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You may recall that we began our study with a look at the discovery and development of Velcro.  In the trade world it is referred to as a "hook and loop" fastening system.  When two pieces of Velcro are pressed together the myriad of tiny hooks become intertwined with the loops.  The more hooks you have in contact with loops, the more secure will be your connection. 

The same is true when it comes to your church.  The more hooks and loops you put in place to become intertwined with one another the more effective will be the kingdom impact of your church.  This in turn will enable your church to grow spiritually and physically.  The growth of your church has a direct impact on the number of persons who will have the joy of spending eternity with Christ.  This is precisely why Jesus' last command was for the church to make disciples of all the nations.  Don't become so bogged down with the details of this book that your forget the ultimate goal. 

In the first three chapters, we have looked at:

• the hook side of the equation as we focused on maximizing our contacts with persons in our community.
• the need to engage every guest with intentionality once they have responded to our invitation to visit our small group or church.
• ways to participate in the wonderful process of leading our friends to Christ. 

We have been moving people from every sphere of our community to become our guests at a small group event or church-wide event.  In the last chapter we looked at guests becoming friends of our best friend, Jesus.  Notice that the hook element of the Velcro process has been in effect during this entire first phase of our process of connecting people to Christ.  In this chapter we are looking at the first loop in the Velcro process.  We now want to connect our friends to community so that they can become family. 

Don't lose sight of the fact that our ultimate goal is to secure as many people as possible to Christ and His church so that they may enjoy serving Him for all eternity.   The church is the only earthly organization that will exist for all eternity (Rev. 21:2).  Nothing you accomplish through any earthly organization will have the eternal impact of that which you accomplish through the church. 

Encountering the Word

Ken Hemphill is the author of several books related to Sunday School. He will be speaking at several of our All Star Sunday School Training events. We have several dates we are looking for dates in the Fall. See http://allstarsundayschool.com/