You ever stepped into a packed church and felt like you were the only one without a buddy? Yeah, that’s a real vibe, and it’s one of the biggest hurdles churches are facing today. We’re diving into this crucial conversation about how to not just get people through the doors, but to genuinely connect them, creating a space where they truly belong. Today, we’ve got the incredible Dustin Dozier on the mic, a guy who’s all about bridging that gap and building authentic relationships in the church community. So, if you’re a pastor, a volunteer, or just someone who cares about helping others grow in their faith, you’re in for a treat. Stick around as we explore connection, discipleship, and the heart of Dustin's book, "The Connected Church."

Takeaways:

• Feeling alone in a crowded church is a common struggle, highlighting the need for genuine connection.
• The challenge for churches today isn't just attendance but fostering a sense of belonging and community.
• Building authentic relationships in the church is essential for discipleship and personal growth in faith.
• Dustin's experiences show that effective follow-up systems can significantly enhance guest retention and church engagement.
• Small groups and personal connections are key to creating a deep, meaningful church community.
• Pastors are encouraged to prioritize their personal connection with God to effectively lead and minister to others.

Links referenced in this episode:

• theconnectedchurch.com

Have you ever walked into a church filled with people and still feel completely alone? What if one of the greatest challenges facing churches today isn't getting people through the doors, but helping them truly belong once they arrive?

Today's guest has dedicated his ministry to answering that question.

He has helped launch multiple campuses, create pathways for thousands of guests to connect, and has become a leading voice in helping churches move beyond attendance to authentic discipleship and transformation.

When you're a pastor, church leader, volunteer, or someone passionate about helping people grow in their faith, this conversation will challenge and encourage you. Stay tuned as we talk about connection, discipleship, leadership, as Dustin Doer's powerful book, the Connective Church.

Dustin, welcome to the podcast.

Hey, thank you so much for having me on, man. It's an honor.

Well, I'm so glad to talk to you. I'm looking forward to this conversation. So I'm going to ask you my favorite question. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Yeah, so for me, man, that's such a good question.

I think when I first started ministry, I reached out to my youth pastor and I said, hey, I'm about to say yes to this full time job in ministry as a youth pastor. What piece of advice would you give? And this is what he told me. He said, never sacrifice your family for ministry.

And to me, that is huge because, you know, being in ministry, being a pastor, you just wear a lot of hats. And not that there's not times that things get in the way, but he told me, he said, your wife is always your wife, your kids are always your kids.

The church, churches will come and go and church members will come and go. So never sacrifice your family for ministry. So I try to live by that standard in a lot of ways that's good.

I always tell people, it's like, you know, when I get old and I have to have my diapers changed, you won't be there for me,.

I hope. I'm not at that level. Oh, my goodness. I know the cycle of life, right?

You, you change their diapers when they're small and they have to do it to you when you're older.

I know. See, so like, there we go. So tell us about your ministry journey. How has God led you into leadership at upstate church?

Man, it has been a crazy journey for sure. And that's what God does. Didn't grow up in church.

I was actually in middle school, really kind of a skater punk kid, just getting in trouble all the time. And my freshman year of high school got invited to a Church event. I went and this is kind of my story.

I went because there was a cute girl and some free pizza. So I went to a church lock in, heard the gospel for the first time and man, God just got ahold of me and several months later gave my life to Christ.

And then, then really became a student ministry intern. Several years later, kind of started dipping my toes in ministry and started in student ministry.

The first church I was at in the Atlanta area was a student pastor of middle school and high school. And now I serve at Upstate Church, which is a multi site 10 campus location church in Greenville, South Carolina.

And it's just been a crazy, crazy journey to see what God's doing. And so here I am with my, my wife leading. I lead a campus, so I'm a teaching campus pastor.

So I preach every Sunday and then I also oversee next steps and connections and the assimilation process for all 10 campuses with a incredible team across the board at each campus. And so it's a lot of fun.

The thing we're going to talk about today, I think is one thing that churches struggle with the most and that is once people come in the door, how do we connect them? That's one thing I always talk with churches about in my role as a mission executive.

So what first sparked your passion for helping people take that next step with Jesus?

Well, I think one, it's ingrained in just my personal story. Not growing up in church, going to church, I didn't really know what to expect.

But there was great, Even as a 14 year old, there was great anxiety of what do I need to wear, how do I need to talk, what do I need to look like and act like. And so for me it's that at the heart of everything that I do.

But I think so often when it comes to church world that we see kind of this chasm of people want to check out church or they come to check out church and they have a bad experience or people are leaving the church because they've had a bad experience and people are looking for something. And at the key core level, I've just found being a pastor that people want community.

They want to know that they belong, that they are known and the church is the greatest place to offer that.

And so really this heart of one as a pastor, seeing people come to our church and just attend, but also seeing people that have been in church their entire lives not really connect to deep meaningful conversations and that's not how it should be. So that kind of sparked this passion in me at our church.

And to help other pastors in churches really say, how do we get people to take a step and really connect, not just attend church?

So I'm going to ask this question from the church perspective. Everybody would love to see people come. We love having new members be there.

But why do so many churches struggle helping attendees become engaged once they do come and join?

Man, that's a loaded question that we could really spend a ton of time.

On because I do think solve everybody's problem. That's why they're listening. So you could solve all that.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I don't know about all the problems. I'm not that guy. But I think a couple key things. I think the church has shifted where it used to be.

Build it and they will come. So we used to see tent revivals, big evangelistic outreaches and people trusted the church and so they would come. It was part of everyday life.

But now the church is no longer the centerpiece of the city and community. And I really do think in the last, I don't know, 10 years especially, we just are. We live in a world of skepticism.

It used to be, you know, I trust you until you give me a reason not to trust you. Now it is, I don't trust you. And you really have to prove to me that you're someone I can trust. And I think the church is in that realm.

I think a lot of churches have done a disservice to people and friendships and have hurt people or have led them astray. But I think people are looking for authenticity.

And oftentimes in church world, what's broken is we count numbers of people who attend and we make the Sunday morning experience incredible. Which it needs to be. It doesn't need to be a distraction, it doesn't need to be a performance.

But we drift off on the follow up process and authentically caring about people, taking steps. So we make it very, very complicated. We use churchy language, we say it's from program to program. And that's just not how people are wired.

People want community, they need to build trust and it has to be baby steps. So for a church that says, hey, you're new, why don't you do this? That next step needs to be one small little step for them to connect.

That will just ease the pressure, ease the anxiety and have people who actually care about people help guide in that process.

I love to use one of my favorite go to quotes in all my presentations. If you build it, they will come. Being here in Iowa and the field of dreams, that's one of my.

Yeah, people.

I would know that phrase. I love that you use that.

Oh, yeah. I'm a huge baseball fan. So I grew up in Atlanta and the Braves are like my go to team and I love any kind of baseball analogies. For sure.

I won't hold that against you.

Okay. Please, please. Who do you. Who do you cheer for? I'm a card in Iowa. Okay. I guess you're right. Okay, that's good. So let's talk about connection.

What does true connection look like for the church from a biblical perspective?

Yeah, I think the standard is really what you find in Acts chapter two and chapter four.

You get the start of the early church and it wasn't Jesus going around towns and saying, hey, meet me at the tabernacle at 10 o' clock for our modern service. For him it was personal relationships.

Then you see the early church form and in Acts chapter two, you see they're devoted to the apostles, teaching, to the breaking of bread, to the fellowship, and they're sharing each other's needs and they have all things in common. And it's at a deep, meaningful, connected sphere. And so for me, for the church, it is really all about these deep, meaningful connections.

In my book, the Connected Church, I say this. We are the most connected generation on the face of all of human history, but yet we're completely disconnected. We're not in groups.

We don't have deep community. I know I'm guilty of spending nights just scrolling on my phone endlessly and there's some good decompression that happens in that.

But we are designed for relationship with obviously God being the most important connection, but then connection with others. And that's where the church should step in. We should focus on deep connection with other people who are do.

We're doing life together and growing and iron sharpening iron moments where, hey, man, that's just how we are connected.

So that's really, from a biblical perspective, how the church should connect with others to engage the unchurched or the dechurched and equip the church, the believers.

So let's get into your bestselling book, the Connected Church. It addresses one of the most important challenges in ministry today. So let's talk about the heart behind the message.

What inspired you to write the Connected Church?

Yeah, so I kind of shared a little bit of my personal story, but the church, the campus that I launched was our third campus. And we existed for nine months before COVID hit.

And we were doing a lot of incredible things, but it really essentially was show up on Sunday, have worship. And let me tell you, the preaching was so good, Keith. It was awesome. So. But no, they had.

And then Covid hit and we closed down for, I don't know, six or seven weeks maybe. And then when we came back, because we didn't have small group, we didn't have students at the time, there wasn't a deep connection. It was.

It felt empty. And it just hit me in the face of, all right, what are we doing?

And so from there started to develop systems in place and really this passion of, hey, let's look and evaluate. How are we connecting first time guests? How are we. What steps are we saying are the next step? Do we have small groups in homes?

Do we have things for new believers for? Is there really intentionality behind that? And that's really what started it. And then we started to scale it and God just blessed it.

He just did amazing things and grateful for that. It's not perfect by any means, but in the first year, we saw our guest retention rate go from 21% to 52%.

And that was just a huge mark for us because that's how you allow the church to grow, not just numerically, but really in building disciples and getting people plugged in in their journey with Jesus.

So as I look at this book, there's a lot of great stuff in there. Who are you targeting in writing this book? Who is this written for?

Yeah, so I went. It's kind of interesting. You say that my heart was for the pastor and church leader.

So whether that's a senior pastor at a smaller church, if that's an executive pastor or discipleship pastor, that was really my heart or even like a connections, first impressions, coordinator, director, ironically enough that the more people that have read it, the more feedback I get.

Like every church member should read this because it opens up your eyes not just to the processes and pathways that a church should have, but the eyes and the heart of every church member that looks at a guest and really evaluates themselves. Am I connected to the body of Christ? Am I abiding in him one in my relationship? But am I serving? Am I giving?

Am I helping other people and share about Jesus and man? My hope is it will really help pastors. I'm sure you do this too.

I go to different conferences or annual conventions or associations, and so many pastors are, man, they're just burdened. They want to see their. I've never met a church or I've never met a pastor that doesn't want his church to grow.

You know or to reach people who don't know Jesus. And a lot of pastors are just, they don't have the budget, they don't have the resources. They feel like they're wearing a gazillion hats.

So how do I do that? And really my heart was to speak to that person, that individual and say man, here's a process. People are people.

You don't need a ton of money, you don't need a big facility and a team of 75 staff. Man love on people. Well and just be clear and defined process for your church of what step do you want them to take.

And that will lead to a deep connection to at the end of the day, hopefully an outcome to grow your church.

So I want to get into a little more detail. Your book, chapter one I thought was really interesting. The understand the disconnected epidemic.

Talk a little bit about the epidemic you talk about in chapter one.

Yeah, so I know I kind of alluded to this a little bit, but it is an epidemic that we're completely. We're connected but disconnected. And we've seen things like loneliness increase, depression increase, we're starting to see suicide rates increase.

And this happens outside the walls of the church. But certainly we're seeing pastors that are dealing and struggling with these type of things. And so there's got to be a problem.

And I know the problem is that we are superficial. We're comparing to people that we see online. We're trying to be an influencer of some sort.

So we're just in this really kind of nasty thing and we get in this vicious cycle that just eats at us. And I think every follower of Christ and non follower of Christ would say at some point there's an emptiness inside of me.

And so that's really the disconnect that I talk about that Pascal says we all have kind of this God sized void or shape in our hearts that we try to fill it with things, but it never fully satisfies it's only God because that's our designer. He made us in his image and so he needs to be the primary connection and then deep meaningful relationships. We can't do life alone.

Your chapter two reminds me of a book I read years ago from Tony Evans about returning to your first love. So tell us a little bit about how we do that connection. Cause I think that's a connection we sometimes overlook in church.

We just think it's gonna happen by naturally showing up. So how do you, you know, kind of expand on chapter two for us?

Yeah, so chapter two I talk about how the most important connection is our connection with God. Now for the pastor and leader, and I'm guilty of this. It can be really easy for my personal time with God to become sermon prep.

I can just look at the same verse over and over and over or even make the excuse, I'm in ministry, I'm preaching, I'm good. Well, I can't lead people where I'm not currently at. And so it is a balance and it needs to be a passion of mine.

If I'm not in a good healthy place with my relationship with God, there's no way I can lead others to do the same. I can't lead a church. I can't disciple people the way that God wants me or intends for me to be.

So I think there's that on the ministry side and then on the everyday side, whether you're in ministry or not, we are so busy. And I mean, how many times, you know, someone comes up to us and says, hey, how's it going?

And our first natural response is, man, I'm just, it's crazy. I'm so, so busy. I have three teenage boys and their sports schedules are nuts. And so we are hijacked by busyness and it infiltrates our lives.

And so we don't have time in the morning, we're too tired at night. And then what happens is that the only time we talk about God or spend time in God's word is on Sunday mornings.

If that, you know, and let the pastor talk to us for an hour. And that is not good. Jesus said, abide in me and I in you. And so it is this ongoing relationship that that connection is huge.

We can't let a one hour sermon or even like a Facebook post with a cool Bible verse and you know, some commentary supplement our personal connection with the Lord.

I love chapter three. Chapter three speaks right to my heart. Reaching the disconnected community.

Give us just like one nugget for you talked about the pastor who this is their heart, this is their passion, but they just don't have time. What I run across, especially with pastors is they may have the heart and the passion, they don't have the know how.

So give me a little nugget for those people about chapter three.

Yeah, I think what I would say is a good nugget and I've learned is I can't isolate myself in a holy huddle. I can't just spend time with just church people. They are the greatest influence on my life.

The church I serve at, at Upstate Church man, the staff here are my best friends. But if I'm not hanging out with the disconnected man, I'll lose sight. And I would even say some passion and urgency of things. I become numb to it.

So for me and our church gives me a man. I'm like a coffee house junkie. There's a coffee house. I drop my son off at school. I go to that same coffee house. They know me by name.

People jokingly say it's my office, which that's kind of true. But I start up conversations there. And so I'm in the community doing that. I coach my kids basketball flag football team.

So whether that's at the Y or, you know, whatever, just the community league, I. I'm able to invest in other parents and other kids that way that it's not just the church league or just a upward team. I'm looking for opportunities we serve on or we did when the kids were younger on PTAs and school improvement committees.

Get to know people outside of the office and of your church so that you can reach the disconnected. I think it's a game changer for us.

Yeah. I remember my favorite place was Starbucks. It got to be a really expensive habit.

Yeah, it is. I love those reward programs. Yeah.

When I walk in, I just have my order ready. So I get that. Yeah.

Let's talk about chapter four, because I remember talking to a large church pastor once and he realized that he noticed in his church that they were a mile wide and an inch deep. And so talk to me a little bit about what does it mean to be a connected church and creating a culture of connection.

Yeah. I think being at a big church, sometimes we get a bad rap of all you care about is numbers and your Sunday morning experience.

You don't care about discipleship. And we have to fight that all the time because 100%. And I love, like our lead Pastor Wayne Bray. Man has a heart for discipleship.

And that's really what connection is. We're good at church of getting them in the door, getting them to serve. We got holes to plug.

Get in a small group or Sunday school class, and then we kind of. That's it. And that's not discipleship. Discipleship is an ongoing relational process.

So really, in sharing that, that means everything is working together in the church world. Everything. Nothing should be siloed. And so ministry should know handoffs and next steps. I preach this to the choir of every church pastor I talk to.

It's not okay. It's not a competition of man, I hope Student ministry.

The student pastor is doing his thing and all he cares about is his lane and he doesn't care about anything. El we all have a piece to the pie that that's what the connected church does.

So what happens in preschool directly affects what happens in kids ministry. And what happens in kids is preparing them for students and so forth. And they're all different aspects of taking a next step.

And everyone, everyone has a next step. So whether you're an 8 year old kid or you're a 65 year old senior adult, there's a next step for you to take.

And that's what the connected church is about. Not a bunch of silos working together as the body of Christ.

Each one playing a part and doing this together because we're all on the same team and we just need to be rowing. We're in the boat, let's just row in the same direction because we want people to know Jesus and further their connection with him.

Wow.

Yeah, that's hard because, you know, I always say it like this, that attendance gets people in the doors and I would even back a little bit is that your worship service gets people in the doors.

Even prior to that, your website, now your social media presence, and it kind of gets them and I like to refer to it kind of this analogy of it's the curb appeal.

So when you drive by a house, you know, you're going to check out the outside and you're either going to say, I want to buy this house or I want to go into this house. Check it out a little bit more. Well, that's our website and our worship service.

Once they're in the way that you are inviting them into your house, are clear next steps.

And then small groups needs to be a piece of that because what that is is saying, hey, come sit at the table, let's eat dinner together and let's do life. And so small groups is huge. I get this all the time.

Where if people leave our church, they might say something like this, man, I'm just not really connected. I'm like, okay, well, tell me about that. Are you in a small group?

No.

Do you serve anywhere? No. All right, so you come for one hour and you get talked to or preached at for one hour. That's not how. Of course you're not going to be Connected.

You need other people in a circle to do life. And so I think life is built not in, I forget who coined this phrase. Not in rows but in circles.

And I think as we're doing that, I know for me, when I'm in a small group, man, I'm like, oh, like they're going through the same thing I am. Or I never thought about it that way. It's strengthening my relationship. Or I'll say, oh, I thought I was a crazy parent. They're a crazy parent.

So, you know, you get to do life and you're sharing that. That's where mill trains happen and prayer happens. Confess your s to one another and pray for each other so you can be healed.

All of that strengthens your relationship with Christ. We can't do it alone. So small groups has to be a piece, whatever you call it, small groups, Sunday school life groups, dgroups, whatever.

Some type of intentional community has to be a part of your church's model so that community can be built. Now, it's messy, but it has to be there.

So I'm gonna ask you about volunteers. Every church always says, we never have enough volunteers. But you have in your book a chapter on volunteers.

So what role do volunteers play in building connected church cultures?

Yeah, I think volunteers, until Jesus comes back, we're always gonna have a problem with volunteers. And so I think, I don't think I've ever heard a pastor or ministry leader say, no, we're good, we don't need any more. We always need more.

Especially now. I feel like people are so busy, they're like, I just can't commit to that. So I think it's a double edged sword with volunteers.

Obviously every church needs them. You're allowing people to step into their gift set.

I think our volunteers need to own the mission of the church where they're able to really love the church and love the church well and see the mission, but then they're able to be an extension of staff and, you know, just the culture of what you're trying to do, whatever your church context is, that is huge. But where we fall short as ministry leaders is often, once again, we plug a hole and we're like, oh, you're interested in serving with preschoolers?

Great. Hey, how about next Sunday? And there you go, you're plugged in and that's it. I'm a big proponent.

Not to say that I'm the best at this, but our volunteers need to be loved on. They need to be cared for, they need to be shepherded. Because they are the vehicle of connection. They are.

There's something to be said when a volunteer that doesn't get paid invest into a student, let's say a small group leader and is really mentoring and pouring into the life of a middle schooler, high schooler, more so than mom and dad and coming alongside. That's what it's all about. That's the connected church.

Not just let me check it off my to do list and I volunteered and did my moral thing for the year, but to own it, say no, I get to invest in these five guys lives. And I'm really praying that for me.

And this is where it gets personal for me, Keith, is that not growing up in church, not having parents that are Christians. I had a great church experience in high school and we had great events and different camps and retreats and all that.

I couldn't tell you the theme, scripture, what games we played, I couldn't tell you any of that. But I can tell you this. Barry Little was my small group leader. He showed up to football games, baseball games. He invited me to lunch with his family.

I saw him as a dad, as a husband, as a Christian man. And it changed me. And that's what volunteers have the power and influence to do.

I love it. So you have a lot of experience doing this as a connecting person.

What's one of the most effective next steps for someone new to a church that you've experienced or led?

Yeah, I think a clearly defined follow up system is key. Most churches have some type of greeting team at the door or what I would call like a connections first impressions team. And that's great.

I think there needs to be some intentionality there. But after the first time guest comes and you collect their information, hopefully you're doing that. What is that 30 day process?

Is it personal, is it intentional? Is it showing that you really do care?

And so what I'd like to teach is within 48 hours there's some kind of personal contact, whether that is a text, a phone call, an email, something that says thank you so much for coming. And then you kind of start to nurture that.

That there's a couple pieces of that puzzle in the first 10 days where this might surprise people that so the church. I'm at 10 campuses, we average around 6,000 on a Sunday and we write handwritten notes to every first time guest. So it's not some automated software.

I literally spend Tuesdays taking anyone who came to my campus on Sunday writing a handwritten note. And if I had a dollar I Share about this in the book.

If I had a dollar, I wish it was $5 for every time someone said, man, I'm so thankful I couldn't tell you the last time I got a handwritten note. It just means the world. It means that they actually feel seen and valued and cared for, not just a guest who like just flew in. And so that is huge.

Your follow up system is key to any church staff to make sure you're following up well and showing them that, hey, you're grateful that they came.

Wow. So our podcast is called Becoming Bridge Builders. What does it mean to be a bridge builder to you?

Yeah, man, I think for me there are so many things that are barriers in life. And so when it comes to church welcoming, somebody can get them in the room, but connecting them gets them into life.

And I feel like being a bridge builder is not just seeing somebody and be like, all right, they're over there. It's saying, hey, I want to connect with you. I want to get to know your name.

And.

And that's huge because I think, like I said, we live in a world that sometimes people don't care what your name is. They just trying to sell you something or they don't want to know you at all. And so when someone's like, hey, what's your name, man, it's huge.

So I think that's building bridges to then invest in someone's life and really pour into them. And everyone has a story, so you get to know their story and speak into it and get to know them before you judge a book by its coverage.

So, yeah, it's great. So here's our lightning round time. We kind of do some fun stuff.

Here to get better.

So coffee or tea?

Coffee, definitely coffee.

Early morning or late night?

Ooh, I'm kind of weird. I'm like both of that. I probably need more sleep, but I'm going to go with early morning. I'm an early morning guy for sure.

Preaching or leadership development?

Man, you can't ask me these kind of questions. I like both of those. Obviously I'm going to say leadership development.

Small group or Sunday service?

I like small group.

Favorite leadership book.

So Carrie New off is like, I don't know if you're familiar with him. He has written so many books, man. He has got a great podcast. I'll confess, I have a bromance on Carrie. He's just awesome in so many different.

So I would say any of his books, Lasting Impact is probably my favorite one of his. So that's a Good one.

Most underrated ministry skill.

Ooh, I'm learning this one. And I would say pastoral care, the hospital visits, someone passed away and you're inside their house.

I think they don't really teach you that in seminary or in ministry. And I can get awkward, to be honest, I can get awkward with it. So I'm learning that. So I think there's some people that just.

They're so good at that, and it's underappreciated, for sure.

I love it. One word that describes a healthy church culture,.

Man, I would say humility.

Biggest leadership lesson. Yeah, that's good. I love that. Biggest leadership lesson you've ever learned.

Let's see here. I would say this the biggest leadership lesson. This is going to make me sound prideful or like I'm a jerk, so don't take it that way.

But I think if you're a leader, you have to lead. And I think one of the biggest lessons I've learned is if you try to please everyone, you please no one.

And so if God's placed it on your heart and it's been affirmed not to say that you just go at it guns a blazing, but, man, go after it. If God's placed it there, go after it. Don't try to get everyone on board all the time because you're always gonna have people that disagree.

It's very true. Yeah, my old ministry used to say that, too. You'll make. You'll disappoint everybody at some point. So.

Yeah, for sure. Like, I know there's people that don't like me, so whatever. I love it.

One habit every pastor should develop.

Obviously, every pastor should be in God's word, and that should be a part of your everyday habits and disciplines.

Oh, this will be a great one. Your favorite Bible character besides Jesus.

Okay, man, this is. I'm glad you brought this up because I love. I love Peter.

Peter and Paul are really, really close, but I love Peter because what we get from him, I mean, he's just like, he says things before he speaks, and he's just like guns a blazing. And I feel like I relate to him a lot. My wife tells me all the time, you probably shouldn't have said that from the stage.

So.

Thank you. That I feel like I can relate to him. So. Yeah, I love it.

So you're Mr.

Foot in your mouth. I have foot in my mouth. For sure. For sure.

Now, as I've gotten older, I've matured, but there's some things, when I said in student ministry that I'm like, I would be fired if I said those things right now.

Maturity is a great thing.

Yes, exactly.

Most important quality in a volunteer leader.

I would say a servant's heart just to do whatever it takes.

What motivates you most in ministry?

I think what motivates me most is, and this is selfish in some regards is man, I want my family to. I want to leave a legacy where my family is like, man, he cared for us and doing the ministry.

It wasn't like Pastor dad at church one way and living at church another way that they know that I cared for them and I cared for everyone and I was the same person. Regardless.

If you could have dinner with any historical Christian leader, who would it be?

Oh, man. Can it be a Bible character? Can it be a person in the Bible? Okay, I would say Paul. I would say the apostle Paul. He was kind of tied there with Peter.

Me and my wife are leading a group to the footsteps of Paul this summer to Greece and Turkey. And man, he just did so much, so much. And I would just love to pick his brain on all the things that he saw in the early church.

It'd be great. One word that describes a connected church.

Can it be connected?

It could be.

I know a real. Yeah, yeah, I think that's, I mean, it's pretty self explanatory. Connected. Yeah. For everyone working together with the same passion and desire.

Let's connect people to Jesus.

I love it. So looking back at ministry, what accomplishment are you most grateful for?

Man, I would say probably looking back is really the systems that.

And we're still tweaking them as we grow as a church, but really putting people and valuing people as a part of the follow up process and taking steps, I think just the system and framework that we've developed and to say, hey, people matter. I'm probably the most proud of that.

So I'm gonna ask you my other favorite question. What do you want your legacy to be? You kind of alluded to it, but yeah.

So I think my legacy, I think I don't want people at my funeral to say, oh, he was a funny guy and he was really nice. I really do want it to be like he made me feel important.

He pointed me to Jesus and man, he made me see this characteristic of Jesus that ultimately, man, I want people to know him and their life to be changed. I don't want it to be about me so that I hope that that's the legacy I'll leave.

So on the show we have a new thing, a Surprise question. Pick a number between 1 and 10 for your surprise question.

Let's go with 10.

10. Oh, this almost answered this before. Who would you most like to sit next to on a 10 hour flight and why? So you get three characters.

Wow. Okay, so I'm gonna say this. I. I took a mission trip to Kenya and I was on a 10 hour flight with a guy who had no empathy for my personal space.

So it wouldn't be that guy, I'll tell you that. Okay, this is gonna, I'm gonna throw a wild card since it's a wild card question.

Okay.

I, I think I would like to sit with John F. Kennedy. I know that's weird, but like growing up my dad had like some weird obsession with him and like his assassination.

But I think there's a lot of questions I would like to ask just on a history level wise. I don't know, it's kind of a wild one.

It's not a wild one because I remember studying Kennedy too when I was younger and I was fascinated by a lot of the Kennedy legacy. So. Yeah, that'd be fascinating too.

I don't know, just the whole family and then the assassination and all that stuff. I don't know. It'd be interesting.

Good. So, Dustin, where can people find you and where can they buy the connected church?

Yeah, so I appreciate you asking me that. You can go on Amazon, it's available there. Some churches do bulk orders, so I can offer a discount for that with.

Some churches do like a connected church sermon series and some small group stuff that I've developed. So you can get all of that at Dustin Dozier, if you would like.

I also have a website called theconnectedchurch.com and I think one great way, it's totally free. There's a connected church audit and you go on there, you answer some questions about five key areas in your church.

So if you're a church leader, take the audit. It will point to really, it'll show you each level of where you score and it will point to the most important one that you need to focus on.

And I have some resources for that that you can, you can purchase if you would like. But then in all social media, whether it's LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Dustin Dozier, look me up. I would love to connect.

If I can help your church in any way that really is my heart, I want to help you connect people to your church, grow, be healthy. And man, God's doing some awesome things and I would love to be a part of what God's doing with you and your church.

Well, Dustin, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing both your heart and your wisdom regarding one of the most important challenges facing today's church. Your work reminds us that ministry is not ultimately about attendance, numbers, building programs. It's about people.

It's about helping individuals take meaningful steps toward Jesus, experience authentic community, and discover God's given purpose. Friends, if today's conversation encouraged you, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Dustin do bestselling book the Connected Church.

Whether you're a pastor, a ministry leader, volunteer church planner, or simply someone passionate about seeing people connected and grow in their faith, this resource provides practical and biblical guidance for building a culture where connection leads to transformation.

You can also learn more about Dustin's ministry, the Connected Church, where he equips pastors and church leaders to create clear pathways that move people from attendance to belonging and from spectatorship to discipleship. Before you leave Guests I have a challenge for you listeners before you leave today. Here's today's Listener Challenge.

Identify one person in your church, your workplace, your neighborhood, or your family who can be present. Who may be present but not yet truly connected. Reach out to them this week. Learn their name. Hear their story. Invite them into a conversation.

Look for one practical way to help them feel seen, known, and valued. Until next time. Building bridges begins with one intentional step at a time. Thanks a lot, Dustin for being on the show.

Thank you so much.