There are really three types of people in your church: intuitive, learned, and lost.
Intuitive people are those who figure things out quickly. They don’t need the A, B, C, D, E individually all the way to Z; they just need A, K, R, and Z. You give them the basics and they can fill in the blanks.
Learned people aren’t quite as intuitive, but they have learned the missing steps in another context, and therefore can figure it out just fine. These people need a few more steps than intuitive people, but because of prior experience, they can fill in the gaps. When learned people show up at your church, they may not see the steps to get involved with a small group or Bible study, but because they were involved in a group at a prior church, they fill in the blanks and get plugged in.
Then there are the lost people. I don’t mean lost in the sense of salvation or being far from God, but rather lost in the sense that they are neither intuitive nor have learned systems or typical methods elsewhere. These people need every step from A to Z if they are going to be involved.
It seems to me that intuitive and learned people make up about 20-30% of the church, while 70-80% are lost. This is why typically (unless you have incredible systems that explain all the steps from A to Z) only 20% of your church is engaged. Furthermore, because intuitive people are usually the easiest people to work with (they don’t need a lot of input before they get busy), intuitive people are usually running the organization. But, intuitive people typically put systems together intuitively. In other words, systems that don’t explain all the steps, therefore leaving the lost people, well, lost.
Think about your church structure like a booklet for putting furniture together. Some, the intuitive ones, look at the first and last page and put the coffee table together easily. No problems, and no parts left over. The learned, although not as intuitive, have put the coffee table together before, so they just need a refresher, but they don’t need every page. The lost, however, need every single page of the manual.
The problem I saw in our church was that because of my intuitive nature, the vision I was sharing was missing an incredible amount of explanation and instruction. Complex ideas that needed to be explained in detail were just assumed as easily perceived. My heart was for everyone to be involved, but my methods inadvertently meant that only 20% (at best) could be.
As you read “Engage the Church”, my challenge to you and your team is to think of the lost people in your church and ask if your systems will help them engage or if they will unintentionally hinder them from being involved.