Responding to Critiques of Attractional Churches

Let’s start with a confession.

I’ve misdiagnosed “dead” more times than I care to admit…more than a coroner in a zombie movie marathon.

I have this bad habit of declaring the demise of trends that are, in fact, quietly entering their prime. I thought podcasts were “saturated” back in 2013 when I started the unSeminary podcast. Everyone and their cousin had one, and I thought I was arriving at the party too late. Yet, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Podcasting didn’t plateau… it exploded. It became mainstream. The biggest names in media…people who swore audio was finished…now build entire empires around long-form podcast conversations. Joe Rogan, The Daily, SmartLess…they didn’t just succeed; they defined a new era of attention. What I thought was a crowded space was actually an emerging medium.

Then, there were QR codes. I mocked those little pixel boxes like a pro. I remember my friend Kenny using them years ago, and I laughed out loud. “No one’s going to pull out their phone to scan that,” I told him, dripping with confidence. Fast-forward to 2020, when every restaurant menu, conference check-in, and even church connect card required a QR code. They went from “gimmick” to “infrastructure” overnight. What I once dismissed as clunky, and dead became the universal bridge between the physical and digital worlds.

And YouTube…don’t get me started. I was doing video podcasts and then 8 years ago I stopped because…I thought it was dead. I used to think YouTube was for cat videos and makeup tutorials, not serious long-form content. I said, “No one wants to watch a 30-minute video conversation on YouTube.” Yes,I said that. Out loud. Turns out, millions of people do. YouTube has become the world’s most dominant podcast player and arguably the most powerful storytelling platform of our time. The lines between podcast, video, and TV are gone. YouTube isn’t a side project anymore…it’s the main stage.

Even books fooled me. I was convinced the Kindle was going to kill print. I believed we would all be reading on glass screens by now, that bookstores would become nostalgic museum pieces. Yet, print continues to outsell e-books. Year after year. There’s something about paper, the texture, the smell, the way you can hand a book to someone, that we’re just not ready to give up. The “dead” medium has more life than ever.

And that’s why I roll my eyes when someone confidently declares that the “attractional church” is dead.

I’ve heard it at conferences, read it in think pieces, seen it in hot-take clickbait reels: “People don’t want polished anymore.” “The attractional model doesn’t work.” “We’ve moved beyond that.”

No, we haven’t.

Attractional church isn’t dead; it was absorbed into “normal church” …and the churches that win in 2025 are the ones that treat invitation as culture, not campaign, and pair it with clear next steps into community and discipleship.

Things don’t die; they normalize. They get woven into the fabric. So it is with the attractional church.

What used to be “attractional” is now baseline

Once upon a time, these were edgy moves. Now they’re table stakes:

• Music people actually love. Not as a stunt, but as contextualized worship that lowers barriers for guests.
• Teaching that connects to everyday life. Felt-need series, biblical clarity, concrete application, this is just effective preaching.
• Buildings (and lobbies) designed with outsiders in mind. Wayfinding, hospitality, kids’ environments that kids beg to come back to.

The point isn’t flash, it’s hospitality. You don’t get extra credit for clean bathrooms, clear signage, and songs that don’t sound like 1998. That’s the bar, taken seriously by newcomers.

Call it attractive if you like; I call it normal.

Follow the data, not the hot takes

• Big days still work. Easter and Christmas remain the largest attendance days in most churches. Many are doubling down on specific “Invite a Friend” Sundays, now embraced by roughly one in five churches…up from a decade ago. Crowds gather when we give them a clear reason and an easy on-ramp. [ref]
• Invitation remains the #1 front door. Most churchgoers are inviting friends. In recent surveys, three in five Protestants had invited someone in the last six months, and among the unchurched, a friend’s invite remains the most compelling catalyst to attend. The channel is person-to-person. Always has been. [ref]
• Growing churches train, equip & motivate their people to invite friends. Research on large, fast-growing congregations shows a straight-line relationship: the faster the growth, the more their people invite…and the stronger their pathways for incorporation (groups, serving, classes). Attractional momentum plus discipleship scaffolding. [ref]
• Multiplication correlates with evangelism. Multisite and church-planting churches report higher conversion rates than peer churches. New campuses = new “front doors” + fresh invite energy. [ref]

It’s not just attractional, it’s transformational.

It’s attractional plus biblical literacy that roots people in the truth of Jesus and his teaching.

It’s attractional plus gospel-centered teaching that changes hearts and launches new lives.

It’s attractional plus the active work of the Holy Spirit providing an accessible encounter with God.

Together, that’s what makes the prevailing churches magnetic and mature.

Church’s Leading the “New Attractional” Movement

• Church of the Highlands (AL): “At the Movies” remains a massive newcomer on-ramp, and they report thousands of decisions for Christ tied to that series—because the creativity is welded to clear gospel invitations and next steps.
• Journey Church (FL): Practical, invite-worthy series + multiple services aimed at families = sustained growth; it’s invitation culture in action.
• City Church (IN): Arena Easters, historic-theatre Christmases, neighborhood ministry = attractional and local, leading to conversions and baptisms.
• Embrace (SD), Union (MD), Crosspoint City (GA), First Orlando (FL): VIP guest processes, youth-led momentum, “Harvest Sunday,” language-specific services—different riffs on the same melody: make it easy to invite, then move guests swiftly into groups and serving.

None of these churches are “all show.” They are disciplined about next steps. That’s the quiet variable the think-pieces miss.

What actually died?

What died is the idea that you can run a slick weekend and call it discipleship. The vibe-only era is over. That’s good news.

In 2007, Willow Creek (is it safe to mention them?) dropped a bombshell study called Reveal: Where Are You? … a data-driven autopsy of its own ministry model. The results? Attendance and program engagement weren’t producing mature disciples. Cue the headlines: “The Seeker Church Repents.” The hot-take crowd declared the attractional model dead.

But that’s not what happened. Reveal wasn’t a eulogy…it was an evolution. Willow realized crowds aren’t the same as change. They didn’t scrap weekend experiences; they added spiritual coaching, personal disciplines, and next-step systems. In other words, they didn’t kill the attractional church, they deepened it.

Nearly two decades after that study, the lesson stands: the problem wasn’t being attractional; it was being only attractional. The weekend is still the front door, but now the smartest churches obsess equally over what happens next. The critique that was supposed to bury the model ended up refining it.

Like most “deaths” we announce in the church world, this one was just a metamorphosis.

Attractional didn’t die…it grew up.

The enduring pattern with prevailing churches today looks like this:

1) Warm invite → 2) Excellent weekend (clear gospel, real people, real stories) → 3) Fast follow-up (text within hours, personal touch within days) → 4) Concrete next steps (groups, serve, classes) → 5) Multiplication (invite others, launch campuses, tell the story).

When leaders say, “attractional is dead,” what they’re often reacting to is an empty, 2006 playbook…production without a pathway. That model is dead. Good riddance. But attractional as hospitality? As to lower friction for outsiders? As architecting moments that catalyze invitation? These are not dead; they’re disciple-making foundations.

The Playbook: Normalize invitation, then engineer integration

1) Make invitation a year-round sport.

• Cadence: Anchor the year with a few clear invite moments (Easter, Fall launch, Christmas), but create smaller, monthly on-ramps (kickoff Sundays, “You Asked for It,” testimony weekends).
• Training: Give a 3-minute “how to invite” moment quarterly. Provide scripts and shareable digital invites. Celebrate stories, weekly. Assume people want to invite; remove the social friction.

2) Design for first-timers without dumbing down.

• Wayfinding & welcome: Parking → doors → kids check-in → seating. Test it with a mystery guest every quarter.
• Message design: Preach the text; show the bridge. Put handles on doctrine—what it changes on Monday.
• Music & moments: Choose songs that the room can sing. Test keys and tempos with real people, not just your band.

3) Build a two-week guest journey (from start to joining a small group).

• Day 0 (Sunday PM): Text: “Thanks for coming, here’s one helpful next step.”
• Day 2: Personal email/video from a real person (not a do-not-reply).
• Day 5: Invite to a 20-minute “New Here Meetup” after any service…low-stakes face time.
• Day 12: Direct ask: “Join a group” or “Jump on a serve team this weekend.” Churches that win speed up time-to-relationship. Clock it. Improve it. Repeat.

4) Tie big weekends to tangible next steps.

• Baptisms scheduled within two weeks.
• Alpha/start-here course every month; never more than two weeks away.
• Group launches immediately after an invite series…sign-up on the spot. This is where “attractional” becomes “discipleship.”

5) Multiply front doors.

• Services: Adjust times to match life patterns.
• Venues: Add a smaller room vibe or a language-specific service.
• Campuses: When you’re healthy, multiply. It raises your invitation ceiling and your conversion rate, not just your attendance.

Objections, answered

“Young people don’t want this.”
They do…if it’s welcoming, authentic, and purposeful. Gen Z and Millennials are showing up more frequently than older generations in recent data. The more we give them real responsibility (serve, lead, create), the more they stick around. [ref]

“Attractional churches are shallow.”
Only if you stop at the lobby. The fastest-growing churches are more…not less…obsessive about small groups and integration. The crowd isn’t the end; it’s the on-ramp. [ref]

“This is just entertainment.”
Creativity is hospitality. It lowers defenses, opens ears, and earns you a hearing for the gospel. The message doesn’t change; the method contextualizes. And the fruit…decisions, baptisms, transformed lives…keeps showing up where invitation and follow-up are tightly coupled. [ref]

Don’t confuse needed reforms with funerals.

I’ve been wrong before about what’s “over.” I said podcasts were saturated—now they’re a primary channel with staggering reach and spend. I said QR codes were a gimmick…now they’re woven into daily behavior. I said YouTube wasn’t for long-form … now it is the stage. I said print was toast … yet it remains king. My point isn’t to relitigate old takes; it’s to warn us against throwing out working channels because we’re bored, bruised, or reacting to excesses.

Paul’s counsel to a young, outnumbered movement in a pluralistic world is still the brief: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.” (Colossians 4:5 ESV). Wisdom toward outsiders looks like lowering barriers, speaking plainly, and making the way back to God visible and viable. That’s not a fad. That’s faithfulness.

So, stop saying attractional church is dead. What’s dead is laziness, gimmicks, and vibe-with-no-pathway.

What’s alive…and working…is a church that gathers and scatters, which invites and disciples, that engineers moments people can actually bring friends to…and then walks with them toward Jesus. That’s not the old playbook. That’s the only playbook.