Some churches are no more than religious social clubs. This makes them obsolete in reaching their communities for Jesus. Houses of worship often forget their reason for existence, and settle for mediocrity instead.
Many churches need to act on the essential questions below. Answering them can keep them vital and alive. Pray for courage as your house of worship tackles this life plan in a healthy manner that is glorifying to the Almighty.
1.
How is success
measured? How will we evaluate productivity? What will
we measure? I am not asserting that you are in control of spiritual growth.
Will you measure anything in order to know if your ministry is bearing any
spiritual produce? Most churches measure attendance and giving, but are these
the most imperative things to gauge?
You should also assess important points like: Percentages of attendees which t
are members, which are serving in the church, which are in community groups,
which are baptized annually, which have completed discipleship training, and
the number of new leaders trained and active in the church. When you
define what you will measure, you will set goals and grow in those areas.
2. How
will the future look for our church? What will your church look like as you live out
your core values? Describe the future that you see as God works in your church.
Create bullet-point statements as you work through
your core values. Make sure to write each statement in the present tense as
though it were already true. I suggest 15-25 statements that describe
your future.
3.
The reason for our
existence? Why does your church
exist? The answer to this question might seem obvious. Few churches have
invested the time to answer it, or live out their reason for existence. Important questions we must ask
include: How does scripture answer the question of our church’s existence?
How do we make
our community and world a better place? If our church were not here, would the
world be a worse place? What does our church do better than anyone else? Successful, enduring
organizations understand the fundamental reason they were founded and why they
exist, and they stay true to that reason.
4.
What is the priority? You know why your
church exists. You have identified your target audience. But what are your core
values? This is not a business question but a theological question. Core values are the non-negotiable convictions upon which your church is
built.
They are unchangeable, already exist, and rooted in
scripture. Limit your Core Values to no more than five items. Every leader
in your church needs to be committed to living out each of your core values. No
staff person or leader should be in place that does not live out each core
value.
5.
Who is served? Every church should
clearly identify and clarify the people it is looking to reach in their
community. This could also include individuals being ministered to outside of
the church’s immediate neighborhood.
6.
What are the church’s
top 3-5 goals in the next 12-18 months? Steps 1-5 are all about what you are called
to be. Step 6 answers the question, “What are we going to do in order
to be effective?” To identify your top 3-5 goals, read back through steps
1-5.Why are we existing? Who do we serve? What do we prioritize? What will we
measure? Then ask: Where are we failing? What must we begin to work on?
What are you going to do to move these areas forward in
the next 12-18 months? Goals need to be written down, specific and measurable. Don’t aim too high or too low. If a goal is
100% achievable, then you have not aimed high enough. If a goal is only 40%
achievable, then you have aimed too high.
7. What
is most important right now? Of your 3-5 goals for the next 12-18 months, what is
most important right now (in the next 3-6 months)? Are you not sure what the
church’s top goal should be? Answer the following question: If we accomplish
only one thing in the next 3-6 months, what would that be?
“All over this nation, all
over this world there are people going to church today and they say they are
believers, but until you can take what you've been taught and bring it to the
place you gave up - you will never be the radical believer that you need to be
for the times in which we live.” (T. D. Jakes)[i]
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