Have We Reached Our Full Potential?

There is a fundamental question that every Christian should ask. “What does the Lord require of me?” As you are faithful to minister, this question will be answered in the hearts of those precious people that God has given you to lead in these days. Our message is simple. Just be who God made you to be. Do what God made you to do. See yourself as a God-called minister He wants to use to connect with people in your sphere of influence. See yourself as a witness for Christ by connecting with people, outside the church based on similar interests, and influencing them with your lifestyle and testimony. That’s it. That is what reaching your full potential all is about. That is how Connecting Points will change the culture of your church. When we change the pulpit into a place for equipping; when the people in the pews see themselves as the minister and not just the supporter of the ministry that is done from the pulpit; when we realize that the community is our congregation, and we begin to connect them to God and us; when we mobilize our people to evangelize our own culture in our own community; we can expect God to say, “Well done, you have done what you could.” This is when we can declare in our hearts, “We have reached our full potential for Christ.”

Balance is the Key

How do we find balance as we attempt to redefine evangelism? It is shown beautifully by Christ Himself in Acts Chapter Eight when He said, “You will be witnesses unto me, first in Jerusalem, then in Judea, and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the world.” Here, Christ shows the biblical balance between missions and evangelism. We must do both. But, our priority should always be on evangelism. Notice He said, “First in Jerusalem.” The term “first” denotes priority. It does not belittle the others. They are important too. It only prioritizes Jerusalem. We are responsible for reaching the whole world but not at the expense of neglecting our own community. When we get things in the right priority, it enhances the whole. Think about it. The more people we reach in our own community and add to the church, the more resources we have to reach other cultures for Christ.
On the other hand, if we, as leaders, allow our people to go through life doing outreaches and going on missions trips and thinking they are doing evangelism when all the while they are ignoring the people in their own culture and their own community, we have done them a great disservice. This is one of the main reasons why many churches in the United States are on the decline while the church overseas is growing.
On the mission field, great effort is put into presenting the Gospel in a way that is relevant and tailor-made for any given culture. We should embrace the same principle here at home. We are living in a day when “hard sell” evangelism seldom works. Business people understand what that means. Hard sell is when you say I have a product. If you want it, you must come to where I am on my terms, at a time convenient to me and you can have it. This is how most churches operate. We spend our time trying to figure out a way to get people into our church. We want to reach them in a way we feel comfortable with. We want to reach them on our terms and on our schedule. If you can come to our church at our predetermined times and find Christ the way we dictate then you have a chance. Everybody else is just hard out of luck.
How arrogant! No wonder people are suspicious. Connecting Points is designed to work more like what sales people would call a “soft sell” approach. We are saying to people in our community we will come to where you are and do it at a time convenient for you. We will not be dogmatic, intrusive or demanding. In other words, we will consider your feelings. What Connecting Points will do is bring true evangelism back to the local church by mobilizing people to reach their community. This is done primarily by connecting with people based on similar interests. This non- conventional approach is much softer and we feel much more effective today.

Redefining Evangelism

Evangelism! This is one of the most misunderstood terms in the church today. What is evangelism? There are many definitions that have been embraced by church leaders but what I want to focus on is what our people think when they think of evangelism. When the average church member thinks of evangelism, they think of reaching people in some other culture than the one they live in. The reason for this is, it is much easier to reach out to people we do not know. Most people think of evangelism as reaching out to the homeless downtown or the people groups in lands far away. This is fine if you live with the homeless or among the people in that foreign land. What about the people in your sphere of influence? This is a much more difficult proposition. There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is the fact that this type of evangelism comes home to where we live. We know them and they know us. There is a responsibility and accountability attached that we do not have to face at the homeless outreach or on the missions trip. Connecting Points is designed to redefine evangelism in the hearts of our people. Evangelism becomes connecting with people in our own culture and influencing them to Christ with our testimony and our lifestyle.

Culture Changers!

We used to see mobilization of people as recruiting more people to do something in the church. If we can get 50 people to attend prayer meeting and 25 to go on visitation, then we have mobilized the people. We must redefine mobilization as empowering people to see themselves as God’s ministers and making connections with the people in their community. Talk about reaching our full potential. Imagine several hundred ministers from your church taking ownership and responsibility of people all over your community. Imagine them working with the Holy Spirit to move people toward Christ by their testimony and lifestyle. Now that’s what I call mobilization! This new understanding of old concepts will change the culture of our church. After all, isn’t that what we are called to do? We are culture changers. This is what Christ did when He was on this earth. The culture of His day was primarily religious with the hierarchy and hypocrisy that so often accompanies it. Christ came and changed the culture to one of relationship and genuine reality. He faced much opposition but with the help of the Holy Spirit was able to accomplish what He came to do. He changed the culture. Through Connecting Points God is helping us change the culture around us by changing the culture of our churches. It cannot happen overnight. Connecting Points is a process, not a program. We don’t need another program. We need the process of the Holy Spirit to work His plan in us. Once the people in our church begin to make connections with people in the community, we can help them get connected to God and each other. We know this is happening when we see the pulpit becoming the equipping place, the pews becoming the ministers, and the community becoming our congregation. Connecting Points is designed to make this happen.

You are God's Minister

Jesus did not spend His time trying to get people into the temple; He went to where they were. In the church we spend most of our time and efforts developing ways to get people into our church. Connecting Points says it is our job to go to where they are at and make a connection with them there. This can only be done when we begin seeing ourselves as God’s minister. Most people have no problem understanding God placed the pastor in His church, but they have trouble seeing themselves in the same respect. Just like it is no accident the pastor is in the church he is in, it is no accident the people live where they live and work where they work. This is God’s doing. Why? He loves those people and He wants to make a connection with them. That is why He placed the Christian there. We must understand God has us there on purpose. We have been strategically planted there by the Lord. Most Christians think they live where they live because of a real estate agent. Wrong! Who is in charge of this thing, God or the real estate agent? The people in our lives are not just casual acquaintances. They are the object of our calling. In a very real sense they are our congregation. Once again, we have no trouble at all understanding the pastor has a congregation because we understand that he is God’s minister. Most believers never give any thought to the idea they may have a congregation of their own. Once we begin to see ourselves as God-called ministers, it only makes sense that we would have our own congregation. Who is our congregation? The people in our sphere of influence. The people at the job, in the neighborhood, even the un-churched in our family. If they are in our life, they are our congregation. Connecting Points mobilizes people to make connections with people in their sphere of influence based on similar interests.

Redefining the Pew

Apathy is the great destroyer of purpose in the church of Christ. Lethargic, powerless Christians in the pew have created stagnation in the body and rendered us impotent. I feel that the misunderstanding of the pew perpetrates this problem. Connecting Points beats the drum and sounds the alarm for all to hear. “If you are a born again Christian, you are a God-called, God-ordained minister. Not just the pastor and the worship leader. You! You are God’s minister, and He has a ministry for you that was pre-ordained before the foundations of the world.” I want to show the church member that he or she is part of God’s great plan to reach this world. My message to the person in the pew is: “God has a ministry for you and He made you to do that ministry. God built you in a way that will enable you to do effectively what He intended for you to do in your life, your ministry. The giftings and talents you have are on purpose. Can you see that? You are who you are so that you can do what God intends for you to do. God was intentional with you . . . your personality, your physical and mental capacity. All were planned by God to enable you to do the ministry He planned for you before you were born. I believe that even the things you like and dislike are on purpose. Why? God wants you to connect with people in your world.”
People in the pews are not just supporters of the ministry, they are the ministers. Can you see how this philosophy runs apathy out the door? Once people begin to project the expectations of productivity they previously had for the pastor upon themselves, sitting in the pew and doing nothing is no longer a viable option. They no longer see themselves as cheerleaders whose job it is to inspire and support the pastor as he does the ministry. They realize: I am the deal. I am God’s minister with a calling on my life that is no less important than that of the pastor. This is the message the church needs to hear. The people in the pews are the ministers of God.

Redefining the Pulpit

When the average Christian thinks of the pulpit they think about the place where ministry takes place. Ministry is something that happens on Sunday and is reserved primarily for those who hold credentials or maybe for those with a degree or two. A person can have ministry if they can preach or sing, play an instrument or in some other way exhibit talent in an ecclesiastical way, but what about everyone else? What about the people in the pews? Furthermore, what about the people outside the walls of the church?
The general misunderstanding is this: the pulpit is the place where ministry takes place. The people in the pew are the supporters of the ministry. The people out side the church are dirty rotten sinners that we are trying to get into the church so they can get into the pew and support the ministry that happens in the pulpit. I am not sure where this misunderstanding came from, but I suspect that it finds its genesis in organized religion. One thing is certain; it did not come from the scripture. The biblical model is altogether different. The pulpit is the equipping place. The pew represents the place where the ministry happens. The people in the pew are supposed to be Gods ministers. The community represents precious people that Christ loves and died for; they are actually our congregation.
The redefining of these terms must begin in the pulpit. Remember Paul’s words to the church at Ephesus: “And He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry…” (Eph. 4:11-12). Church leaders must realize that they are called to equip the ministers of God. We ordain the pastor, but really the pastor should be ordaining the people to be God’s ministers. Connecting Points moves the ministry outside the walls of the church. This is where real ministry happens. The pulpit is the equipping place.