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.

What Does God Require?

The purpose of Connecting Points is to empower people to develop a ministry by connecting with people, with similar interests, in their sphere of influence. This is accomplished by doing what they have a passion for and doing it for the Lord. Is that it? Is that all God requires? Why would God require something of people that He never equipped them to do? That is what religion does. God would never do that. Christ’s heart in this matter is revealed in Mark 14:1-9. When the woman anointed Christ at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, some were troubled. The perfume she poured over Jesus’ head was “very expensive”. They objected because of what seemed to them to be a waste. When Jesus heard their murmurings, He rebuked them and expressed His pleasure with what she had done by saying “Leave her alone … she has done what she could.”(Verse 6) What pleased God? She could not do everything, and there were some things that others could do that she could not. But what she could do, she did do. Think about this. God was pleased when she did what she had potential to do. She reached her potential and that was enough for God. It was true then, and it is true now. So relax! This is supposed to be a journey of joy. God will never require anything of you that He does not provide the means whereby it can be accomplished.

Reaching Our Full Potential

God made us with different levels of potential. This is made clear in Jesus’ story of the talents in Matthew Chapter 25. Here the Master, before going on His journey, left one with five talents, one with two talents and yet another with one. The first point is found in verse 15. He gave every man according to his “several ability” or, stated differently, according to his potential. God is the one who gives the potential and everyone has different levels. The second point is that God only requires productivity that is proportionate to the potential that He gives. The scripture declares “To whom much is given much will be required” (Luke 12:48). God did not require five from the one He gave two. The one who produced two received the same accolades as the one who produced five. It is clear that the man who was given one would have received the same if he had produced only one more. Why? They each have different levels of potential.
What does the Lord require of us? The answer is to reach our full potential by simply being what God made us to be and doing what God made us to do. Our potential is always changing. Notice the three men in Jesus’ parable. Focus on the fluctuation of their potential. The man with five worked to reach his full potential and developed another five. Now he has ten. The one with two earned two more. His potential is now at four. Their potential has grown because of their faithfulness. The man with five grew even further because the master gave him one more. What about the man with one? His potential decreased. The master took his talent and gave it to the faithful man that reached his full potential. Can you see the pattern?
The principle goes like this. If we are faithful to work hard and reach our full potential; our potential actually increases. If we just stand by and embrace status quo; we lose the potential we once had. Use it or lose it! You can see that the possibilities are endless. Imagine with me the man with five talents. He reaches his full potential and he now has eleven. What will happen if he now reaches his full potential with eleven? Now he has twenty four. He’s faithful with that…well, you do the math. The point is it really starts to get exciting when we reach our full potential.

What is God's Vision?

Most people look to the pastor for the vision of the church. We, too, feel that God will reveal the vision to the pastor and use him to lead the church in that vision, but we must be clear in one very important fact. It is the Lord’s vision. Please get that. It’s not the pastor’s vision. It’s God’s vision. When we speak of the vision of a church, we are not speaking of one man’s vision for a community. We are more interested in God’s vision for the community.
In most churches the Lord planted that church in that place for His purpose long before the current pastor ever arrived. In order to understand the vision we must come to grips with a very important question. Why? Why did God put this church in this place at this time? When a new pastor comes to a church the first question that is asked of him is “What is your vision for the church?” Most enterprising pastors have learned to keep a well-crafted vision in their suitcase should someone ever ask him about it. But how can a man who is new to that church and that community possibly know what God’s vision is for that church and community? When asked, most pastors pull out the mission of the church rather than the vision, with full confidence that no one will recognize the difference. The mission of the church was given by Christ to the church as a whole. It will be the guiding force for every vision, but it is not the vision.
The mission of the church is to “go then to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples” (Matt. 28:19). This is the same for all churches. The vision, on the other hand, will be different for every church and every community. No self-respecting pastor ever wants to be caught without a vision. This would be equivalent to being caught with your proverbial pants down. A better response when asked by the people from the church would be: “You have lived in this community and attended this church for years. What is your vision for the church?”
Actually the question should be asked collectively: “What is God’s vision for our church. The way you find this “right” vision is to look for the activity of God in that church and in that community. Once we find where God is showing up we can more clearly see what God’s vision for that church is.

Connecting Through Relationship

A few years ago we started noticing that people in the church were not connected to God, they were not connected to each other, and they certainly were not connected to the greater community for the sake of the Gospel. It was obvious to us from scripture that the desire of the Lord was for relationship, after all Jesus said the greatest commandment was to “love God and love your neighbor.” He had left us with the command to make disciples of all people. We were to make disciples in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, teaching them what He had taught. Certainly that meant discipling Christians and pre‑Christians. It meant connecting to Him and helping others to connect with Him so that we would understand His teachings concerning abundant life. We knew that Christ had connected with us where we were, so it seemed clear we should connect with others where they were.
Wow! What a thought! We should give both believers and Pre-Christians the same courtesy that the Lord gives us. He comes to us where we are and deals with us in our present state. Jesus did this for His disciples. He began discipling them before they became connected to God.
Maybe we should be talking to people with great resistance towards the Gospel about the things that interest them, and build relationships with them. Maybe the person who has just come to faith needs a relationship with us at least as much as he needs our Bible study. Is it possible that our co-worker needs our congeniality and compassion to make way for the Holy Spirit’s conviction?
We have closed our sermons for years asking people if they wanted a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Doesn’t that mean they need a personal relationship with us in order for that to be successful in the long term? We need to connect with others so we can connect them to God.

Are You Satisfied?

As we look at the word of God and church history, there seems to be a pattern. Men and women with great visions from God started with great dissatisfaction about what they were seeing that did not line up with God’s plan.
· Moses’ complaint was God’s people should not be enslaved, and God’s response was: “Let my people go.”
· Gideon’s complaint was God’s people should not live in oppression from their pagan neighbors, and God’s response was: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.”
· Elijah’s complaint was God’s people should not be serving other gods, and God’s response was Mount Carmel.
· Jesus’ complaint was that religion was dead; God gave Him the vision of abundant life for all who would come.
· Paul’s complaint was that God’s people were reverting to the ways of the flesh and the bondage that behavior brought on, and God gave him a vision of “who we are in Christ.”
It is told that Abraham Lincoln decided to run for president after viewing a disturbing scene. He was standing at the docks observing a ship pulling in to dock. After docking, African men, women and children were taken in shackles to an auction block and sold, often splitting up families three ways or more. Lincoln was so upset he clenched his fist causing his fingernails to cut into his hand and blood was literally dripping from his fist. His complaint turned into a vision that produced the Emancipation Proclamation.
Possibly the greatest complaint since Jesus was that of Martin Luther. Luther became so incensed by inequities that he observed in the church it drove him to study, which produced his Ninety-Five Theses and his assertion that “the just shall live by faith.”
That complaint didn’t just produce the Lutheran Church, but rather is the seed for Protestantism today. As we drive along the streets of our city we go past the fruit of Martin Luther’s dream in every neighborhood. The question is: what is your complaint and has it become your vision?

Connecting to the Community

Church growth experts tell us that in order to stay the same size every church must grow six to eight percent each year. This growth will just about cover the ones who leave by natural attrition. Some go to heaven. Some go to live with Aunt Josie. Some even have the audacity to get mad at the preacher and leave for another church in town. The very idea! You have to grow six to eight percent just to break even, and if you don’t, you decrease in number. The sad reality is that most churches in America are either stuck in status quo or are actually declining. With only a few wonderful exceptions even the churches that are growing are doing it through transfer growth. We fell into this trap for a season. Maybe if we can come up with a new angle or shine a little brighter than the church down the street we can get a few families. This causes problems of competition and territorialism among churches that hurt our reputations and hinder our efforts for the cause of Christ. Instead of seeking sheep from other pastures, we want to focus our attention on the power of connecting. We must get out there and connect with the community if we are going to do what our Lord commissioned us to do…”make them my disciples”.

"Been There, Done That, It Didn't Work"

A while back Randy and I were having lunch with a friend of ours. He is a seasoned pastor who has been in ministry for nearly fifty years. As we talked, he shared stories with us from His years of experience. Stories about the Sunday School revival, the Charismatic Movement, the Healing Movement, the Faith Movement-- he had been there to experience them all. His experiences watching the development of the church growth movement from his perspective were interesting. After he had shared for quite some time our friend announced to us, “I am going to write a book, and the title will be Been There, Done That, It Didn’t Work.” We said a collective and resounding Amen!”
As church leaders we are always listening for ideas, looking for tools, wanting to be sure that nothing happens to keep us from being in the know concerning trends in the life of the church. The problem is too often we only come away from those experiences with another chapter for our friends book, “Been there, done that, didn’t work-- or at least it didn’t last. If we are not careful, we will find ourselves with a fatalistic attitude towards much of what we see in ministry development. The concern is “this won’t last either.” We must be cautious against becoming a “negative” complainer about church life in general. The list becomes exhaustive:

* I am tired of the methodology of the month.
* I am tired of reading the statistics about transfer growth in the American church, and I am much wearier of experiencing it.
* I am tired religion.
* I am tired of territorialism in a church that is actually supposed to belong to Jesus.
* I am tired of an over emphasize on sensationalism.
* I am tired seeing pastors enslaved by church leaders who feel they must control the direction of the church based on their own personal whims, traditions and legalistic points of view.
* I am tired of seeing the church react to every little blip in culture instead of taking the lead to offer culture the claims of the Gospel.
* I am tired of meeting people in the community that have come to the conclusion that the church is an outdated relic because their perception of the church is that it is irrelevant.

These are problems in the church that are all too real for those of us who face them every day. Are they problems? Yes, but not “the” problem. The problem is that people are not connected to God or each other. Connecting Points comes from a sincere love for our people and a deep rooted desire to be more productive in reaching our community. At the center of every visionary leader and at the center of his vision is a deep dissatisfaction with the status quo. If you look at the men and women who have changed history there was anger with the way things were and an unwillingness to leave it that way anymore. May God help us to do the hard work necessary in building an atmosphere where people can get connected!

So ... What's the Problem?

This is the last Sunday that Josh and Crystal will attend your church. Next Sunday they will continue their search for a church home and they don’t even know why. But we do. It’s not the church. This is a wonderful church. They love the preaching. The music is right up their ally. It’s not the people. The greeters were friendly and gracious. The ushers were kind and helpful. So why is this Josh and Crystal’s last Sunday at your church? It’s not the worship service. The experience was delightful, and they really felt the presence of the Lord. So what’s up? Why are we losing another couple before we get a chance to know them? The problem is they never got connected. A crowd of people can be a lonely place when you are the new face in the crowd. Put yourself in their shoes. People are talking and laughing, but not you. How can you enter in when you have nothing to talk and laugh about? We know what you are thinking, if my people would just be friendlier. That’s not the problem. People are people. They are not machines that can be programmed to do our bidding. They are just like Josh and Crystal. In order to be a part of any group of people there must be a point of connection, where they feel like they are a part of what’s going on and not just a lonely unconnected face in a large group of connected people. So what is the answer? How can we make sure that Josh and Crystal don’t join the long line of people to love our church yet leave because they don’t feel a part of it? We believe the answer is Connecting Points.

The Premise of Discipleship

The premise of Connecting Points is that there can be no discipleship without relationship. Connecting people with God and each other has to do with relationship. Quality of life both here on earth and in eternity is dependent upon the relationships we develop. True discipleship is the work of God in a person’s life that takes place both before and after regeneration. Christ used His relationships to disciple those He called to follow Him. He kept them near and got involved in their lives. We can be taught, encouraged, exhorted, even rebuked form a distance. Real discipleship, on the other hand, can only take place if we take the time to get connected to and develop a relationship with people. True discipleship can only come through relationship.

The Standard of Christ

Jesus prioritized connecting by commissioning all believers to go out and make disciples of all people everywhere. This cannot be done without connecting. Connecting helps us to understand and comprehend the true essence of ministry. There is no higher goal than that of obtaining the standard of Christ Himself. When asked which is the greatest commandment Christ answered with the standard of God. That standard is to love God and to love people. Connecting Points is designed to connect people with God and with each other. It is by this means that we will begin to see people experience the two great purposes of God. These two purposes are communion and community. We were made for God (communion) and for each other (community). As we help people find their purpose singularly, we will see our church find its purpose collectively.

Spirit Productivity

Productivity is where the rubber meets the road. This is the intended destination of every church leader. We want to bloom where we are planted. This is our time. We only have a small window of opportunity, and it is incumbent upon us to produce. Imagine with us all God’s people seeing themselves as God-ordained ministers with a clear understanding that God has called and gifted them to reach the people in their sphere of influence. Imagine each one of them equipped to have their own ministry that is built around their own interests and giftings. This is what Connecting Points is designed to do. What would it look like if each one was being what God made them to be and doing what God intended for them to do when He made them. In the economy of God, no real productivity can take place outside of the realm of God’s Spirit. When we look back on times when we have tried to do the work of God by our power or by our might, we see clearly that we labor in vain unless the Lord builds the house. It must come from and through the Spirit of the Lord!

Building a Connecting Atmosphere

One day I was having lunch with a friend of mine who had recently retired as pastor of a very successful church. When the new pastor came, there were some who had trouble adjusting and changed churches. Actually, there was a great exodus that took place. We ran into a family who had recently left the church and as we were talking to them, my friend asked them where they were attending church. Now understand that this family was third generation in this church. My friend was shocked to hear that they had joined a church of a completely different denomination that did not embrace the same traditional beliefs. When we asked why, their answer was enlightening. They said, “Well, we joined over there because the Bensons and the Wilcox’s are going there”. Wow! Talk about the power of connecting. Here was a family that prioritized their connections over their basic foundational beliefs. This opened our eyes to the importance of feeling connected to the average person. This marked the beginning of Connecting Points. We realized that if we were going to start keeping some of these folks who were visiting our church, we must begin to build an atmosphere in which people can get connected to God and each other. God help us build an atmosphere where people can get connected!

Are We Connecting to the Community?

Church growth experts tell us that in order to stay the same size every church must grow six to eight percent each year. This growth will just about cover the ones who leave by natural attrition. Some go to heaven. Some go to live with Aunt Josie. Some even have the audacity to get mad at the preacher and leave for another church in town. The very idea! You have to grow six to eight percent just to break even, and if you don’t you decrease in number. The sad reality is that many churches in America are either stuck in status quo or are actually declining. With only a few wonderful exceptions even the churches that are growing are doing it through transfer growth. We fell into this trap for a season. Maybe if we can come up with a new angle or shine a little brighter than the church down the street we can get a few families. This causes problems of competition and territorialism among churches that hurt our reputations and hinder our efforts for the cause of Christ. The answer is found in the principles of relational ministry which will cause us to begin connecting with people in our community. Once we do this, we can become an influence in their lives that will draw them to Christ. We must become connectors.

Disconnected Society

Can you name your neighbors? You probably cannot. We are living in a day when people are not as connected as in days past. Most adults, over the age of forty, remember a more innocent time. As a child, they could name every neighbor on their street. This is not true any more. Society has changed. People are more cynical and suspicious today and it is for good reason. Twenty-five years ago parents allowed their children to roam the neighborhood without fear. Only a fool would do that today. The deeper society plummets down this dark hole of innocence lost, the more disconnected we become. This is a problem. God created us to have relationship with Him and with each other. We, as believers, have a more involved problem. We are commissioned to connect to the greater community for the cause of Christ. This becomes more difficult, as society becomes more disconnected. The problem is that people are not connected to God, each other, or the greater community at large. May God help us to get back to the basics of relational ministry so that we can do what He wants us to do: Get Connected!

Let's Get Connected

Let’s be honest. We did not invent connecting. This is something that the Holy Spirit is speaking to people all over the country. We believe that this is what God is doing in the church in these days. If we are going to reach people in this day in which we live, it will not be through tired, old methods that were effective in days gone by. We do not labor in the same vineyard that our forefathers tended. The world has changed, and society is changing constantly. If we are going to reach our culture we must have God’s current methods that are both time and place specific. We believe that God has a new plan for a new day. We believe that this plan is revealed to leaders who embrace the principles of relational ministry. If we are going to make disciples, we must get connected!

What is Your Vision?

In most churches the Lord planted that church in that place for His purpose long before the current pastor ever arrived. In order to understand the vision we must come to grips with a very important question. Why? Why did God put this church in this place at this time? When a new pastor comes to a church the first question that is asked of him is “What is your vision for the church?” Most enterprising pastors have learned to keep a well-crafted vision in their suitcase should someone ever ask him about it. When asked, most pastors pull out the mission of the church rather than the vision, with full confidence that no one will recognize the difference. The mission of the church was given by Christ to the church as a whole. It will be the guiding force for every vision, but it is not the vision.
The mission of the church is to “go then to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples” (Matt. 28:19). This is the same for all churches. The vision, on the other hand, will be different for every church and every community. The question should be asked collectively: “What is God’s vision for our church?” By this means, the vision comes from the grassroots up as opposed to from the top down. As we redefine vision, we must realize the vision must come from the Lord by the Spirit through the grassroots—the people, God’s people. The way you find this “right” vision is to look for the activity of God in that church and in that community. Once we find where God is showing up we can more clearly see what God’s vision for that church is.

Let's Reach Out!

We live in a sea of people who do not yet know Christ. There are enough people in your community to fill up every church in your town fifty times. This is one reason that we find transfer church growth so distasteful. God gave us Connecting Points when we began to hunger to reach the lost and not just to grow our church. It is critical that we are more interested in reaching the lost than growing our church. We are not sure how interested God is in growing our church; but He has proven how He feels about reaching the lost. He proved His heart at Calvary. It is a matter of priorities. Let’s face it, if we reach the lost we will not be able to stop our church from growing. If on the other hand we strive just to grow our church we may find ourselves wandering lost in the forest of other peoples’ methodologies and miss altogether God’s plan for reaching the lost in our own culture and more specifically in our own community. When we speak of community we are not just speaking of people who live near your church. In today’s society, community has more to do with culture and less to do with geographic proximity. We believe God wants to reach the lost in your community more than you do. If this is true then it stands to reason that He has a plan to reach them. We believe that the principles of Connecting Points will lead you to that specific plan. God help us to Reach Out!

Our Purpose

Purpose has become quite vogue in the church of the twenty-first century. This is a good thing. Rick Warren from the great Saddleback Church in southern California has impacted the body of Christ in a powerful way with his book The Purpose Driven Life. I truly believe that this book is a word from the Lord for the church of Christ in these days. This book did for the people in the church what his previous book (The Purpose Driven Church) did for the church as a whole. For too long too many wandered aimlessly through life with no real sense of purpose. This “purpose driven” emphasis has greatly energized those who have embraced it. Steve and I can say of a certainty it did our churches. We worked together to do “Forty Days of Purpose” in our churches and it was a great success in almost every respect. It was during this time that we were first dealing with the principles of Connecting Points. The purpose of Connecting Points can be summed up in two words. Those words are communion and community. This is God’s purpose for the church. Communion has to do with connecting with God and community is connecting with each other. This principle was illustrated beautifully by Christ in Luke 10:27. When asked about the most important commandment, Jesus responded with a two-fold answer. Love the Lord with all that is within you and love your neighbor as yourself. In many respects all the law is summed up in these two expectations. Life is certainly more complex than just this one concept, but when it comes to the church we can focus on these words of Christ as our purpose. What are we to be doing? We are connecting people with God and with each other. The work of the church is connecting, connecting with God (communion) and connecting with each other (community).

Defining Leadership the Hard Way

Recently I started my Doctoral program at Regent University in Virginia. We were required to do a two week residency to start things off. There were over 100 Doctoral students there studying leadership. All of them are leaders in their respective fields. When I saw the instructions for our first assignment at residency, I thought to myself, “This will be trouble”. Casting eight or nine doctoral leadership students who have never met into the crucible of expected productivity is a recipe for chaos…and chaos we had. Personalities clashed as these leaders rattled around the project. The real issue: who would lead and who would follow. As time moved on, we became a productive team and achieved our goals with excellence. I see this as a portrait that can help us define what characterizes both a follower and a leader. One component is key to success in both the leader and the follower. It is servant hood. Calvin Miller in his book “The Empowered Leader” pointed out the value of servant hood by pointing to the teaching of Christ in Matt. 20:27. Here Jesus inserts servant hood as a prerequisite to leadership. There was conflict yet we became productive as a group as each one began to serve others in order to achieve our goal. By the tenth day, the conflict had evolved into laughter and friendship. Bruce Winston, in his book” Be a Leader for God’s Sake”, points out that “peace is not the absence of conflict but it is the manner in which conflict is addressed”.