Quality Not Quantity

Recently I have been thinking a lot about how to get new students for the Bible college where I work.  In an attempt to find the best way to bring students I looked at two popular church growth methods.  The first is what I called the entertainment method of growth.  This philosophy puts on an entertaining show every Sunday that is meant to make people feel good about themselves.  The second method uses attraction to bring people in.  It involves finding out what the unsaved want, and giving it to them.  While these methods result in large crowds, neither will work in the long run.  The entertainment method is short lived because it is hard to keep entertaining the same people every week.  And the attractional method will work until another church begins doing more to “meet needs”. 

I don’t want students who will take CTT classes for a month or so and then quit when it gets hard. So how can I develop students who are committed to class for the long haul? The first answer to that question is very slowly. Many times churches want to bring in huge amounts of people right away. That is why the entertainment and attractional methods are so popular. A large quantity of people can easily be gained in a short amount of time with these methods. But strong ministries are not built upon people of quantity. Instead they are built on people of quality. And gathering in people of great quality is very hard work.

One of the most important ways to bring in quality people is through connection. This word has been used a lot lately so I will try to define it. Connection is the development of an intimate (close) relationship with others. The reason I use the word intimate is because this relationship goes much deeper than a normal friendship. It is bringing people together on a personal and heart based level.1 A normal friendship helps us to know others on a personal level. But connecting with others on a heart based level means we minister to what I refer to as, “their inner circle”.

Shortly after coming to Australia I put a post on my blog called “ministering to the inner circle”. It was based upon a fascinating discussion I had with an Australian believer one Sunday afternoon. He explained to me that the Australian people (and all people for that matter) have two kinds of relationships. Most people had access to what he called the outer circle. This was the information they would feel comfortable sharing with anybody. Things like how their favorite sports team is doing, their family, their job, and things of that nature. But a few select people are able to be part of the inner circle. This part of them included their fears, failures, frustrations, and deep needs. After talking to him I am convinced that this is not only true of Australians, but all of us as well.

Why is it important to connect with prospective students on a heart based level? Because close relationships will bring in more students than the worlds greatest power point presentation. Not only will students be more comfortable becoming involved in CTT if I have connected with them. They will also be more likely to complete the classes if they have a close relationship with the teacher. Becoming part of their inner circle will take a huge amount of time. But that student will be far more likely to continue in the program than one who is only there because he feels good, or his needs are met.

1 Dr. Henry Cloud/Dr. John Townsend, Making Small Groups Work, pg.71, ln.1