Bandwidth

When the Internet gained popularity, I bit the bullet, plugged into my phone line, and began accessing the World Wide Web. After a click of the mouse, the dial tone sounded, followed by loud series of buzzes and electronic chatter. You might remember that distinctive sound. Then came the magic: a connection to the new electronic frontier.

Fast forward to 2012. If I had a dial-up connection today, you’d call me crazy. I’d be Internet impaired. The narrow bandwidth of dial-up would paralyze my ability to access the vast selection offered at the current online buffet. The bandwidth of high-speed technology has expanded connection possibilities.

Reggie McNeal talks about the bandwidth of the church. It’s something worth thinking about. Sometimes the church’s bandwidth narrows as it seeks to involve church people in church events. There’s a constant effort to get church members to sign up for, volunteer for, and join activities tailored for church people.

Statistics show, however, that 80% of the population is not church people. How can the bandwidth of the church be increased to reach the 80%?

This requires a paradigm shift. Instead of planning the church’s activities around church people, what if the church planned every action and formed every reason for invitation around the goal of engaging the non-churched?

People are craving relationships and purpose. What friend, co-worker, neighbor, or family member wouldn’t respond “yes” when you ask:

“Will you join me in helping to serve kids in need?”

“We’re going to hang out with and love on some elderly folks in a nursing home. Want to come along?”

“I need a partner for English as a Second Language instruction. Will you give me a hand?”

“A group is coming to my house to write encouragement cards to some people in need. Can you join us?”

“We’re going to make a meal for the blind in our community. Can you and your family help us?”

You get the idea. What can you do to grow your invitation pool beyond the church directory? How can you include the disconnected before you invite the already very busy church crowd? How can you help increase the bandwidth of the church so the 80% can experience the love of Jesus, too?

A New Neighborhood

Relationships are no longer centered on geography. When I was a kid, all the moms on the block knew each other, knew each other’s kids, and had the right to discipline any of the kids on the block. Families typically had one car--a car dad used to go to and from work. Neighbors talked over the backyard fence, got together to play cards, and combined efforts to form the winning bowling team at the local bowling alley.

Geography and neighborhood went hand in hand. But not anymore.

Sure, there are some neighborhoods that are cohesive and neighborly, but new “neighborhoods” have sprung up as people have become more mobile, more networked, and more selective about who their “neighbors” are.

“Anthropography” has replaced geography. People are choosing the people they hang with--and people are being thrown together in ways they never expected.

Unfortunately, the church may still get hung up on geography. True, geographical neighbors are important, but if Christians are told that their neighborhood is limited to the homes or apartment units that surround where they live, new neighborhoods and new opportunities to share the Gospel will be overlooked.

Some people spend more time with co-workers than with people from their subdivision. You may spend more time with people in school, or online, or at the remote main office, or at your kids’ soccer games, or in the dialysis lab than you do with people who live just a front yard away.

How is the church preparing itself to reach these new neighborhoods? How are believers reaching beyond geography? What’s your neighborhood and how will you bring Jesus to it?