Relational Assimilation
By Kevin Kosberg
Enfolding
strategy. Assimilation. People flow. Whatever you call it, connecting guests
and new people to your church is a challenge that is of vital importance to
your ministry, the Kingdom, and a person's eternity. As the pastor of a very
young church, I have struggled with the philosophy and process of connecting
the many guests and new families to our new and somewhat undefined ministry. In
the next few paragraphs I will be sharing with you some of the things that I
have learned, often times through very real failure, about moving guests to
become members and members to become active ministry partners.
- Design a clear, step-by-step
process that a guest can understand and follow.
I confess that for most of the early years at Cross of
Christ I assumed that people knew how to go about becoming a member of our
church and that they had a strong sense about how to get involved in ministry. After
all, we had announcements in the bulletin about all of the programs that we had
available during the week. The reality, that slowly became real to me, is that
people who have never been in a church or who have been absent for some time,
are intimidated and very unsure of how to go about connecting to a church
beyond worship. Here is how we have begun to address this reality. To get
connected at Cross of Christ here are the steps that we outline on Sunday
mornings for guests and new attendees.
- Fill out the Get Connected Card. At Cross of Christ this is a
perforated tab that is a part of our weekly worship folder. We follow up
each week with those people who fill out that card.
- Join us for our Get Connected Class. This is a three-hour class
that we offer on a Sunday afternoon where we talk about the basics of the
faith, the ministry of our congregation and answer any questions that
they have.
- Join us for a Jump Start Group. Jump Start is a three-week
small group experience where people get an introduction to our small
group ministry and a Biblical look at what Cross of Christ is all about.
Once a person has walked through the above process, they
are much more prepared to enter the life our ministry and to begin to live out
what life at Cross of Christ looks like.
- Strike a balance in your
assimilation process between imparting knowledge and creating relationships.
Yet one more confession: I have for a long time believed
that membership in the church was primarily a matter of knowing the right stuff.
In rubbing shoulders with new believers and people new to the church, I have
come to believe that relationships are at least as important as knowledge in
active ministry involvement, and in my more candid moments, maybe more
important in the initial connection to the church and the faith. Our
assimilation process is our current attempt to impart important ministry and
Biblical knowledge in a relationship-building environment. Our use of small
group experiences and a classroom setting is intended to move people to
ever-greater involvement in a life of discipleship by striking that balance.
I will
close with a word of encouragement and challenge. Take heart, it is possible to
connect people more deeply to your ministry, the Kingdom, and to a life of
grace in Jesus. However, learn more quickly than I, and design a process that
is clearly understood and followed so as to build strong relationships with
your new people.
Kevin
Kosberg is a church planter and senior pastor at Cross of Christ Lutheran
Church in Anthem, Arizona.
For more information about any of the above, please contact him at kevin@anthemcross.org.
