Excerpted from Dr. Rainer's book, "The Unchurched Next Door," Zondervan, 2003.