The church consultant was clearly...
Illustration
The church consultant was clearly getting frustrated. She had been brought in as an expert on church evangelism. After an initial presentation about what she had found out in her research about the community, she asked the council if they had any questions. "What I don't get," said George with a bit of a bite in his voice, "is why we are worried about all these people. We've got all sorts of people in this town who are members here but haven't been for years. We should be worried about getting our own members to come before we start trying to get new ones." "That's a common concern," the consultant replied, "but ..." She was cut off by George. "I don't want it to be a concern. I want us to get them back in our church. What do we need to do to get them to start coming again?" "I have two thoughts," the consultant replied. "First, my role here is to talk about evangelism, not reactivating inactive members. But second, have you been praying for them?" George was silent, obviously caught off guard by the question. After an awkward pause he finally spoke, "Well, no. I haven't been. I don't know about anybody else." The consultant continued, "Prayer is always the first step of everything we do in the church. If you want people to be more active, you have to be willing to care for them in their wandering. Prayer is one way to do that." -- Daubert
