My wife and I became good friends with Dorothy about 15 years ago. She became a part of a church I was pastoring at the time. A few years later she was living in a town where she joined a church and found a ministry. After a pastoral change, there was no place for her and so she sat. She felt called to this town so she remained in the church. And she sat. Today she still sits. The pastor even encouraged her to just sit.

In many instances, after 10 years of training lay people to follow up on new believers, the only things required to minister were faithful attendance, love for God and caring about people. I found the church full of such folks. One of the obstacles to using ordinary attenders is the great dichotomy of belief: Efficient vs. Effective. In an effort to be efficient we want to herd new believers into one classroom and provide a teacher and curriculum. Of course this is an efficient approach. You only need one teacher. And it doesn’t matter how many are in the class to have a class. You may have two or twenty-two. BUT THERE IS A GREAT DRAWBACK! Many new believers are not used to coming to church for l l/2 hours on Sunday AM. To attend a class, you’re asking them to come to church for 3 hours! And many just do not come. And a second drawback is that many new believers clam up in a class. They feel that everyone else is much more knowledgeable than they are and they don’t want to seem ignorant. However, they need to share their feelings but a class is not the fertile soil for sharing feelings.

Let’s get back to Dorothy. There are many like her sitting in seats in our churches. They love God and they are seeking to know how God would use them. They don’t need to verbally be told to “just sit” because there may be enough non-verbal signals being sent. And so they sit.

We’ve had enough of “efficient.” It’s time to be effective. And that simply means that we need to equip the ordinary attenders with the skill needed to effectively follow up on new believers one-on-one. They have the life experiences that can totally bless, inspire and encourage new believers. They just need the structure that will make them effective. This is what we do with our “New Heart” follow up series. Ordinary attenders teach these lessons one-on-one and the results are a marvelously effective new believer ministry.

I wonder if I can convince Dorothy to move here?