In an age of declining church attendance, members can come to be seen as people giving units or things rather than real people with needs and stories. By introducing career connection groups, Marcus Watson wants to help churches escape that trap by joining what God is already doing rather than creating ministries meant to get people to show up.
He wants to help churches shift from a self-preservation mindset to one of being church. One way to be church is to restore shalom, a state of well-being. The mission of the church is to bring healing.
In the first 300 years of the early church, there was a strong missionary identity. When the Roman church was organized, it was assumed that everyone was a Christian. Over the past century, we have seen changes from what we grew up with. Not everyone identifies as Christian in our country today.
Church members sometimes leave the work of the church to clergy and missionaries and miss out on seeing God at work in their own vocational settings. This doesn’t just refer to our work, but wherever we spend our time.
As we look for where God is at work and come together, you become more involved. You will get more involved if you don’t leave everything up to the pastor.
Vocational connection groups meet monthly to listen to each other and discover how God uses our passions where we are to bring healing and wholeness to our community. They meet over the course of a year to see what new ministry opportunity might arise to try as a group.
Being aware of the needs of our community where we spend most of our time opens the doors to meeting those needs. Everyone has something to offer if we listen to each other.
All we have to do to see the state of our world right now is watch the news. There are voices that want to be heard and understood. How can we offer shalom to the situation? For me, it was meeting the parents of my students while doing school online due to pandemic closures. That was a good thing that came out of a new situation. It built a closer community base. It gave us the opportunity to get to know each other better. I wanted to be a support for them.
Now, I will be watching to see where God is taking me or leading me next.