You may want to argue with me (and if you do, please use the comment section), but there are 5 easy to spot signs that your church is actually designed to underperform at connection.

What I mean by that is that whether your church is growing or not, there are several key factors that predetermine whether people are able to connect. And very importantly, it's been conclusively determined that people want to belong before they want to believe. Therefore, if you hope to help people believe, hope to help them become followers of Jesus, you better figure out how to help them belong.

So what are the signs?  How can you tell if your church is actually designed to underperform at connection?  Here's what I've found.

Top 5 Signs Your Church is Designed to Underperform at Connection:

1. Your senior pastor is a reluctant champion of grouplife.

Churches where the senior pastor rarely talks about the importance of being connected are almost never easy environments for connection to happen. Without encouragement from your senior pastor, the most visible and influential person in the organization, it is just too easy for unconnected people to remain disconnected and on the fringes. Trouble is, life-change most frequently happens where there is dialogue. Life-change most frequently happens where people are known.

Life change happens in circles, not in rows, and that is not intuitive. Most unconnected people have not been led to understand this fundamental reality about spiritual growth. And a reluctant senior pastor is almost always at the very… Click To Tweet

See also TOP 5 THINGS EVERY SENIOR PASTOR NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT SMALL GROUP MINISTRY

2. Stories about the power of grouplife are rarely told.

If you want unconnected people to take a baby step and test-drive a group, there is nothing more compelling than a satisfied customer. While we're on the subject, stories told by satisfied customers (as opposed to stories about satisfied customers) are much more compelling. It's the reason marketers love testimonials.

When was the last time a great story about the power of grouplife was told during your worship service? How frequently are you telling great stories about grouplife? Remember, unconnected people are almost always infrequent attenders. If you're not regularly telling the right stories, they will infrequently be in the room when you tell them.

Unconnected people are almost always infrequent attenders. If you're not regularly telling the right stories, they will infrequently be in the room when you tell them. Click To Tweet

See also, How to Develop Video or Live Testimony That Recruits Leaders or Members.

3. Your church has no clear understanding of what a win is.

To borrow the phrase from the 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, if it's not clear to everyone that the goal is to be connected in a group where you can be known, challenged, loved, held accountable, forgiven, encouraged, etc., it will only happen for those people who instinctively gravitate toward community (You know who those people are. They create groups and grouplife opportunities even without your help). Everyone else will remain anonymous at their own peril...because they don't know any better.

See also, Clarifying the Win in Your Small Group Ministry.

4. Your church thinks programs instead of steps.

Again, to borrow from the7 Practices of Effective Ministry,, there need to be easy steps that lead to connection. If the hardest step for many people today is to walk into your auditorium for the first time, the next hardest step is to leave the auditorium to join a group in a strangers living room! The steps that are created also need to be obvious. They can't be hard to find (like when you have a buffet style ministry and only one of the menu items leads to grouplife).  Finally, the steps you create need to be strategic; they need to lead in the right direction with wasted time wandering.

Churches where being connected is commonplace and a normal part of the experience have made connection easy, obvious, and strategic.

Churches where being connected is commonplace and a normal part of the experience have made connection easy, obvious, and strategic. Click To Tweet

See also, Think Steps, Not Programs.

5. You spend too much time propping up existing groups and not enough time forming new groups.

Although counterintuitive to many, matchmaking (helping unconnected people find a spot in an existing group) is rarely productive. The easiest time for the largest number of unconnected people to put their toe in the water is when new groups are formed. Strategies like the Small Group Connection and a church-wide campaign (with the HOST strategy) allow new leaders to readily be identified.

New groups (and new leaders) lead to more groups, more new leaders, and more people connected.

New groups (and new leaders) lead to more groups, more new leaders, and more people connected. Click To Tweet

See also, 4 Predictable (and Unforgivable) Reasons for Adding New Members to Existing Groups and 6 Changes You Will Only Make When You Have No Other Choice.

How many of the signs does your church have?

If your church is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently experiencing, you must see the direct link between the signs of a poor design and your results. Failure to recognize the signs for what they are is a common problem. Failure to act on what you know is inexcusable.

Want do you think? Have a question? Want to argue?  You can click here to jump into the conversation.

Image by Jerry "Woody"