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.
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