Category / Church

Jesus knew how to recruit.

When He said to Peter and Andrew; “Come, follow me,” He wanted, even anticipated a yes. (Matthew 4:18-19) Jesus had a purpose, showed passion, and focused on the person.

We all desire a yes, but how you go about it makes all the difference. The process of recruiting can either give something to the person or take something from them. It’s not always that black and white, but here’s what I mean.

The people who attend your church are incredibly busy, but they make time for the things they care about. They show up to the things they think are important and value the most.

When the long-anticipated movie comes out, their favorite band comes in concert, or it’s their kid’s birthday, people just don’t miss.

One thing that’s true every Sunday is that the people who didn’t come to church that day are somewhere! They decided that something else was more important. Many good reasons are normal and natural such as family vacation, sickness, a destination wedding, and many others. That’s part of life.

First, a shout out to Dan Vander Wal, one of our sharp campus pastors at 12Stone, for giving me this idea for a title. We were in the monthly leadership development huddle I lead for our campus pastors, and this subject came up. It was a great conversation and got me thinking about a post to share with you.

The reflexive thought when talking about reading the room is often limited to when you are preaching or teaching. That’s important, but only represents a small percentage of the nearly limitless moments to “read the room.”