Have you ever considered differences between being involved and engaged? For a bacon and egg breakfast, a chicken is involved, the pig, however, is fully engaged. Involvement and engagement are two completely different mechanisms evidencing distinctive levels of participation. Many New Testament churches today are filled with people involved in the church, yet not engaged.

A person can be involved in church for decades yet never engage. You can attend church every weekend for 70 years and never become engaged. Likewise, a person can attend Bible study for years/decades without ever engaging in maturing as a believer. Sadder yet is many of these “involvers” have no clue they are not growing Christians.

Much of the liability for this fallacy rests with the church. For a couple decades churches used a specific set of Bible study classes as “Discipleship”. In my denomination those classes took place on Sunday, prior to an evening worship service. Then we dropped those classes due to lack of attendance. Few people were offered the opportunity to be engaged in true Discipleship. No engagement led to lack of involvement.

While Bible studies are important in Discipleship, Discipleship is not a set of classes. Discipleship is a lifestyle requiring engagement in principled practices.  In Philippians 2:12 the apostle Paul tells us, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” This is our maturing in Christlikeness throughout our lifetime as believers. To work out your own salvation, to advance in Christlikeness requires more than involvement. It requires engagement.

Follow these suggestions for moving people from involvement to engagement in gospel ministry.

• Get to know the people, discover their passions and aspirations. People will serve out of their God-given passions and be willing to grow through the use of those passions. Serving out of passion is engagement.
• Provide opportunities for service and growth. Service opportunities come both inside and outside of the church. A person will learn more in one act of service than four weeks of classroom instruction. Engagement always brings a higher level of learning.
• Pair people up or create small groups of 3-5 disciples who will challenge and encourage one another in their discipleship growth. Challenging and encouraging one another ensues engaging one another and causes everyone to engage.
• Give encouragement. Showing appreciation demonstrates that you care. When people realize you truly care about who they are becoming, engagement will follow.
• Issue challenges for engagement. Growth never takes place in the comfort zone. When we challenge people to engage in something new, greater, outside his/her comfort zone, his/her engagement will bring joy and insight for future engagement.

These five are not all inclusive of moving people from involvement to engagement, but they are tested, tried, and true. You can research and add others as you master these, and God aligns greater engagement opportunities for your church members.

When we stand before God, may we not be relegated to say we had many people “involved” in our church. Let it be proclaimed of us that we led many to fruitfully engage in the ministry of Christ.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.