In order to work the process for developing committed people, you must have excellent infrastructure. By infrastructure, I mean information systems that keep people on track and help ensure that no one falls through the cracks. Churches have long been plagued by poor infrastructure. Sometimes it's sickening to think of how many people we've lost because we didn't track them properly.

Todd Rundgren is a little bit before my time, but I want you to think about his message in the lyrics to The Want of a Nail.

For the want of a shoe, the horse was lost
For the want of a horse, the rider was lost
For the want of a rider, the message was lost

For the want of a message, the battle was lost
For the want of a battle, the war was lost
For the want of a war, the kingdom was lost

(Such a tiny thing)

You're askin'
What's all this talk about horses and war?
Put yourself in the place of the man at the forge
And day after day you live a life without love
'Til the morning you can't take it anymore
And you don't get up

Tragic story, really... While the king was plotting a strategy for winning the battle that would ultimately win the war, he forgot the little things. No one remembered to check on the blacksmith who made the horseshoe nails. Eventually, the blacksmith felt so lonely and underappreciated that he just quit. And when he gave up, the nail, the horse, the rider, the message, the battle, the war, and the kingdom all failed. Rundgren continues...

Spread it all 'round the world
Put the curse of loneliness on every boy and every girl
Until everybody's kicking, everybody's scratching
Everything seems to fail
And it was all for the want of a nail.

Now that's the world we live in. There are people just like the blacksmith all over this world, lonely, searching, reaching. Many of them darken the doors of our churches weekly. They have so much potential to offer. They are the men and women who could make a difference in the world, the ones who must be plugged in, the ones who could become vital components to us achieving the vision of leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. But so often at churches all over this country, they fall through the cracks, unnoticed--until one day someone sees their name on a guest list printed years ago, asks who they are, and looks in vain to find out what happened to them. Who knows how many "nails" we've lost because we didn't care to find out!

I've written all that, to say this: Gateway will CONTINUALLY evaluate and update our infrastructure to effectively reach and follow-up with people in 2008... and beyond.

I really don't want to lose any more nails...

Later,
Thayer