A Word About LINKs

About 60 years ago, Donald McGavran observed, “People don’t like to cross barriers to become Christians.” He was a missionary in India at the time, and the cultural barriers between castes were still quite significant and nearly insurmountable.  However, his observation still pertains.

In church life we have discovered that people gravitate toward other people like themselves. A young couple with a two-year-old and another baby on the way has a lot in common with another young couple in the same circumstances. A middle-aged woman who has been single her entire adult life will probably connect best with other women in the same life situation.  It is just natural.

At the Overland Park Church, there was a grass roots movement a few years ago that substantiated this theory. The result of that movement was LINKS.

LINK stands for Leadership, Involvement, and Networking the Kingdom.  Originally, a LINK was described as a church within the church. We have seen LINKS as a great opportunity for training people in leadership, for getting people involved in ministry and for helping people connect with others like themselves. Our Adult Bible Study ministry on Sunday morning is structured around the LINKS.  LINKS, however, are not just Bible class. To use a mathematical term, the Adult Bible Studies are a subset of the LINKS, and the LINKS are a subset of the Overland Park Church.  For example, there are nearly 200 active, retired seniors at this church. Around 75 attend Bible class on a regular basis.  All 200, however, are considered part of that LINK.

Before LINKS, the elders here were trying to shepherd in geographical groupings. They had no "assistant leadership" and they could never get more than two families together at a time. LINKS have allowed them to shepherd more cohesively when they have had the time to do so.

Before LINKS, youth ministers had no effective way of communicating with the parents of the teens. They had to "depend" on the teens themselves to communicate things to their parents. Now the student ministry has one group with a cohesive leadership with which they can communicate upcoming events, etc.  Before LINKS, average class attendance on Sunday morning was about 75% of what it became after LINKS got into full swing. New people almost always ask (if they're interested in a Bible class), "What one should we go to?" Before LINKS, most would gravitate to the one the preacher was teaching. With LINKS (and ABS) we started a rotation of teachers through the classes with appropriate time for each class to have some "situation specific" modules as well.

Movement between LINKS is fairly fluid. When a couple decides to move from the Empty Nesters LINK to the STARS (Servant Team of Active Retired Seniors) LINK, they simply start attending a different adult Bible class. We do not require anyone to attend a particular class.

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