Why Focus On "Tim"

In a breakout session, I received a great question about why we focus our efforts on “Timonium Tim” (the person unconnected to Church) and not on Church people. Why is he our target audience? We focus on the person unconnected to Church because:

1. When we aim at disconnected Catholics we will hit connected Catholics. The inverse does not hold true: if you aim at Church people, you will not hit disconnected Catholics. This has proven in the growth of our Church. As we have focused on people unconnected to Christ and his Church we have seen both a growth in the number of people who attend Nativity and a deepening of discipleship among Church people.

2. If we don’t focus on Timonium Tim we will inadvertently become inaccessible to disconnected Catholics. Churches have something in their DNA that naturally makes them turn inward. From the very beginning of the Church (read Acts 15) the Church had to fight the temptation to erect barriers to people who were not already connected to the Church. We have to constantly focus on Tim or we will turn inward.

3. It is why we exist. The Church exists to evangelize and bring people who are unconnected or disconnected from Christ into a relationship with him. If our core product, the weekend experience is not open to Tim then our Church will not be inspired to reach him. The weekend is the engine that runs the Church and so if the weekend experience does not target Tim nothing else will.

4. Tim will come to Church on the weekends. The time disconnected Catholics are most willing to give Church a try is on the weekend. If we don’t speak to Tim on the weekend or offer a welcoming environment, he will assume he is not welcome.

5. Focusing on disconnected Catholics on the weekend gives us the best opportunity to partner together for the purpose of evangelization. On the weekends, our ministry teams partner together to create an irresistible environment. We partner together as a Church on the weekends so that all of us can invest in disconnected Catholics during the week and confidently invite them to Church on the weekends. We know we have a team of people behind us working together for the same purpose.

For a great message on this strategy listen to week four of a series Go Fish by Andy Stanley, titled “Fishing Partners.

Personally, I need to focus more on “Timonium Tim”. I am feeling a personal drift when it comes to investing and inviting in people disconnected to Church: in my writing, in my greeting at Church and in my personal life, in my prayer life I am not praying for people unconnected to Christ and his Church. I need to rededicate myself to this purpose.

Do you agree that Churches should focus on non-Churched people first?