Living Beyond the Manger!

My prayer every Christmas for all my pastor and church leader friends is that they will see new people coming to the manger to find the Messiah, our Savior Jesus. Some will be making this discovery for the first time, others will be returning after some time away. Either way, we should rejoice that people are seeking transformation and they came to church, the manger at Christmas, to find it. 

But after the rejoicing ends and we put away the manger scene and Christmas tree, then what? How do we connect these pilgrims to their own discipleship path on the other side of the manger? Are your people ready to help them take a relevant next step to engage with Jesus?

These are the questions we need to be answering ASAP before these pilgrims fall through the cracks or fade away again. And our answers have to take the shape of a process that will connect, engage, and guide these disciples on their path. We, as an entire church congregation, have to be prepared to help these people find their own meaning in the birth of Jesus.

I write and talk a lot about creating a proactive disciple making culture in our churches. The foundation for this culture is having an intentional and consistent means for connecting with these disciples and engaging them to live into their purpose. And I am convinced that the more people we have  proactively following Jesus, the greater the impact our churches will make in their communities.

Back to our manger pilgrims, if we hope to engage them in a relationship with Jesus we must offer them a way to connect. These connecting points can be varied based on where the person is in their life at the moment. Examples could be a new year study to help people find their purpose, a basic Bible study, or a small group of new/returning visitors to become acquainted with what it means to be a disciple and how the church supports their journey. For the person that is brand new and excited to “plug in,” you might consider yourself or one of your disciple makers inviting them for coffee to get acquainted.

I call this the connecting phase and it is the time when we get a better understanding of what the pilgrim wants to accomplish or overcome in their spiritual growth. It is critical we empathize with their challenges or issues before we can offer them the solutions we have to offer through the church. It is also the time to help the pilgrim-becoming-a-disciple to understand that the church is more than Christmas Eve and Easter special worship, or even weekly worship for that matter. The church’s mission is to help people live into their commitment to follow Jesus and all that entails.

Obviously, we should be making connections with pilgrims throughout the year to help them find and follow Jesus. In order to do this we must have a plan and process that is in continual motion. And we must teach our people how to help others access these connecting points and start taking next steps on their discipleship journey. Christmas and Easter are those times when we can “crank up the volume” so to speak.

ChurchCMO’s mission is to help churches create these processes and train their people to become proactive disciple makers! If you are starting out the new year with a vision for making more disciples, we can help. Schedule a call, it won’t cost you anything!

Happy New Year!