Consumers or Connectors?
Is church for consumers of connectors?
Before you rush in with a thought, let’s clarify terms. Consumers see church as a place to provide service: we want to keep our kids off drugs, so we want church to provide student ministry. We want to teach our children values, so we want church to provide age appropriate learning experiences. We want new and different experiences, so we want church to provide trips, activities, and opportunities. We want something to help us figure out life, so we want church to provide classes, messages, and a sense of God.
Connectors, on the other hand, see church differently. They want to connect to God, so they see church as an environment that helps them with that goal. They want to build meaningful relationships, so church becomes a community for them. They want to help others connect to the God they know, so church is a tool they use to help others take their next step.
Remember this: All connectors start as consumers. Therefore, for a church to be healthy, it needs a significant number of consumers who are at church with the initial human question: “What’s in it for me?”
There is a tipping point, however. If a church does not have people taking next steps to transform them from consumers into connectors, the church becomes unbalanced. The connectors in the church over-function to meet the needs of the consumers until they burn out. When this happens, the connectors drop out (this happens way more than you think); they move to another church where they can be consumers; or they continue to serve, but their anger and bitterness drives people away.
This leads me toward three conclusions: First, there is a good, right time to be a consumer. If you are checking out Christian faith, if you are wounded, if you are in crisis - these are times to come to church and say, “I need to the church to care for me.”
Second, if you stay a consumer too long, you become unhealthy as a person. To receive without giving is the definition of greed. Greed - whether for care, service, or material goods - will destroy you. Relationships will erode and you will be the center of your own contracting universe. This shrinking universe will constrict you, separating you from all that is good and valuable in your life. I don’t mean to sound ominous, but self-centeredness kills.
Finally, every connector needs some place where they can be refreshed, restored, and renewed. It is right for connectors to be consumers to replenish their souls.
Is church for consumers or connectors? It is for both.
A couple of wild guesses on my part: Heatlhy churches probably need 60% of their adults to be connectors and 40% to be consumers. Healthy churches need to have a clearly defined process for moving consumers to be connectors.
How is ADBC doing? We need more people to take a step toward Jesus and spiritual health and become connectors. The first step in that process is to get in a group. Try one.
We also need to work on clarifying our spiritual growth process. An Education Pastor will help us tremendously - so keep that in your prayers.
Do some work in your heart with God - where are you in the consumer connectors continum?
