CONNECTING WITH GOD

Life is complicated.  It’s complex.  It’s difficult and challenging at times.  It can be confusing.  That’s why Albert Einstein’s words about complexity speak so timely to us today.  He said, “Out of the complexity, find simplicity.” 

God has not called us to live lives that are complicated or confused or too busy that we live unfulfilled, defeated, and overly stressed lives.  Colossians 2:6 (Ph) says, Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so go on living in him—in simple faith.  In light of living in Christ with a “simple faith”, we have reformed our church’s purpose statement this year around three simple yet profound actions: 

CONNECTING WITH GOD

GROWING SPIRITUALLY

SERVING PEOPLE

This is who we are and what we are to be about.  These three dynamics are at the heart of what a church does.  And it is the church’s responsibility to follow through with them. 

Jesus said,“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40.  The first and greatest thing I can do is to love God.  The second greatest thing I can do is to love others to God.

When we think about “connecting with God” there are two kinds of people we connect with God:  Ourselves, and Others who don’t have God in their lives yet.  Jesus said in Mathew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples…”  The way it works here at Clay Community to “connect people with God” is like this:  We invite them to church so they can have the opportunity to experience God.  The Sunday morning worship is the primary “entry point.”

Our theme this year is: “Purpose that is processed produces excellence.”  We can have purpose, but unless we work it, we’ll not excel.  Another way of saying it is that “nothing becomes dynamic until it becomes specific.”  There is “no energy” in it until we specifically do something about it.

Therefore we need a specific activity for “Connecting People with God.”  I’ve asked our church to covenant together to do this:  To work at connecting people with God by bringing them to church.  We know we need to be doing this.  So let’s motivate one another forward on this.  And I don’t mean that we compete.  What I mean is that we “help” one another to do this.

Call it “ONE-2-ONE”.  The objective is that we each bring one person to church to become a regular attender by the end of the year.

It’s each of us reaching out to one other person and bringing them to church such that they become regular attenders, and hopefully in time commit to Christ and join the church.  Here’s the latest statistic from Lifeway in Christianity Today:  The percentage of Americans who never attend worship services is 67%.

What we’ll experience is that some will respond, others will not.  Some will come a Sunday or two and then stop.  You will feel disappointment and frustration sometimes.  Therefore, in your search for ONE, you must invite SEVERAL.  We must develop a “pool” of people.  We need to have several relationships from which we can invite and encourage them to come to church.

Think about it this way:

BUILD A POOL

Build a pool of friends.

GET IN THE POOL

Associate with your friends.  Spend time with them.  Get to know them and let them get to know you.

BRING THEM TO THE LIFE GUARD

Bring them to Christ.  How?  Either bring them to church or share with them Who Jesus really is and the difference He makes in your life.

Visualize what can happen.  If by the end of the year we really did this, we would have a significant increase in our attendance,  And don’t you think there would be a fresh excitement with the new faces and new friends?  ONE-2-ONE.  Let’s do this.