I spent 90 minutes last week with a pastor from the northeast who was visiting Los Angeles for a few days. He moved to the United States from Ghana 20 years ago and is pastoring a church he started 15 years ago in the Hyde Park area of Boston. I love hanging with “local” pastors! These men and women who live where they are, caring for the community right in front of them are too often overlooked in our superstar culture of celebrity leaders. But I digress.
I asked my friend how he has continued to be a part of growing a healthy church community for so many years. Two words, he said, “come and care.”
Instead of spending his time trying to get people to come to church, he invests his time getting the people that do come to actually care. When people care, there is no longer an issue of getting people to come, he said. The people who care will get people to come which gets more people to care… and the cycle continues.
At the risk of trivializing so many other well-known and proven “strategies” for building healthy churches, including those that may be this same approach stated differently, it was a breath of fresh air to hear such a simple approach.
What would it look like for you to get people to care?
Lindsey
July 6, 2009
Great questions. I would love to hear some answers. My answer would be, by caring and pray for their hearts to be opened. Those who recognize the impact it made on them will hopefully feel a longing to return the favor.
Matt Huggins
July 6, 2009
And you mean to tell us he isn’t even using Twitter?
Chris Wyatt
July 6, 2009
This is such a great concept, yet so basic and fundamental. I would be interested to see what would happen if more and more pastors adhered to this simplistic philosophy on reaching out to the community.
Personally, I think being able to care enough for a total stranger is the hardest factor to do in the world today; at least in America.
Sheila
August 11, 2009
So simple and so true. I think of all the things people do because they care. And how many things don’t get done (people cared for etc.) because people don’t care (only think of themselves). The Cadbury secret is though, how do you get people to care???