Rick Warren in his book The Purpose Driven Church invites us to consider different levels of commitment. He has 5 levels of commitment each within concentric circles: community, crowd, congregation, committed, core. The understanding is that working outward inward are people varying levels of commitment to the church and it’s mission. The invitation is to always move to the next circle of commitment and to recognize where other folks are in their journeys.
I like this image because it helps us to identify how we see ourselves and how we see our neighbors. So, the 4 circles I have borrow from his image: Community, Crowd, Congregation, Committed.
Community – Who is my Neighbor?
The question that I think we should continually ask ourselves is – Who is my nieghbor? When I look at the 10 miles surrounding my church I ask myself? Do they know who my community of faith is? Do they know what we are about? I think this can even go further, but maybe this is more of a denominational level. Does the county, state, country, world know who we are?
In thinking about the Community box I wonder if the goal is just to get our name out there? The congregation I currently serve rents a booth out at the local Art and Wine Faire. We have kids paint rocks we affectionately call “Pet Rocks.” For those of you who are old enough, it is a nod to that 70s trend. But the kids enjoy the activity as their parents sit around drinking wine and hanging out. Getting out our name as a congregation is more than just that. How does the congregation serve the community? And the big question, if that community ceases to be, would anyone notice?
I have no illusions that we are suddenly going to get a ton of people coming to church because we do this Art and Wine Faire booth. I think the more appropriate mindset is just that people would be able to recognize our church when they see it. Sure, I’ve had meaningful conversations and even had one visitor, but I don’t think that is the main goal. I think the main goal is to get our name out there and recognized. This help people who volunteer have appropriate expectations. This where advertisements, social media, newspaper, etc. fit in. Do people in the community know that we exist?
Another part of the community are the people that know we exist and even might know where we are. There are people who come to the church for a variety of reasons. Our church has a movable chancel so we tend to host a lot of recitals. We also host a variety of groups like AA and GA. We host a music school in some of our old Sunday School classes. People may know where we are and even who we are. They may have had contact with us, but that doesn’t mean that they have dived into the waters of a worship service or community event.
We should never image than rubbing elbows in a passive way will bring people into our congregation. It takes investing in relationships and invitation. This circle is about name recognition.
Crowd – Infrequent/Seasonal Contacts
There are people who come to the church for a variety of reasons. There are also folks who come seasonally. I’m thinking about significant holidays like Christmas and Easter. They might come infrequently to congregational events like a potluck or special event that the church is putting on. But you’d rarely see them on church from Sunday to Sunday. They know the church, the ministries, and even people in the congregation, but they can at arm distance for a variety of reasons. I would even put people who would consider themselves members of the congregation because they were confirmed 30 years ago but since they don’t really go to church, they’d still consider themselves members of that church because it’s their family church. They may or may not know the name of the pastor.
I think the goal here should be investing in relationships and inviting them into deeper relationship with the Christ and the congregation.
Rev. Joshua Serrano 