How to Reach Your Pond: Meet the Needs Around You
By Pastor Rick Warren
Last week, we talked about how to get on the same channel as the unchurched people around you ( the fish in your pond) by understanding how they think. If you missed that teaching, you can go back and read it here. This week, we’re going to talk about how to get their attention.
I believe anyone can be won to Christ if you discover the key to their heart. And what is that key? It’s their felt needs—their hurts, their struggles, their desires.
You start where people are hurting. You’ll never have a problem getting someone’s attention if you’re meeting their needs.
Responding to the hurts in people’s lives establishes a beachhead for the gospel. When you meet someone’s need, you build a bridge from your heart to their heart and let Jesus walk across. This is the whole idea behind the FTT’s B goal, Bridges of Love – the idea that every nonbeliever would experience a tangible expression of God’s love in their life by 2033.
Why Meeting Needs Matters
Do you ever feel like we sometimes have to beg and plead for people to come to Christ? Why is that? It’s because they haven’t yet seen how Christ is the answer to their needs.
Once they understand that Jesus can make a positive difference in their life, they’ll want to receive Him.
The Bible says, “The children of this world are wiser than the children of light.” Jesus told us to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
Wisdom means knowing people and how they work. Why was Jesus so successful? Because he knew people. He knew their needs, their interests, their hurts.
Capturing Their Attention
That’s why one of the most important questions we can ask as witnesses—or as churches—is:
“How can we get their attention?”
In the past, that was easy. The church was the biggest building in town. The pastor was one of the most respected people in the community. The church calendar was the social calendar.
None of that is true anymore.
Now, the church competes with countless other voices. You can’t just hang a sign that says, “Revival tonight—y’all come.”
We have to start with people’s needs.
The Secret of Success: Find a Need and Fill It
That’s the key to evangelism—and to a healthy, growing church. A church will never grow beyond its capacity to meet needs.
So what are the needs of the unchurched?
It depends on your community. Every area is different, which is why we need to listen, observe, and ask questions.
But in general, people’s greatest needs aren’t physical—they’re emotional.
They’re looking for love, acceptance, self-esteem, forgiveness, purpose, and peace of mind.
We can’t attract people by trying to out-entertain the world. They already have their fill of entertainment. What they don’t have is hope.
What they can’t find anywhere else is what only Jesus can offer: love, forgiveness, hope, peace, joy, faith, and confidence.
When the church meets real needs, attendance isn’t a problem. People will come, because everyone is looking for what only Jesus can give.
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Next in This Series
Next week we’ll talk about how fish get hungry at different times – and how that relates to receptivity to the gospel.
If you missed the previous post, you can check out Learning to Think Like the Fish in Your Pond.
For more resources on sharing your testimony, visit https://finishingthetask.com/believers/
