Strategic Mission: Connect

Getting to where the people are

So…… if you are committed to a people or a place, you are actively praying and have done the work to know the questions… its time to connect.

There are two mistakes that Christians seem to make over and over again when it comes to connecting with people:

1) Either they are unaware of the affect of their behaviour on the people they are trying to reach, resulting in people being alienated.

2) Or they don’t think strategically and spend loads of energy on reaching out to a very few people.

The Apostle Paul was very intentional when it came to connecting with those he was trying to reach.

We see in Acts 17:1-2, that Paul had a standard approach whenever he went to a new community:

Now Paul and Silas traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he interpreted the Scriptures to the people.

This pattern of Paul’s is repeated in Acts 14:1, Acts 17:10-11 and Acts 18:4

One interesting divergence from the Paul’s pattern happens in Acts 19:8-10 when Paul leaves the platform of the Synagogue and goes to the secular lecture hall..

Then Paul went to the synagogue and preached boldly for the next three months, arguing persuasively about the Kingdom of God.19:9 But some rejected his message and publicly spoke against the Way, so Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him. Then he began preaching daily at the lecture hall of Tyrannus.19:10 This went on for the next two years.

Why did Paul do this?

He intentionally went where he could connect with a large number of people in a legitimate way.

This is a very important understanding. So often Christians do things with good hearts but in such a way that they alienate themselves from the very community they are trying to reach.

In order to be effective in mission we need to look for the legitimate ways to connect with the community we are trying to reach.  Every community will have different ways of being recognised as legitimate. Being legitimate means the community trusts you and what you are doing.

In order to effectively reach the people or place that God has laid on your heart, the starting place must be an understanding of what in that particular community are the forces that bring legitimacy or illegitimacy.

In Australia the local school, local council or media are forces that help with legitimacy in local communities. In Indonesia it often a meeting with the local village head man that does this. If you were trying to reach middle-aged Australian men then the local pub would be where you would go. Depending on who you are trying to reach, it is important to think through what it means to legitimately connect.

Secondarily it is important, if you want to be effective, to find a way to connect with the whole community you are trying to reach and not just one or two people.

There is nothing wrong with one-to-one ministry.  In fact, we need it, but if you are thinking out transforming communities you need to be the one who helps others find their one-on-one ministry, not necessarily being the one who does one-on-one ministry.

Usually in any community, the forums that are seen to be legitimate are also those where it is possible to connect with a large number of people in a real way.

This is true of Paul in the Synagogue, however when John Wesley found that the people weren’t in the  churches he found he needed to create a platform for himself by bringing people together in the open air.

In Australia schools are a place for broad legitimate connection with young people, but there are very few places where whole communities come together, which is why the “Open Crowd Festivals” that Fusion run are proving so effective.

In modern times it is possible to connect with a large number of people on the internet or through broadcast media, however that would not necessarily allow for the establishment of real relationship.

So when intentionally setting about changing the world, the most important places of engagement have three characteristics:

1) They are seen as legitimate by those we are trying to connect with

2)There are significant numbers of those we want to connect with.

3)There is an opportunity for people to establish relationships.

So, taking these things into consideration, the following questions are fundamental in laying the groundwork for strategic mission:

What helps people be seen as legitimate in the community or people we are trying to connect with?

What causes people to be seen as illegitimate?

Where do the people or community come together?

If there isn’t somewhere they come together, can we help that happen?

This isn’t the end of the story, though, and we will continue to unpack the fundamental questions of strategic mission tomorrow.