Are You a Customer or a Promoter?
Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” —Matthew 28:18-20
The Great Commission made some things very clear. To follow Jesus doesn’t mean we’re now part of a fanbase. Neither does it mean we recognize the importance of following the tenets He taught. We’re more than that. When we give our life to Jesus, we become an organic extension of who He is. Our life mission now flows out of who we are in Christ.
Jesus assumed that the group He was with in Matthew 28 would be as focused about His mission as He was. His words framed an implied expectation that the many good things they could do would now be set aside for this one great thing that Jesus assumed they would do.
Frederich Reichheld is a business strategist. His research provides a portal into the world of customer loyalty. He defines loyalty as “someone’s willingness to make an investment or personal sacrifice in order to strengthen a relationship.” Therefore, customer loyalty is not just about being a “repeat customer.” A repeat customer may be trapped by circumstances that actually force them to repeat. For example, someone may fly the same airline repeatedly because it’s the only carrier to a particular city, or buy the same product because their budget forces them to settle. Those examples don’t reflect loyalty, just necessity.
In Reichheld’s terminology, church leaders seek to build congregations made up of loyal customers. (I apologize if that sounds rather businessy.) We hope people will want to come. We hope they will want to invest into the ministries we lead, even sacrifice to be part of what we’re trying to accomplish from week to week. And when they do, we feel a sense of accomplishment and gratitude.
So far, there’s nothing unbiblical or un-Christlike about that.
Unfortunately, though, that’s not enough. Loyalty to a local church may be honorable but loyalty to Jesus is required. The Great Commission is not just a challenge to be disciples. It’s a challenge to make them. Clearly, Jesus wants us to be promoters of His Kingdom.
For me, the most interesting takeaway from Reichheld’s research was what he discovered about customer surveys. Evidently, the inquiries those surveys make tend to offer little or any helpful information for the companies who solicit them. Typical surveys, he concluded, don’t ask questions that are relevant to profit growth. He believes the number one thing a survey needs to do is answer one simple question.
“How likely are you to recommend our product (or service) to a friend?”
Recommending something to a friend means that you not only use the product or service for yourself, but that you are willing to place your reputation on the line and recommend it to others. By the way, that was not just the number one question that mattered. Number two was a distant second!
In oikworld that’s really important because, when you think about it, everyone who follows Jesus is already a customer of the Gospel. We often say, “We’ve accepted Jesus as our personal Savior.” As individuals, we’ve said yes to His gracious offer of salvation by faith. But God has also placed anywhere from 8 to 15 people in the front row of each of our lives. It is with them (Jesus called them “your own people”) where Jesus-followers have the best chance to align their lives with the Great Commission and become promoters of the Gospel.
To help you recognize your own potential for impacting your own people, I’d encourage you to click here and take a quick self-inventory. (It’s the last page of the ebook.) It may help you reassess your oikos by asking a few more questions about each name on your list. It may also help you determine how some adjustments could help.