A post from my Monday morning column at Zondervan’s ministry blog, Engaging Church. It touches again on this theme of “connecting” that I’ve been wrestling with in my current ministry context, particularly how to get new people connected into the life of our community. Today we look at the mistakes and lessons Pastor Randy Frazee made and learned as he sought to cultivate authentic biblical community in his church. How about you? What are the mistakes and lessons you’ve learned as you’ve strived to create and connect people to authentic community? (You can read the full column HERE)
Yesterday was one of the most exciting days in the life of my church: we had over 80 people in attendance!
For some of you this may sound like an odd thing to celebrate—you left behind the 80 mark years (decades?) ago. But for a church that was averaging low 20’s a year ago when I started pastoring this community…needless to say we were stoked!
For the past two weeks we had made a concerted effort to invite our neighbors, friends, and family for a Super-Sized Sunday—complete with bouncy house, 12ft Subway sub, and chocolate fountain. It was an open house of sorts to invite people from our community who need a church home to connect to our church.
And 18 kids, 11 teens, and 50+ adults later we had ourselves an official shindig!
But the day after I’m reeling with this question: How do we get all these new visitors connected? How can we put the structures and vision in place to not only create authentic community, but also get new people (and even existing people) plugged into authentic community?
That’s where Randy Frazee’s updated classic, The Connecting Church 2.0, comes in. And one of the most helpful chapters is the “Mistakes I’ve Made…Lesson’s I’ve Learned” chapter.
[…]
1.) Realize that biblical community is a way of life, not a program.
“Above all else,” Randy writes, “I want to emphasize that biblical community is a way of life, not a program to be implemented…If you try to implement the connecting church vision without adequate commitment and a community of people who are willing to embrace change and carry out experiments, this will be seen as just another addition to the already overbooked schedules of busy people. And I can guarantee it will fail.” (164)
2.) Teach a theology of biblical community.
“We need to give people a glimpse of the nature of God as a community of loving persons. We need to emphasize the social aspects of our creation in the image of God, not just the psychological, individualistic viewpoint most of us have grown up on. We need to expose people to the rich theology of place—the fact that location matters and gives context and nuance to our understanding of God and one another.” (165)
3.) Realize that success requires a connector.
Randy heralds Malcom Gladwell’s popularization of the “Connector,” the people with a special gift for bringing the world together. “These people are ‘sprinkled among every walk of life…are a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances.'” Rand goes on to say that people with these gifts “can help create a vibrant community in a small neighborhood.” (166)
4.) Give the Connecting Church vision a try.
Randy has often heard people object to the Connecting Church vision because they say they don’t like their neighbors or have anything in common with them. What he’s realized, however, is that the deeper issue is that they don’t actually know their neighbors. (167) His encouragement is for leaders to provoke their people to get to know their neighbors. Because he’s convinced that once a person experiences the relational closeness that comes from knowing a person, they will be hooked on becoming friends with their neighbors, leading to real-life connection. (168)
5.) Realize that the vision takes 5-7 years to fully implement.
This is a doozie: “Another lesson I’ve learned is that the transition time for an existing church to become a connecting church is much longer than I anticipated. And the transition is much harder than living out the actual vision you desire in the end.” It’s a 5-7 year commitment of hard, and sometimes, painful work. If we’re committed as leaders to cultivating and connecting people to authentic biblical community, then we need to be “all in” from the start and stay “all in.” (169)
6.) Keep this equasion in mind when implementing the connecting church vision: shrink circle + raise ownership = increased impact.
“The smaller the circle you use to define a ‘neighborhood,’ the better …a small band of Christians in their neighborhood has a more powerful, concentrated effect. Pour this group of believers into a small neighborhood, and the taste of Christ will be much stronger.” (171) Adding to this an increase in ownership among group members—letting people create and own an idea for community impact—will allow for maximum impact for God’s glory and the good of the community.
7.) Don’t use all of your time margin on yourself and other Christians.
Finally, Randy has this sage advice: “if the group is not careful, they will use all of their time and energy meeting with each other, with little time left for other, non-Christian neighbors.” (172-173) This tendency usually accompanies the traditional instructions for small groups to meet weekly with each other. Over the years Randy has shifted his thinking on this: “We now suggest that Christians in a neighborhood gather for an ‘official’ planned meeting about once a month.” (173) At this gathering they share a meal, pray, read Scripture, and then talk about how they can intentionally “be Jesus” in their neighborhood. “This frees up time for them to gather throughout the month in more organic ways” in order to live, play with, and serve their neighborhood. (173)
[…]
I love this section because Randy comes in over a decade after publishing his first effort at creating a connecting church to share the mistakes he’s made and lessons he’s learned in striving to create authentic biblical community. Whether you’re a pastor of a smallish church like me, the executive pastor of a larger congregation, a youth pastor trying to get kids connected, or a leader small group leader take note of what Randy’s said here.
Consider posting from your own experiences for the sake of us (and especially ME!) who are trying to following Randy in his footsteps in casting vision for being a connecting church.
