With all the creative changes going on in church staffing, one would think churches would consider adding a pastor to the marketplace to build relationships within the business community. Offering ideas like: job boards for local business owners and candidates to find each other, mentoring for older executives to mentor younger executives, pier to pier groups for executives of faith, assisting executives with integrating faith into their companies, executive lunches where successful executives gather around a meal, with one executive sharing his testimony of faith, and offering top notch networking events that would rival anything the local chambers would offer.
Additionally, virtual groups on Linked In or Facebook would be perfect in establishing a place for all business and marketplace individuals to meet, fellowship, encourage one another. Sadly, as I read about the church staffing trends, the trends continue to be inward-focused to the church, instead of outward-focused to the world He came and wept over. Everyone goes to work, and so precious few go to church. Shouldn’t we create, empower and equip professionals to connect with the world of work?
Developing and implementing a marketplace strategy is crucial if the church is going to touch and reach the world for Christ. Offering solutions, ideas, and tools for business professionals, opens up so many opportunities for unchurched relationships to occur. One of the greatest challenges the church faces today, is establishing relationships with the unchurched. We have a tendency to have the members of our churches down at the church two to four times a week, leaving no time for relationships with the lost and unchurched. We must resist the bait of programmania, and allow the church ample opportunities and time to connect with the world. Just a thought!