Saturday, August 22, 2009

Our Primary Task

I recently read a quote from Dr. Paul Borden in his book Direct Hit that struck a cord with me and I think is vital to the future health of the church. He states, "Congregations have two types of customers. Primary customers are the ones who are not yet a part of the congregation because they do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Secondary customers are the disciples who are already involved in the congregation."

First, let me just say I disagree with the word "customer" and do not think we should view people as customers. So if we can just set that aside for a moment and look at the rest of the quote.

I do think that Dr. Borden's thought here is in alignment with Jesus' mission while on this planet. We see Jesus choosing to invest time with children over adults, Samaritans over Jews, demon possessed over religious types, and lost sheep over found sheep.

I also would make the assumption that much of our time as leaders in the local church is spent investing in the secondary group of those already disciples. We spend an unrealistic and unhealthy amount of time trying to "feed people" who should already know how to feed themselves. People I have been calling pew potatoes for many years now. If one were to try and make the shift to investing more time with those outside the religious community these people would be the first to cry, "We are just not being fed here." This should not be surprising since if you take food away from a glutton they will get upset.

The people within that should be invested in are the true disciples. The ones who share the same primary mission and see following Christ in this mission as a path to maturity. Our task as leaders is to equip and encourage them in the mission to be in relationship with those who are "outside the church."

So a major leadership shift needs to take place in how we invest our time. For the church to thrive again we need to get clear about who are primary people are and start investing the majority of our time with them. Good leaders will do this and not flinch at the cries of the glutton pew potatoes.

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