How to Get People On Board
6/24/02 
        

Several of us have been asked to reflect on this topic with which all of us struggle.  In the congregation where I find my spiritual journey refreshed ~ and also thwarted ~ there are some persons who are so on board that I watch them in awe and with delight.  There are many others who have heard the distant music and felt the vibrations from the dancing but who have not drawn close to listen or to look.  I wish they were on board.  I wish for them the joy of new life in Christ.  When I see irregular worship attendance patterns, spasmodic giving habits, and infrequent participation in the work of the church in people for whom I wish a closer walk I experience my anger rising along with a sense of pastoral futility and personal inadequacy.
 
Therefore, I am beginning to learn to abandon efforts at getting people on board.  My reasons are as follows:

             Whenever I try to move people to a place I think they should be (however right I may be!) I am assuming that I know more about their lives than they do.  I begin assuming responsibilities the Lord has not given me.  I am called to sow the seed as best I can sow.  The growth is the Lord's responsibility.

            People do not think in terms of their spiritual growth as a matter of increased participation in the life of the congregation or see themselves primarily as members of a group which needs them to get on board.  People ask for help in learning to pray, to be hungry for studying scripture, for getting over an animosity and getting to forgiveness, or to deal with an addiction or an affliction.  When I try to get them on board with some program or project for which I have a passion I am running ahead of the Spirit and soon fall into the trap of filling slots ~ using Christ's persons to operate the machinery of the church.

            People sometimes remark that they enjoy learning about their spiritual gifts, that they find sharing in prayers together meaningful, that some nudge of the Spirit gets them into a new ministry group and in that ministry they find themselves stretched.  It is my responsibility to issue a call to ministry.  It is the responsibility of those who have ears to hear to listen.  Sometimes that entails them getting on board.  Sometimes it doesn't.
 
Having said all that, there is a life of the congregation which is larger than the sum total of the persons in it.  The church is a spiritual community in which individuals are transformed.  Because we pray and ponder together there are visions and activities which arise and to which we ask that others get on board.  To that end we publicize and promote as vigorously and accurately as we can.  I have not yet drawn someone aside to request that he or she get on board with some emerging vision or activity, but one day I probably will.  If that one-on-one conversation is a technique for getting people on board, then so be it.  Otherwise I spend my energies and attention adding my music to that which those who are already on board are making and setting my feet to the rhythms which are stirring among us. 

Thanks be to God!
 
David Digby, First Christian Church - Ames, IA