People trump Environment

Today I met with Joe McGrew. Joe has been leading our Frontline ministry for about a year now, and is doing an amazing job. Anyway, Joe had a revolutionary idea that I think is going to transform Frontline ministry. (I say “revolutionary” because of its potential impact on Frontline)

Joe asked,” what would it look like for Frontline Ministry to become more about people and less about setting up?”

Okay, on the surface that’s a “duh” question. That ministry was originally created for people, so why has it’s focus subtly shifted to setting up? Has Frontline become about setting up church instead of being the church? Maybe it’s the fact that they set up 75 feet of pipe and drape, chop zillions of pastries, set up indoor and outdoor signs and try and make nasty restrooms look somewhat presentable. Let’s be honest, when you have that much stuff to do, people can quickly become an afterthought instead of the driving focus.

What would be better: to have an amazing environment with music, food and lots of pipe and drape -OR- to have a team of people waiting and willing to make our guests and members feel welcome?  People trump environment.

Have you ever heard about the famous fish market in Seattle? You know the famous one. There are a million fish markets but only one with the famous flying fish. The environment is nothing special, as a matter of fact, it stinks. But do you know what makes this fish market world renown? It’s the people who make the difference. People trump environment.

Here’s the hard reality.  If you truly believe that people are our number one asset, then Frontline can quickly eliminate a lot of stuff. Theoretically, they could eliminate most of the pipe and drape, restroom decorations and even the food. (OUCH!)

It will be interesting to observe the transformation of Frontline over the next few months.