ACTS 1:8 Church Growth Workshop

1. ACTS 1:8Church Growth Workshop UNIT 4 Two Principles for Healthy Reproducing Churches

2. Leadership Issues

3. I Chronicles 12:32 “And of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command”

4. Leadership Principle • Warren Bennis in On Becoming a Leader wrote about the Gretzky Factor. "Wayne Gretzky, the best hockey player of his generation, said that it's not as important to know where the puck is now as it is to know where it will be. Leaders have the sense of where the culture is going to be, where the organization must be if it is to grow." (p. 2). • It is not as important to know where the puck is now as it is to know where it will be.

5. Leadership Principle • Pastor and leaders must have a dual focus. • They must be constantly studying the world out there. • Church leaders need to be constantly reading the newspapers for information about plans for growth or change in the community. Every year the church should get and study demographic material, looking for newly emerging trends.

6. Every Church Has A Life Cycle Ministry Nostalgia Questioning Structure Polarization Goals Dream again about the world out there Beliefs Dropout Robert Dale In To Dream Again Dream

7. Characteristics of a Church Ministry Nostalgia Nurturing Parent Structure Rational Adult Questioning Goals Critical Parent Polarization Creative Child Belief Dropout 2/3 Dream

8. Refocusing Every Church Has A Life Cycle On Evangelism and outreach Reenergizing Deal with some internal issues & refocus on outreach Restructuring Large internal changes & refocus on outreach Ed Stetzer In Comeback Churches Restarting

9. Leadership Principle • They must be constantly reading what is happening in the life of the church. • The church’s pastoral leadership and church leaders must be continually able to look down the road fourtosix months.

10. Leadership Principle (cont.) • Peter Drucker warns, • Fortunately or unfortunately, the one predictable thing in any organization is the crises. That always comes…The most important task of an organization’s leader is to anticipate it. To wait until the crisis hits is already abdication. One has to make the organization capable of anticipating the storm, weathering it and in fact, being ahead of it. (Managing the Nonprofit Organization, p. 9)

11. Leadership Principle (cont.) • Often pastors are caught in the messy details of today. • . Today may seem so real and pressing that leaders have trouble looking beyond next Sunday's worship service, much less six months to two years ahead.

12. Leadership Principle (cont.) • Pastoral / leaders must exercise the courage and skills to lead. • Aubrey Malphurs writes, "pastoring a church is a leadership intensive enterprise. It is imperative that a pastor be able not only to preach to a congregation, but to lead and relate well to that congregation." (Advanced Strategic Planning,p. 9)

13. These leaders are in touch with such issues as: • Are we willing to do the hard work of leading this congregation? • When do we need to add new growth unit(s) (adult cell, Sunday School class, etc.) or plant our first new church? • How many new leaders and workers do we need to staff the new unit(s) or new church? • What additional resources do we need for the new unit(s) or new church?

14. These leaders are in touch with such issues as • Based on current growth patterns, when will this current worship facility reach saturation? (70 to 80% of capacity)? • How will we deal with facility saturation? New facilities? Additional worship serivces? A new congregation? • Who are the new people God is bringing into the church? What are their giftedness? • Do these new people and their gifts give any clues about future ministries doors or people groups that God may be preparing to open?

15. Discuss these issues and others

16. Strategic Planning Principle • Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, recognizing the strengths of that church, saying, "I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,… so that you are not lacking in any gift," (1 Cor 1:4, 7a NASB)

17. Strategic Planning Principle • First strategic decision is to help the congregation find and claim its strengths.

18. Realistically knowing and strongly affirming those strengths that the church 'has going for it' is decisive for success. Substantial power is generated as a congregation discovers and claims its strengths: Power for the future is found in claiming our strengths, not in focusing on our weaknesses and shortcomings. (Twelve Keys, p. xvi)

19. Peter Drucker counsels “Look at strength and performance. Do better what you already do well—if it is the right thing to do.” (Managing the Nonprofit Organization, p. 7) Later he states, “You can only be effective by working with your own set of strengths, a set of strengths that are as distinctive as your fingerprints. Your job is to make effective what you have—not what you don’t have.” (p. 198)

20. Strategic Planning Principle • Traditional wisdom: expend resources to correct weaknesses. Current consultants: Build on and expand from strengths. • Rule of thumb: 2/3 building strengths 1/3 correcting weaknesses • Student Book -warning

21. Every Church Has A Life Cycle To build on our strengths we must take the RISK

22. Faith – Risk Takers examples • Abraham – Left home not know where • Moses – Risk of being killed • David – Risk of challenging greater men • Prophets – Risk of death (Jonah) • Jesus – To love us • Paul – True to his calling • A lot of these leaders ran from God at first

23. SWOT analysis Prioritize Unit 4b

24. Prioritizing our issues

25. Prioritizing our issues • Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats • Report • 2 strengths 1 weakness • 2 opportunities & 1 threats

26. Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threat 2 1 2 1 (Fill in each column with your answers on the large paper)