Idea Download From Our Church Evaluation
This weekend we have the Florida Church of God Ministeries at our church helping us evaluate where we are and where we need to take closer looks to help us reach people for Christ. Doug Talley spoke today about the life cycle of the church. I think the most amazing thing I heard today and know I have heard before is; vision drives a growing church. I have a plaque hanging on my wall that reads, “LEAD WITH VISION, Where there is no vision the people perish” ( Proverbs 29:18). Why do we loose vision? Ministry takes over. We just let the ministries that we created to reach out, turn into ministries that are for us. It’s honestly nobodies fault, it just gets turned slowly over time. Then people are put in place to lead the ministry who think that is what it is supposed to do because it is possibly a ministry that brought them into the church.
After several years our entire church structure has turned into a structure that is eating itself instead of reaching out to the community. Obviously vision will not in itself turn our focus to our community but once we realize that we are killing our church I think our people will demand the change that is necessary to turn it around.
The second thing I heard was that a church will not grow if the pastor is not growing and leading others in their growth. So if the pastor can cast the vision for the church and lead those that are closest to him or her the church should be growing. I know that we have not done a good job at either of these over the years which is probably why our growth is stagnant. I will post more after I have had a chance to process this.
