Isn’t that exactly what Jesus did with his parables? He wasn’t trying to lay it all out so that everyone could understand no matter what. I think in churches we need to be aware of the onramps and have them, but I would share Andy’s concern that if that’s all we focus on, we will have a great lack of depth.

Also, I see a lot of focus on corporate worship as the primary onramp, and I (even as a full-time Minister of Worship) would not be too quick to say that. I’d argue that a (if not the) primary onramp should be church member’s relationships with those in their lives. Worship can be a partial one, but I don’t think worship should always be the first focus in churches trying to reach lost people. (I know that’s far from the dominant view, but I think it’s food for thought…)

It’s a great concept…IF you can make that first pitch stick. It’s definitely not a concept churches who have a desire to grow in influence would want to adopt.

My question is, is it possible to have too many onramps in your church…to the point where people who call your church home feel a lack of depth?

So put those comments into a church perspective. Do we make visitors feel like there is an inside story that we all know and they don’t? Not too many people bother to try to crack that code.And when they do show up on our island, so we look at them like “the others?”

It’s easy to stop watching Lost. I did it in the huge break of season 3. And once you get off the island, it seems like too much work to get back on. Hmmm.

I love the illustration of building multiple onramps to gain access. That’s why churches need to continue to branch out into social networking, not trying to manage/control the incoming doorway (traditionally, “come to church and you’ll be hooked . . . but you gotta come first.”) Let the people witness among their Facebook friends, encourage them to interact in a forum where churches and (gasp!) the minister/pastoral staff actually engage in the dialog with (double gasp!!) AUTHENTICITY. Let non-members take a look, kick the tires, and make some decisions of trust even before stepping foot in the sanctuary.

The church can also create multiple web sites to reach a variety of people. Don’t just think of “www.ourchurch.com” – websites like that are traditionally geared toward members (event, calendars, news)….but host a forum on another site that is non-churchy and just dialog. Of course, offer a doorway to the church’s site, but the worst thing is to get onto one site (like an entry way) and be super impressed by the transparency and graceful attitude – only to get into the rest of the house and find it on the site all the reasons why they don’t go to church in the first place. Churches should more and more make private alot of their membership stuff and make their sites more seeker-friendly. Not sure a first-time-thinker-about-Christ needs to land on the website to see the pastor’s new sermon series on “Dying On the Way to Heaven” or “Why Women Should Serve in the Nursery Only.” Not that we want to water anything down or even present false messages, but the onramps need to be exciting and consistent with the lure of Christ. We tend to clutter the clear path with all our billboards of junk.

The greatest strength of Lost is one magnificent, overarching narrative governing the lives of everyone in the Lost universe. Unfortunately, that grand narrative is also Lost’s greatest weakness….

And I think that really opens a can of worms when related to the church. I guess these on ramps could be a lot of things, but to me an on-ramp is that relatable, simple message of the gospel (or something along those line). But if you go to a church that tends to preach simplified messages (aka, a seeker church or whatever you want to call it), you’ll always get those people who are hungry and thirsting for a meatier message (apologetics, hermeneutics, etc)…and so it goes. But if a visitor comes to a church that is in the middle of a series on hardcore apologetics, they’ll be lost…they’ll have no point of reference in the sermon. Its a crazy balance…