What If Church Staff Were Measured on Introductions?

Ask your men’s ministry leader what men’s ministry is. You’ll probably get a calendar.

You’ll hear about the fall retreat and the Saturday breakfast. Ask the same question about your young adults or senior adults ministry and you’ll get another list of dates.

I’ve noticed this in some churches. We say community is a core value, and then every bit of community runs through the church office.

Functionally, men’s ministry means the events the church plans and promotes. If the staff isn’t running something, the men don’t meet. The young adults and the empty nesters don’t either.

That should bother us.

When Ministry Only Means Church Events

Events have a real place in church life. The trouble starts when events are the only way people meet each other.

People learn to wait. They wait for the next sign-up and the next announcement slide, and friendship becomes something the church schedules for them.

A healthy church family has people calling each other on a Wednesday for no reason. Somebody grabs coffee with the new guy because they both coach Little League. Two moms start praying together because a friend thought they should meet.

That’s ministry too, and none of it is on the church calendar.

Church Staff Are Too Busy to Be Connectors

I see a second problem on the staff side.

Your staff are busy. They’re juggling budgets, volunteer schedules, building issues, and pastoral emergencies every week. When you’re that stretched, you don’t get to know everyone in your area of ministry.

And if you don’t know people, you can’t introduce them to each other.

Connecting people takes relationships first. You have to know that Sarah just moved from Ohio and that Lisa made the same move two years ago. You have to know Mike just got laid off and Dave went through a layoff last spring.

Then there’s the job description. Look at yours. I’d bet connecting people to each other isn’t written anywhere on it.

Staff do what they’re measured on. That’s true in any organization, and the church is no exception.

Peer-to-Peer Connection as a Staff Performance Goal

I want to propose something.

What if one of your staff performance goals was the number of people they connected to each other?

I mean real introductions. Two people meet because of you, and they stay in touch after.

Picture how that would change the week. Your student pastor starts learning parents’ names so she can connect families with teenagers the same age. Your young adults pastor spends Sunday morning in the lobby meeting people.

Their calendars start to fill with coffee meetings and hallway conversations. The behavior changes because the goal changed.

Tracking it can be simple. Have each staff member log their introductions in a shared note and review the list together once a month. Count a connection when the two people follow up with each other on their own.

Staff pay attention to what we measure. Right now a lot of us measure attendance and event sign-ups.

Equipping Includes Introductions

Paul told the church in Ephesus that leaders are given to equip God’s people for works of service. Helping people find each other is part of that.

When a staff member connects two people, they start something the church never has to plan or promote. That friendship can outlast any program on the calendar.

Every image-bearer in your church was made for communal life. Some of them are sitting alone in row 14 right now, waiting for someone to say, “You should meet my friend.”

Pull out your staff job descriptions this week. Add one line about connecting people to each other.

What would change at your church if your staff were measured on introductions?