Church Strengthening

In healthy churches an intentional process beats a generic program

I’ve noticed an interesting trend in healthy, growing churches regardless of size over the last several years.

The churches experiencing the healthiest growth are transitioning from generic programming to a clearly stated process. Tony Morgan calls this “discipleship as a path”.

These pastoral leaders spend time thinking about how to help people take their next best step in following Christ. They focus energy on ways to clarify and simplify a variety of next steps.

Healthy Churches face their current reality with collective hope

According to Rob Peters, “Approximately 360,000 of the 400,000 churches in the United States have plateaued or are declining, and more than 70 close their doors each week.”

Many churches recognize their problems but don’t know what to do.
Some churches can identify a step they could take but lack the support to take it.
Others see the problem and have support but lack the tools to facilitate change.

Healthy Churches get the right people to talk about the right things

The right people believe Jesus is the hope of the world.
The right people have a holy discontent about the health of their church.
The right people have a sense of Biblical optimism about their church.
The right people ask and answer important questions about their church.

The churches with the brightest futures look at their current reality through the lens of Biblical optimism. They look at their mission field with new eyes and discover new ways of loving those far from God.

8 Important Questions To Ask

Identify Your Holy Discontent

How are we to we respond to the current reality of our current ministry circumstances?
Build Relationships

How will we connect with the people God has called us to reach?
Curate Community

How will we invite those far from God into biblical community?
Serve Your Neighbors

How will we meet the physical and spiritual needs of our community?
Lead People To Jesus

How will we lead people into a life-changing relationship with Jesus?
Help People Live Like Jesus

How will we help people become disciple-making disciples of Jesus?
Develop Disciple-Making Leaders

How will we develop leaders to multiply groups, ministries, and churches?
Gather and Disperse For Mission

How do we practice living on mission every day from where we are?