Wednesday Planter: Personal Transition #5: They're "people," stupid, not “prospects”.

Here's a dirty little secret most pastors won't share: They keep "prospect" lists - like a potential sales list...a sort of "people I need to get to buy into us" list. I even know pastors who have quotas. For years I believed a statement made by a pastor I respected and wanted to be like: "A pastor who isn't leading two people a week to the Lord isn't worth his hire."

I used to keep Prospect Lists - two of them, in fact: One a short-term list, the other a long-term list. The short-term list had the names of the people I thought I could persuade to join the church within the next six months. Anyone longer than that was on the long-term list.

I realize now that at that point in my life, I had more in common with a hooker than a shepherd. After becoming healthy and returning to the ministry in 1995, I was struck by this verse:

"...for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread (Proverbs 6:26)..."

In other words, the hooker looks at you and says to herself, "If I can entice him to join me for a few minutes, it'll be worth X-number of dollars to me, and with that, I can buy (whatever)." I looked at my prospect lists and knew in the past I'd said to myself, "If I can entice him to come to church, that'll please my eldership and that's job security and financial security for me..." Ouch.

I dropped that list.

I stopped seeing them as "things to be conquered for Christ" and started seeing them as friends at a different point on the same journey as me - friends who will listen to those they trust and love. My goal is now to be that loving, trusted friend who can tell them what was over the next horizon on their spiritual journey - and who could walk with them as they looked at the horizon.

And suddenly, my ministry began to grow. Go figure.

Btw, I don't lead two people to the Lord in a week EVER. The Holy Spirit does that. But I often have the privilege of being there when they "get it." Sometimes that's zero in a week. Other times, it's 15 or 20 people in a week.

It's amazing what happens when ego gets out of the way and God gets to be God on His terms rather than mine. :)