Leading Beyond The Walls

Dan Entwistle is the Managing Executive Director of Programs and Ministries.

If your church keeps doing more of what you’re doing today, what results could you reasonably expect in the coming years? 

While God is unchanging, those churches that stick with the same game plan year-after year will soon find that their best days are behind them.  This isn’t unique to only churches.  All businesses and organizations that cease to innovate will find that they soon perish as the world changes around them.  Some churches, however, are poised for growth and continual innovative risk-taking.  They are destined to remain vital into the future because they are intent on moving forward– not with a scattered moment-to-moment pursuit of what’s hot in ministry or adopting the practices of a select group of lead churches.  Instead, vitality and innovation flourish in these churches because they focus on a short list of things that will matter most in the coming year.

Contrary to commonly held opinions, visionary leadership isn’t about clearly predicting the future or stumbling across a solo leader with a Midas touch.  In fact, any church that is seeking to follow God’s leadership, regardless of its size, can develop a clearer sense of direction that will lead toward more effectively fulfilling God’s plans. 

How does this work at Resurrection?

Some folks are surprised to hear that our Church Council plays a key role in promoting innovation by setting our strategic direction annually.  Within the United Methodist system, the Council is elected annually to represent the highest level of temporal leadership in the church.  We recognize that the church belongs first to God and our aim is always to remain faithful to God’s leading.  Second only to God, however, the church belongs to the congregation — the body of believers — not to the pastors or staff.  So, when it comes to setting important ministry and operational objectives, our churches fall under God’s authority first, the people’s authority second.  In return, great Church Councils know how to release and authorize their pastors, staff and volunteer teams to serve the church mightily.  When this works well, the Council functions much like an organization’s Board of Directors where leaders are elected annually by shareholders (members) in order to steer the organization and represent the voice of its membership.

At Resurrection, each fall our Council Chairperson works with our Senior Pastor and executive team to design and facilitate a process that ultimately leads to the Council’s adoption of an annually updated strategic plan.  The plan isn’t rocket science and clairvoyance is not required.  Instead, we tend to follow a relatively simple and flexible process that can be easily adapted to fit a church of any size.

First, we begin by remembering why we exist
Our Council begins the planning process by steeping themselves in our purpose, vision and journey.  Three statements summarize for us why we exist, where we are going and how our people will get there. 

• Our Purpose: The Church of the Resurrection exists to “build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians.”  We have this statement in 20-inch letters on our Narthex wall.  It is printed in every single bulletin every single weekend and it is listed on the top line on every agenda distributed at the church.  It is vital because we simply cannot serve with maximum effect if we can’t explain why we exist.
• Our Vision: At Resurrection, the three prongs of our vision illustrate what we believe is possible through God’s work in the ministry of the church.  The vision is: “changing lives, transforming the community and renewing the church.”  We believe that people (particularly non and nominally-religious people) will be reached and will continue to see their lives changed by the hope they discover here.  Further, we envision a metropolitan community that is improved because of the existence of Christians working hard to address our city’s social ills, including poverty and racial division.  Finally, we are committed to contributing to the vitality of other churches, believing that God has something bigger in store for all of us.
•  Our Journey: We are in the business of producing deeply committed Christians.  What is a deeply committed Christian and how will we know if we are good at producing our product?  At Resurrection, we believe someone who is on a path toward becoming a deeply committed Christian will, above all else, be growing in the areas of knowing, loving and serving God.  Job one, therefore, in every sermon, program and ministry is to help people of all ages and affinities grow in their Christian understanding, spiritual transformation and to daily live their faith in the world.If your church hasn’t developed compelling and easily memorized statements that capture your specific DNA, you may want to begin by modifying your denomination’s mission statement to fit your church.  For example, a statement built upon “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” would be an excellent start.  The important thing is that you know why you exist, where you are going and you have a picture of how your people will get there.

Second, we examine where we are today
In this stage, our goal is to capture any words, numbers and images that help describe where we are today.  We do this in rapid-fire fashion, attempting to capture as much information as possible on chart paper around the room.  During this stage, we won’t allow ourselves to try to solve anything.  Instead, we fill the walls of a conference room with brief statements — both objective and subjective — from Council members describing the current state of affairs at Resurrection.  Be sure to include as many vital statistics as possible, including professions of faith, membership changes, attendance patterns, giving data and small group participation.

Third, we seek to identify existing issues
Based on the first two steps, the Council turns its attention to identifying overarching issues of importance to the church.  Issues may be ministry weaknesses, strategic opportunities or operational vulnerabilities.  Regardless of the process used, the key thing here is to allow issues to emerge out of a deep understanding of who we are (step one) and where we stand today (step two).  This process may be greatly enhanced by the use of reports from congregational surveys or we may hear presentations from experts such as demographers, developers, civic leaders, urban planners or school system personnel.  It is also helpful seek key insights from the church’s staff and lead volunteers.

Finally, we create a short list of priorities that will drive us forward
The final stage is to develop a short list of priorities based upon prayer, discernment and reflection on the work generated in the previous stages.  The aim is to name the most significant issues which should rise to the level of greatest significance in the coming year or two.  At this point, a good facilitator will be able to assist the group in the process of sifting through all the issues previously identified in order to form consensus around a short list of priorities.  Once these priorities have surfaced, our Council then delegates a select group of people to work with the Senior Pastor in order to draft our church-wide objectives and bring them back to the Council for final approval.  In many cases, three well-crafted objectives may be ideal, with each one being SMART- specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic and time-sensitive. 

Once you have your short list of objectives, the real fun begins.  The work of turning those objectives into action is then assigned to senior leaders in the organization  including pastor(s), staff and lay ministry teams (notice not committees) who are in positions to guide project teams to take action and make progress on the goals.  Notice that setting objectives and monitoring strategic progress is the work of the Council.  However, determining the details of the implementation plan and driving toward results is not the work of the Council.  The Council has provided prayerful wisdom expressed through authoritative strategic direction, oversight and governance.  But the church’s work is assigned to leaders who will develop ministry implementation teams and report their progress back to the Council throughout the year.

Does your church have a clear picture of what lies immediately ahead?  Do you have a short list of what matters most for your church’s effectiveness in the coming years?  Do you know which efforts are currently most important to resource?  The first step in the path toward strategic innovation may be as simple as remembering why your church exists, knowing where you stand, and naming a select number of priorities for the church to achieve in the coming years.

Dan will be leading a workshop on Church Governance at this years Leadership Institute.  He is the author of  Recruiting Volunteers.