Encounters to Connection

Are we just trying to get people a brief encounter with God, or are we trying to help people make a lasting connection to Him? I love encountering God; a connection to Him inevitably starts with meeting Him. But if our aim stops there, then that’s all we’ll get; people who come to an event, be it encounter night or Sunday service, encounter God, and then go home and have it all slowly wane away, slowly choked out by the thorns of everyday life.

We as leaders are of course tempted to solved this by increasing the frequency of these big time encounters, to make the doses more frequent: quarterly, monthly, weekly even. All these efforts however, neglects the root problem that while we need to help people encounter God, there follows a need to nurture that encounter into a constant, life-permeating connection with God.

The community of believers must begin to help each other steward the passion that flows from these encounters; that they don’t simply get excited for the next event and become encounter junkies, but begin praying, reading the word, walking with others, shining in their world, and all the things that will help foster a lifetime of being a branch in the vine.

We leaders shall pave the way. We must spend comparable effort and time in walking with them on the ground, as we do leading them from the stage; to communicate to them via our actions that yes, there is more to this than encounter night, and I’m willing to spend my time and energy walking this next step with you.