Seth Godin is a creative
thinker; he is “creative” because his ideas are not only unique but useful as
well (the true definition of “creative”).
In a recent blog, he points out that businesses do not have a telephone
strategy or an email strategy or a web strategy. They have a people strategy. He comments, “We still have one and only one
thing that matters, and it’s people.”
All of these other things are tools or conduits that connect us to
people.
My immediate response was to
think about how this applies to the church.
We may use different terminology but when we talk about outreach,
Christian education, missions, or financial growth, we are talking
strategies. The unfortunate part is that
we often neglect to realize that we really need to be talking about people.
Our outreach is to people—living,
breathing, needy individuals—who may benefit from being part of the body of
Christ. Our Christian education is meant
to develop people as believers who will “love God and serve God forever.” Our mission initiatives mobilize and empower
people to serve others. Our financial
campaigns should be about people becoming good stewards of the resources that
God has placed in their hands.
Whenever we gather to discuss
how we are going to do something as a church, we should be thinking about how
it impacts the lives of people. Rick
Warren did something like this when he launched Saddleback Community Church. He visualized “Saddleback Sam”—a person with
specific needs and challenges. Of
course, “Sam” was a construct, but he was a stand-in for all the people in the
area that the church might reach and disciple.
Warren’s question was always, “What will this mean for Saddleback Sam?”
Too often when we began
planning, we think about what our work will do for “the church.” In this case, “the church” often means the
institutional church made up of programs, buildings, budgets, and staff. What if we began instead with the question, “What
will this do for people?” Our
perspective will change radically.
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