When surveyed, the unchurched said they wanted a preacher who is down-to-earth and friendly, but not lacking in conviction when it comes to biblical preaching that applies to real life. The unchurched frequently mentioned eight different characteristics of pastors that drew them in, and today we will discuss the fifth and sixth issues: contact and communication.

Issue #5: Personal contact by the pastor

Sue S. lived the first 24 years of her life knowing that something was missing. Although she attended different churches from time to time, Sue never made a habit of going to church. Sue was a second-generation unchurched person. Her parents, older members of the baby boomer generation, still have no formal ties to a church.

An Assembly of God church in New Mexico provided a good experience for Sue. She called it "her quarterly church cleansing." Although she was an unchurched person all of her life, she confessed that she had occasional guilt pangs about not being in church. By Sue's estimate, she had probably attended nearly 30 different churches in her adolescence and young adulthood. Some were good experiences; some were not. First Assembly was definitely one of the good experiences. But then again no church had been such an outstanding experience that Sue felt compelled to return. Such was the case with First Assembly until Travis called.

"I was floored that the pastor would call me," Sue said. Travis is the pastor of First Assembly, a position he has held since 1993. She was even more surprised when Travis invited her to lunch with him and his wife.

The happy ending to this story is Sue's acceptance of Christ. She had been a new Christian for seven months when we interviewed her. The radiance and joy in her voice was obvious. "My only regret is that I didn't make the decision earlier. But, you know, Travis was the first person to tell me about Christ, even though I visited about 30 churches in the past. I was really impressed that the pastor himself would call on me."

Almost one-third of the respondents indicated that a personal contact from the pastor was instrumental in their acceptance of Christ and in choosing a church. Again, a one-third response is high for an open-ended question that has no multiple choice or yes/no options for answers.

Of the 105 respondents indicating that a personal contact from the pastor was important in their choosing a church, all of them said the type of contact was either a personal visit or a telephone call. No one mentioned a letter or e-mail. Obviously, the live voice or presence meant a lot to the formerly unchurched.

Issue #6: The pastor is a good communicator

Closely related to the various preaching issues is the importance of the pastor being a good communicator. We categorized it as a separate issue, since many of the respondents were not speaking specifically about preaching. Some of the formerly unchurched, however, were referring to preaching, but their idea of a good communicator was more than a teaching or life-application preacher.

Margaret D. of Little Rock, Ark., for example, spoke of her Baptist pastor as "a preacher who can be understood by adults and children alike." She told us that she "learns a lot from his preaching, but my 11-year-old daughter understands him too."

Eighty-nine of the formerly unchurched told us in some fashion how their pastors communicated well in the pulpit and in other contexts. Anecdotally, I cannot recall a church with significant growth where the pastor is not an articulate communicator. In our pursuit of the latest church-growth fad or desire to emulate other churches, perhaps we overlook the importance of communication skills in the pulpit and in interpersonal contexts.

A number of the formerly unchurched also told us that their pastors were able to relate well to different generations. The ability to communicate across generations is a key component of successful vision casting.