More than 95 percent of the 353 formerly unchurched we interviewed cited the pastor as an important factor in their decision to join a church. Our interviews with them revealed several issues that related to "how" the pastors made such an impact. Last week we saw that "preaching that teaches" and "preaching that applies to my life" were the two most frequent responses to our question. This week we look at two more important issues that affected the unchurched.

Issue #3: The pastor is a real person

The formerly unchurched spoke forcefully and clearly about one of the primary characteristics they desire in a pastor: authenticity. Many of these new Christians shared with us that inauthentic pastors were among the stumbling blocks that kept them away from the church.

Boston resident Larry M. said without hesitation, "I really thought most pastors were two-faced hypocrites with a holier-than-thou attitude." But Larry's opinion has changed dramatically; he now speaks of his pastor in a nondenominational church near Boston with warmth and admiration. "Pat is just a real guy," Larry notes. "He doesn't try to pretend to be somebody he's not."

Larry "discovered" Pat when he was best man at a wedding officiated by Pat. "I was really surprised to find this preacher kidding around with us and acting like a normal person," Larry said.

Indeed, humor was an often-mentioned characteristic of pastors whose churches reach the unchurched. The formerly unchurched are careful to note, however, that humor evident in these pastors is not a lightheartedness that fails to have reverence for God or take his church seriously. The 121 respondents who made some comment about pastors' authenticity often used the following words or phrases to describe pastors:

• down-to-earth friendly
• humorous
• willing to admit mistakes
• not holier-than-thou (described 12 times)
• real
• enthusiastic
• walked the talk
• relates well
• regular guy

The authenticity of the pastor was mentioned as the most positive character trait noticed by the formerly unchurched. And this characteristic was deemed third in importance overall, right after preaching the Bible and applying Scripture to life.

Issue #4: A person of conviction

Frank and Shannon T. moved from upstate New York to southern Georgia. The Georgia town was about the same size as their former New York home, about 10,000 residents.

"We felt like we would experience some culture shock," Shannon told us, "but we thought that since we were moving from a small town to a small town that the adjustment wouldn't be too bad. Boy was I wrong!"

Frank quickly jumped in: "It wasn't that the people of South Georgia were unfriendly. To the contrary, they were very friendly. It's just that it seemed like everybody already had their friends, and we 'Yankees' couldn't fit in."

The loneliness that Frank and Shannon experienced drove them to look for new relationships. They decided to visit a Southern Baptist church. "We were really desperate!" Shannon exclaimed.

"For us to visit any church, much less a Southern Baptist church, showed that we would try anything to make friends," Frank added with a knowing grin.

The excursion to a church in search of friends took an unexpected turn. "When John [the pastor] started preaching, we were mesmerized," said Shannon. "Frank and 1 didn't ever talk about seeking God; we were just seeking friends. But we never heard someone speak with such conviction."

The young couple did not realize how desirous they were for truth. "I guess we just expected relativity as the norm," Shannon said. "Our lack of religious upbringing meant that we didn't even know that anyone could know anything with certainty."

For many years the pundits of conventional wisdom told us that strong doctrinal preaching and teaching was a total turnoff to the unchurched. Not so, say the formerly unchurched. To the contrary, they are drawn to certitude and conviction.

Likewise, the formerly unchurched told us that preachers who taught and preached with conviction were a major factor in their coming into the ranks of the churched. Frank said cogently, "It's amazing that we found Christ by what we then called 'the confidence of the preacher.' Now we know that a better description would be 'the conviction of the preacher.'"

Shannon quickly added her insights: "We attended a lot of different churches for different reasons before we became Christians. I tell you, so many of the preachers spoke with little authority; they hardly ever dealt with tough issues of Scripture, and they soft-sold the other issues. Frank and I know now that we were hungry for the truth. Why can't preachers learn that shallow and superficial preaching doesn't help anybody, including people like us who weren't Christians?"

Our studies showed that a major attraction of the unchurched to preachers, and thus to the church, is preaching with certitude. By certitude we mean that the preacher really believes the truth of the messages and communicates that truth with clarity and obvious conviction.

Of the 353 respondents, 120 indicated that the pastor's conviction in preaching was a major factor in their coming to a particular church. Remember, these responses came from an open-ended question that asked the formerly unchurched to articulate the most influential factors in their choosing a church. Over one-third responded that conviction in the pastor's preaching was a major issue, an amazingly high response since we did not prompt or lead with an answer.