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Hillcrest Church Office
December 11, 2003
LeaderLines is a weekly “e-briefing” providing valuable
information and inspiration to those who serve at Hillcrest Baptist Church.
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Here is this week’s LeaderLines. . . .
SPECIAL NOTE: We’ve prepared an e-card that you can
send to your friends, inviting them to Christmas events at Hillcrest! Go to www.HillcrestAustin.org/ecard to find it. You
only have a few days left to use this great outreach tool! (You will also find
an option to send an e-card promoting our January 9 event, “Finding God in
The Lord of the Rings.” I will tell you more about that event next week
in Winning Ways.)
“Circles of Commitment”
by Tom Goodman
As a Hillcrest
leader, it’s important to keep in mind that people are at different levels of
commitment to Christ and his cause. Think of these different levels as
concentric circles, and let’s move from the outermost circle to the inner
circle:
- The Community: This is the outermost circle of
commitment. Don’t think of “The Community” as all those in, say, a
10-mile radius around our building. Instead, the Community our church
is called to reach is made up of all the unchurched people known by those
who attend Hillcrest. Read that last line again . . . slowly. The
heart of my leadership strategy begins with that conviction. I see my job
in very simple terms: I will equip our attenders to develop
relationships with the unchurched people they know, and I will equip
our leaders (you!) to develop events that our attenders will want to
bring unchurched people to. To understand how vast this outermost circle
is, add up all the unchurched people you interact with (neighbors,
coworkers, classmates, and so on). Then, multiply that number by our
membership.
- The Crowd: This is the next circle in. Once an
unchurched person accepts our invitation to attend one of our services,
they’ve moved from “The Community” to “The Crowd.” The majority of people
who decide to “give church a try” do so on Sunday mornings, so it’s
particularly important that our morning activities have them in mind! Keep
in mind that only a portion of those attending are members—and that’s the
way it should be! In fact, some who regularly attend aren’t even
Christians yet. This awareness won’t ever cause us to change our message,
but it ought to cause us to constantly review the ways we
share our message.
- The Congregation: After people attend for a while,
many decide to become members (and to become believers if they haven’t
taken that step before). This is the next circle of commitment as we move
inward through the concentric circles. Our “Discover Hillcrest” class is
designed to introduce people to what it means to be a member so
that people can make an informed and enthusiastic commitment to our
church’s mission.
- The Committed: We need to make sure that we’re constantly
challenging our members to commit to the disciplines of spiritual growth: Honor
the Lord of Life, Invite Your World to Life, Love the
Fellowship for Life, and Live the Word in Life. As a leader, stop
right now and pray for those who need to move from the circle of “The
Congregation” to the circle of “The Committed.”
- The Core: Now we’re at the innermost circle in our
five concentric circles. The people in this circle are members of the
congregation who are committed to spiritual growth and who have accepted
positions of service and responsibility at Hillcrest. Most who get LeaderLines
every week are found in this circle.
What a huge responsibility you and I have as Hillcrest
leaders! Our job is nothing less than moving each person through the circles!
That involves identifying the “circle of commitment” a person is in, and then
finding ways to move them to the next level.
Next week we’ll take a look at how to do just that! In the
meantime, I hope to see you at our Christmas Dessert Theater this Friday or
Saturday, and at our Adult Christmas musical this Sunday!
Tom
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