I recently wrote about an article by the Rev David Burke that appeared on the Presbyterian Church of Australia website. That article may be read here: 

"Come and See" how the Presbyterian Church of Australia may be casting off its particularisms.

The ,original article by Rev David Burke, titled “Come and See”, which has so far had three different images accompanying it, actually follows a very recognizable three-stage communication structure used in modern church marketing and “seeker-sensitive” outreach writing. Seeing that structure helps explain why the piece feels smooth, welcoming, and frictionless. It is not accidental. The progression is deliberate.

Here is the structure.

1. Stage One: Disarm the Reader (Remove Barriers)

The first paragraphs are designed to lower psychological resistance.

“Maybe you’ve stumbled across this page…”
“Or maybe you have a colleague or neighbour who goes to church…”

This opening assumes the reader may feel uncertain or cautious about church, so the author immediately reassures them. Nothing doctrinal appears here. Instead, the tone is conversational and non-threatening.

The goal is simple: make the reader feel safe before introducing religion.

Notice what is absent:

• no mention of sin
• no mention of judgment
• no mention of repentance
• no mention of the authority of God

The reader is treated primarily as a curious observer, not as a sinner in need of reconciliation with God.

2. Stage Two: Normalise the Experience (Humanise the Church)

The middle of the article focuses almost entirely on human atmosphere.

“Young parents juggling toddlers.”
“Older people marked by life’s joys and sorrows.”
“People from different cultures and backgrounds.”

This section functions rhetorically to remove the sense that church is strange or sacred. The message is that church is simply a gathering of ordinary people navigating life together.

Even the description of worship reinforces this tone:

“We want to give him (him in this article is God our maker!) a big shout out…”

The language is deliberately casual and familiar. Worship is framed not as reverent service before a holy God, but as the natural expression of a friendly community.

In this stage the reader is meant to think:

“This feels normal. These people are just like me.”

3. Stage Three: Extend the Invitation (Relational Evangelism)

Only at the end does the article move toward an explicitly religious conclusion.

“So come and see.”

But even here the invitation is framed socially:

“Meet some ordinary people.”

The reader is not urged to repent, believe, or turn to Christ. Instead, the invitation is to experience the community first.

The underlying strategy assumes that faith develops gradually through exposure to Christian culture, rather than through direct confrontation with the Gospel message.

The overall flow looks like this:

1. Disarm suspicion
2. Normalise the church
3. Invite relational participation

This approach is common in contemporary outreach because it seeks to remove anything that might feel confronting or unfamiliar for the seeker. The seeker is placed first.

However, the pattern differs significantly from the way evangelism normally appears in Scripture.

In the New Testament, although there is no formula given, a general pattern is far more direct:

1. Evangelism begins with God.
2. Human sin is exposed.
3. Christ’s saving work is proclaimed.
4. The hearer is called to repentance and faith.

The apostles did not first make Christianity appear ordinary. They proclaimed a message that confronted and transformed the hearer.