Planning, Strategy, and the Eisenhower Matrix

by: Eric Geiger

0

Tweet

Dwight Eisenhower is noted as saying, “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” He is credited with the quote because of his emphasis on planning and strategy. From this quote, the Eisenhower matrix was born, which Stephen Covey later popularized. Here is my sketch of it:

The matrix has four quadrants:

1. Urgent, Important: These are things that must be handled now and include ongoing execution, important conversations, and necessary interruptions. We will spend much of our lives in this quadrant, as these are things we must do, things we are honored to do.
2. Important, Not Urgent: This is where leaders do their strategic planning and most thoughtful and creative work. Wise leaders carve out time and energy to invest in this type of work. They plan for this time so they may plan for the future, prepare, and work closely with teams.
3. Not Important, Not Urgent: These are unnecessary distractions that provide little or no value. Wise leaders constantly look to stop doing these things.
4. Urgent, Not Important: These are urgent tasks that come up but can be handled by someone else or should be handled by someone else because another is more qualified or ultimately responsible for the urgent matter. In other words, it should not be of deep importance to you. These items should be delegated or outsourced.

As I have led and watched others lead, here are three thoughts for leaders:

Take time to plan work, not just do work.

Instead of thinking strategically, many leaders run chaotically in a plethora of directions. The result of not investing ample time in Quadrant I is chaos, wasted energy, and mindless execution. If you never spend time in Quadrant I, you are unable to process and learn from all the activity, and you lack the ability to plan for the future.

The unnecessary robs energy from the important.

It is really Quadrant III that steals the important energy from leaders, energy that is needed for Quadrant I and Quadrant II. As Peter Drucker stated, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Leaders who don’t take time to evaluate what shouldn’t be done in the first place continue to waste time and energy on the unimportant.

The urgent and important can overwhelm.

Many leaders carry resentment and fatigue for the activities that fall into Quadrant II—the urgent and important that constantly comes up. But Quadrant II is significant, and much of the impact we make happens in this quadrant. In Quadrant II are unplanned conversations with people who need our counsel, unplanned crises that need our leadership, and important tasks that get the work done. So that the important and urgent don’t crush us, leaders must appropriate energy from Quadrant III and Quadrant IV.

> Read more from Eric here.

Tags: Eisenhower, Eisenhower Matrix, Eric Geiger, Planning, Strategy

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Leadership >

Church Unique’s Vision Pathway and Tom Paterson’s StratOps

by: Will Mancini

0

Tweet

Over the last few years, I have enjoyed learning more and more from the contribution of Tom Paterson. Tom is a brilliant consultant and friend of Peter Drucker who innovated a very specific, high-impact model of strategic planning in the business space. I am grateful for five gentleman who have been a part of my own access and “digestion” of StratOp as a certified facilitator : Doug Slaybough (pictured above & former guy beyond the success of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven organization), Michael Murphy (current president of the Paterson Center), Greg Hawkins (executive pastor of Willow Creek Community Church), Buck Rogers (friend and master facilitator) and Todd Wilson (kingdom entrepreneur behind Exponential and a fellow clarity junkie).

Most recently, I have completed the integration work of utilizing Paterson’s StratOp process for churches as a follow-up to Vision Pathway process that I have developed and used for twelve years, through the ministry of Auxano.

Why?

Simply put, The Vision Pathway and StratOp are the two best ways to solve two different but related problems for the local church leaders.

In this post I want to explore the basic differences. In the rest of a series I want to show:

• Part 2: The REAL Chemistry of Vision Pathway and StratOps
• Part 3: Why StratOps is a Waste of Time if You Don’t Have a Vision Frame
• Part 4: Why Every Church over 400 in Attendance Should Use StratOps 

VISION PATHWAY AS A UNIQUE SOLUTION

The Vision Pathway  was created to solve the problem of cut-n-paste ministry models and photocopied vision proliferated by books and conference in the church space. The result is a lack of freedom, confidence, passion, credibility and ultimately progress for a local church leadership team.

The Vision Pathway was developed in 2001-2004 from a biblical  understanding of the church in order to develop new competencies in thinking, leadership and communication for local church teams. The deliverable of the process is a fully articulated vision and ministry model that takes into account a church’s heritage, the unique community context, the distinctive congregational strengths and Spirit-guided passion of the leadership. The process was formally articulated in the book, Church Unique in 2008 with the subtitle of “How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture and Create Movement.” Church Unique continues to be the leading book in the church vision and planning category since it’s publication.

The baseline Vision Pathway requires a minimum of 6 days of collaborative work over a several month period. The Pathway is built with 5 master tools, that cover 8 big ideas, with 10 specific deliverables with dozens of “add-on” features and optional sub-tools based on church’s theological bent, size, life-stage, growth challenges and culture. There really is no other comparable process for church leaders to experience.

STRAT-OP AS A UNIQUE SOLUTION

StratOp was created to solve the problem of lengthy strategic planning process that don’t get total buy in across the executive team of large businesses.  The result is a lack of daily cooperation and coordination of diverse functional units towards the strategy priorities of the business.

StratOp was birthed through a challenge in 1980 issued to Tom Paterson to reduce the timeframe and increase the effectiveness of formal strategic planning. The design parameter was three days, which was given to Paterson by Thomas E. Bennett, who was the the Vice President for Corporate Planning for Ingersol-Rand Company. The content of the process is available only through the Paterson Center to certified consultants and facilitators. (Approximately 180 have gone through the process in the last 15 years.)

The StratOp process is a 3-day event (with a typical 2-day follow-up process with key individual leaders).  It works through 25 “tools” that are collaborative conversations ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours. The deliverable is a set of dashboard-like documents that can be used in the operational flow of leadership and management. While there are many planning processes out there, I have not seen one better for creating priorities within a one-year horizon. In addition several Paterson disciples are Jesus-followers who have applied what was originally designed for business, to the local church.

Read more from Will Mancini on his blog: WillMancini.com

Are you ready for a new level of team focus, energy, and productivity? Connect with an Auxano Navigator and start a conversation with our team.

Tags: Church Unique, StratOps, Strategy, Tom Paterson, Will Mancini, church leaders

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Vision >

4 Steps in the Hard Work of Creating Strategy

by: VRcurator

0

Tweet

98 percent of churches in North America are not functioning with strategic clarity on how they get things done.

Every week Auxano Navigators work with leadership teams from churches across the country to help correct this glaring deficiency.

All too often, we find a threefold problem for churches that have no strategy:

1. Churches have too many ministry or program options.
2. The ministry options have no relationship with one another.
3. The ministries themselves have no connection to the mission – in fact, never the two shall meet!

Is your church one of those that is lacking strategy?

Recently, I read an article on HBR.org that spoke to this situation. The authors give 4 great steps that are applicable as leaders prepare to create a strategy for their church:

No great strategy is born without careful thought. That’s why the process of planning a strategy itself is an important vehicle for setting priorities, making investment decisions, and laying out growth plans. But for many organizations, the activity has devolved into either an overexplained budget or very little meaningful substance that can be translated into action. As a result, many strategic plans end up as shelf decorations or hard-to-find files in crowded hard drives.

Since this is the season when many organizations are engaged in strategic planning, it’s just the right time to break bad habits. Here are four steps that you can take to make better use of the hard work that goes into planning a strategy:

• Insist on experiments to test the assumptions you’ve made
• Banish fuzzy language
• Escape from template tyranny
• Ask provocative questions

You can read the complete article here.

The strategy development planning process is an important part of most organizations’ operating rhythm. Your leadership challenge, however, is to make sure that it’s more than just a group exercise.

There is real beauty in clarifying, focusing, and strengthening the ministries as defined by your strategy; the people who are growing in the process will take other people along with them.

Growing people grow people. Consuming people consume programs.

>>Without stating and integrating a simple strategy, your church will remain stuck in a bottleneck of the status quo.

>>With a strategy, your church can develop its unique approach to growing disciples.

Tags: Strategy, Vision Frame

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Vision >

Three Common Mistakes Pastors Make

by: Eric Geiger

1

Tweet

I was honored to discuss leadership on a panel at the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference with Greg Matte, Rodney Woo, and Jack Graham. People submitted questions beforehand, and one of the questions that Pastor Greg sent my way was “What are the most common mistakes pastors make?” Here are three:

1. NOT OFFERING CLARITY

Marcus Buckingham said, “Clarity is the preoccupation of the effective leader. If you do nothing else as a leader, be clear.” Wise church leaders clarify, guard, and preach the essentials over and over again.

Most importantly, pastors must be clear on the theology that serves as the foundation for the church. Without theological clarity, churches will drift from the faith that was delivered once and for all to the saints (Jude 3). Without continually reminding people of the gospel, a church will no longer stand on the strong foundation of the faith (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). Or as D. A. Carson has stated, “To assume the gospel in one generation is to lose it in the next.”

Pastors must also be continually clear on the ministry philosophy and direction of the church. People long to have a direction painted for them, to see how all that the church does is built on the theology and philosophy of ministry that drives the church. Pastors who fail to offer directional clarity leave a massive vacuum of leadership. Consequently, others will step in with competing visions of what the church should be and do, and the church will move in a plethora of directions, unsure of who she really is.

2. UNDERESTIMATING THE POWER OF CULTURE

By culture, I am not referring to the ethnic or socio-economic mix in the church (though this is important too). I am referring to the shared values and beliefs that undergird all the church does. Peter Drucker is credited for famously saying, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” He was not diminishing the importance of a wise strategy, but he was stating the overpowering strength of culture on an organization.

If a church leader attempts to implement a strategy without first addressing the culture, if the two are in conflict with one another, the strategy is doomed before it even launches. Culture will win. And while the doctrinal confession in a church is absolutely critical, if the culture is in conflict with the confession, the culture will trump the confession.

For example… A church has the doctrinal confession that all believers are priests and ministers because Jesus’ sacrificial death for us tore the veil of separation and His Spirit has empowered all believers. But that same church has a long-standing culture that the “real ministers” are the professional clergy—that whenever a need arises, it lands on a staff member’s plate. Thus, when a tragedy occurs or someone needs counseling, it is the culture that drives the behavior, not the doctrinal confession.

Wise church leaders will continually check the culture and, by God’s grace, seek to bring it into deep alignment with the theology and ministry philosophy of the church.

3. SWITCHING STRATEGIES TOO FREQUENTLY

Many churches never realize the full potential of their plans or strategies because they switch them too frequently. They abandon their direction for a new direction and confuse the people as to where the church is really headed. Switching strategies too frequently is really a symptom of not possessing or providing clarity and not having a culture that is deeply connected to the theology and philosophy of the church. Continually switching strategies will harm the overall effectiveness of the pastor’s leadership.

Read more from Eric here.

Tags: Culture, Eric Geiger, Leadership Engine, Staff, Strategy

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Leadership >

A Strategy that Directly Fuels Your Mission and Vision Produces Passionate People

by: Carey Nieuwhof

0

Tweet

One of the dreams of almost every leader is to see every person within an organization motivated by the same mission and vision.

The reality is very few organizations—and very few churches—function that way.

Most leaders have had an unsettling feeling that they might be the most passionate person about their mission, and wonder how on earth to get dozens, hundreds or even thousands of others on board instead of wandering off on their own course.

Well, you can change that. And it’s simpler (and more challenging at the same time) than you think.

Why Strategy Trumps Mission and Vision

If you really want people on board with a vision, your strategy is critical.

In fact, strategy trumps mission and vision. A great mission and vision with a bad strategy will fail.

Stripping everything back to basics will reveal why. (And I’ll use the mission, vision and strategy of Connexus Church where I serve to illustrate it.)

Mission = what we’re called to do. (To lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ)

Vision = why we’re called to do it. (To create a church unchurched people love to attend—this is why we started it!)

Strategy = how we’ll accomplish it. (The steps we’ve chosen to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus)

If you don’t clearly know how you’ll accomplish your mission, well…that’s the problem isn’t it?

Why Anything Goes…Doesn’t

Most leaders have people pleasing tendencies (I blogged about the problems with that here).

That means most of us have a hard time saying no when people ask to start a ministry or program.

The challenge with that of course, is that they often want to do things that they’re passionate about, not the things your organization or church was created to do.

So most church leaders end up with dozens or even hundreds of programs that run off in just as many directions and are sometimes only remotely related to the core purpose of the organization. Are programs like “Pets are People Too” or “Men Who Bike in Spandex Recovery Group” really central to the mission of the Church?

I’m not saying God doesn’t use them, but are those truly the best and most strategic ways to lead people into a growing relationship? They could easily be side projects people at your church engage in, rather than demand a line in the budget and organizational energy.

When you allow programs and ministries to spring up randomly, you get a misaligned organization that’s off mission.

And as anybody who has tried to shut down some of these random ministries knows, sometimes these programs can behave like fortresses. They very passionately defend their right to exist.

Engagement Is Directly Related to Involvement

And that leads us to the main problem.

If you remember only ONE THING about this post, remember this:

What people become involved in becomes their mission.

Did you hear that?

Get someone involved in something and it becomes their mission. It becomes their cause. Their rallying cry. What they wake up thinking about.

People are most engaged with what they’re involved in. 

What people become involved in becomes their mission.

So…Only Do Things That Directly Align With Your Mission and Vision.

So how do you create a great strategy that fully supports your mission and vision?

Only do the things that directly align with your mission and vision. 

If you only offer a handful of things that directly fuel your mission and vision, people will become passionate about your mission and vision.  

So at Connexus, we only do a few things.

• A weekend service that your unchurched friends will want to come back to.
• Great family ministry environments for birth-college built around small group and large group time.
• Starting Point—and environment for adults to begin exploring their role in God’s story.
• Community Groups—strategic mid-week gatherings of 8-12 adults who gather for accountability, belonging and care (okay…and cake).
• Partner with two or three local and global partners around issues of compassion and justice (foodbanks, missions etc).

When people ask what else we do…we tell them that’s it.

When they ask how they can be involved we tell them serve, give, invite a friend and be part a community group.

That’s it. That’s our strategy.

And Guess What?

That doesn’t have to be your strategy, but here’s the transferrable principle:

When you have a simple strategy that supports your mission and vision, people get passionate about your mission and vision.

They have no choice but to be. Because it’s all you do, and when they get involved, they become engaged.

It’s easy to understand, but it does take guts to implement.

Read more from Carey here.

Tags: Mission, Strategy, Vision

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Vision >

Is Your Church Missing an Opportunity to Connect People at Weekend Services? Learning from a Willow Creek Reboot

by: Bill Donahue

0

Tweet

I sat in on a meeting at Willow Creek recently while Bill Hybels was casting some vision for the church’s new connection strategy…helping people find a place of friendship based on where they sit on weekends, then inviting them to connection events and gatherings.

It is not a new strategy; many of you have used this for decades with a twist or two in the method. And some of you will remember we taught this for years to group life to point leaders, encouraging them to “Leverage Your Auditorium” as a strategic step for connection.  But some churches are still missing an opportunity to connect people at weekend services.

While this remains an “attractional” strategy (connecting people who come to the campus versus going into the community), it is a ripe opportunity each church has to connect with people who are already sitting there.

As I listened to the talk (1 of 4 vision Bill is doing for core leader teams) I had a flashback to my arrival to Willow in 1992. We were laser-focused on making disciples as the central part of our mission at that time.  There was much fruit in those days that came from the hard work of hundreds of disciple-makers led by Mark Weinert, Don Cousins, Judson Poling, and many others using a group-based discipleship model. It was a whole-team effort with a clear strategy to support it.

Our challenge was how to get more people into the process and make group life more accessible for those who had trouble finding a group. So we focused on the one thing you absolutely must do in disciple-making: connection.  As we wrestled with the right wording for building a church filled with group life, our team leader asked: “What is our infinitive? To grow…to disciple…to reach…to develop? What is it? How will it be your mission focus? Because it will become the central purpose of our mission in the first phase.”

What is your infinitive? What a great question!

After much discussion we made a decision. Our infinitive would be…

“TO CONNECT.”

Why? Because you cannot make committed disciples without connection. You can certainly try. Especially if you have a definition of “connection” that is less than personal and relational. Yes, there are non-relational strategies used in closed or persecuted countries, but you can bet there is not one follower in these countries who thrives by being alone. Discipleship requires People-ship. (A word from the Donahue Lectionary of Community-building!).

Our mission for the group life ministry at Willow in 1992:

To connect people relationally in groups of 4-10 people for the purpose of growing in Christlikeness, loving one another, and contributing to the work of the church, in order to glorify God and make disciples of all nations.

I did not hunt through old folders to look that up. I did not need to…I have it memorized, ingrained in my head from the beginning. TO CONNECT.

If you do not connect people, you cannot disciple people. Period.

…and he chose the 12 that they might be WITH HIM and that he might send them out to preach… (Mark 3:14)

So today…21 years later…Willow Creek is re-focused on a workable connection strategy so that people who arrive unconnected can find a relationship. Such a strategy must be about more than just filling seats at services. There must be an overall disciple-making strategy, equipped leadership, empowered people based on gifts (not just ministry slots to fill on campus), and movement beyond a come-and-see outreach focus to a missional go-and-serve/love/gather strategy off-campus.

You need a comprehensive approach, and I can help you process that change if you want to chat about that.

Remember: You cannot stop at connection…but you cannot start without connection.

To reach out to the many disconnected, pass-through people (visiting a couple weeks and out the door a few weeks later), it will provide an essential first step along the path.

What are you doing to leverage your auditorium or worship center for connection? Do people feel welcome, known, and cared for during their weekend experience at a service?

Read more from Bill here.

Tags: Bill Donahue, Connection, Strategy, Worship

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Environments >

Leadership and Church Size Dynamics: How Strategy Changes with Growth

by: Tim Keller

1

Tweet

You must be an active subscriber to view this premium content. Subscribe or Login.

Tags: Strategy, Structure, Tim Keller

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Leadership >

What Happens When Your Elegant Strategy Meets the Minefield of Execution

by: VRcurator

0

Tweet

Setting strategy is elegant. It’s a clean and sophisticated process of collecting and analyzing data, generating insights, and identifying smart paths forward. Done at arm’s length in an academic fashion, tight logic is the only glue needed to hold ideas together. The output is a smooth narrative in a professional-looking document made up of Venn diagrams, 2×2 matrices, and high-level plans of attack. Jettison this business. Focus efforts here. Build up this organizational capability. Executives buy into the plan. The strategists, confident in their intellectual prowess, quietly recede into the background.

Then the trouble starts. Execution is a minefield. The clean and elegant logic of strategy gets dirty in the real world. Agendas compete. Priorities clash. Decisions stall. Communication breaks down. Timelines get blown. It’s never a question of if these problems will happen; it’s a question of when and to what degree. Managing these challenges takes street smarts and muscle. Overwhelming success means you take a few punches, but still make the plan happen. The process is always a little ugly. The executors’ dirt-in-the-fingernails view on the ground is much different from the strategists’ high-minded view from the air.

The best strategists, executors, and leaders stand up and say, “I’m responsible for it” even if it isn’t in their job description. It’s doubly powerful when both strategists and executors do this, meeting in the middle.

To understand the complimentary viewpoints of both strategists and executors, read the rest of the article by leadership and strategy consultant Doug Sundheim in hbr.org  here.

Tags: Strategy

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Vision >

How Strategy Will Drive Pivotal Decisions for Your Church

by: James Emery White

0

Tweet

There is nothing more critical to leadership than strategic decision-making. And nothing is more strategic in decision-making than, well, strategy.

Recently our staff reviewed five of the more pivotal decisions we’ve made regarding strategy over the course of our church’s life. We’ve certainly made more than these five, but these loomed large in terms of our church’s foundation and formation. You may not agree with our decisions – in fact, I’m sure many of you won’t. But that’s what made each decision strategic; it reflected a settled choice between competing ideas.

Here were the five:

1.    The weekend service is the “front door” of the church, and should be opened widely to the people we are trying to reach – specifically, the unchurched.

There are a number of outreach strategies that I have no doubt produce fruit. We’ve decided that the best is an “invest and invite” approach. Essentially, this is investing in friends and family, co-workers and neighbors, relationally – building the friendship. Then, in the context of that friendship, we invite them to attend a service or event that we’ve designed to be a good “front door” to the church and the message of Christ. We’ve decided to make the weekend services the primary front door.

2. Our small groups and serving teams are not primarily focused on discipleship, but spans of care.

Whatever small group system you have, and whatever role they assume in the life of your church, you have to determine whether they are going to function primarily to serve discipleship or community. I know, many will want to say “both,” and I would agree that they can. However, strategically, you should decide which of the two is the primary role of the small group. Our small groups certainly have a discipleship element, with groups going through content and studies, but we are not betting the discipleship farm on small groups. For us, that bet is being placed on our Meck Institute, which is a “community college” approach to classes and seminary, courses and learning. We are, however, betting the “spans of care” and “assimilation” farm on small groups and serving teams.

3. We made the decision to go “multi.”

It’s currently in vogue to talk about going “multi-site,” but in truth, going “multi” is much more foundational. It means you’re not going to stay “uni,” as in having only one of something. For us, this meant options. Going “multi” meant giving options. It started with going “multi-service,” offering multiple weekend service times on Sunday. Then it grew into “multi-day,” offering multiple services over multiple days. Then it became “multi-site,” offering services at multiple venues and locations. Finally, it became “multi-medium,” offering services through our internet campus and talks through our app for smart phones and tablets.

4. Children need separate programs and experiences to optimally serve their spiritual development.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to children and the church. One is that children should be with their parents at all times, worshiping and learning as a family. Another school of thought is that children have different levels of maturity, differing attention spans, and different needs, and should be served accordingly. We chose the second school of thought. While we intentionally create opportunities and events for families to worship and learn together – we call them “Family Nights” – our weekend services separate children birth – fifth grade from the service their parents attend in order to provide a unique experience and learning environment for their level of development.

5. There should be a gift-based approach to ministry

Again, there are two schools of thought when it comes to ministry. One might be called the “professional” school of thought. This is when you “hire” a minister to do ministry in and for the church. You expect them to marry and bury, visit and teach, reach out and develop. If the spouse plays the organ, all the better. The other school of thought turns ministry loose; the people are the ministers, and the pastors are more the administers. Further, there is a deep belief that every follower of Christ has been given at least one spiritual gift to be used for the purpose of ministry in the life of the church (Romans 12, I Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, I Peter 4). So in this model, you help people discover their gift, develop their gift, and then deploy their gift. Then you have leaders leading, singers singing, counselors counseling, teachers teaching, and so on. And it’s not just the “clergy” doing it; instead, every member is a minister.

Of course, the best leadership teams understand that strategy should be held with an open hand. It must be continually evaluated in light of whether it continues to be the best strategy. If so, it should be affirmed with a deep sense of “why.” If not, new strategies should be considered and employed.

We remain convinced these five are good choices for this season of ministry.

Regardless, it bears repeating:

Nothing is more than critical to leadership than strategic decision-making, and nothing is more strategic in decision-making than strategy.

Read more from James here.

Tags: James Emery White, Strategic thinking, Strategy

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Vision >

8 Ways to Give Definition to Your Ministry

by: Rick Warren

1

Tweet

Ministry is too important to be done haphazardly. How we’re leading in the core of our churches has to do with life-changing, eternity-consequential decisions. Therefore, we need to think through what ministry is all about. Sometimes we are more strategic about our grocery lists than our approach to ministry.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body–whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free–and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 1 Corinthians 12:12-18 (NIV)

Two thoughts… First it says the body is a unit made up of many parts, which are arranged by God. In other words, God wants order in His church. Why? Because God is a God of order. So we need to evaluate our ministries and ask, “Is there order? Are we getting the maximum return out of the ministries that we have?”

There are eight components to ministry that help us to focus our efforts. And the more you focus on what you’re trying to do, the less energy it takes to do it. That’s a principle of life that applies directly to ministry.

What Is Your Purpose?

The business of the church is developing disciples who live effective lives for God’s glory. That’s what Ephesians 4 is all about, which says that we’re all built up into maturity for ministry and for mission. We’re in the disciple development business. We attract and win members, develop them to Christlike maturity, then mobilize them for ministry in the church and a life mission in the world. We do that in each stage and segment of their lives. Our product is changed lives. Our theme is helping people develop their lives to the fullest.

What Are Your Values?

The second question is a question about values. Take some time to write out a list of the theological and cultural values that are most important to you as you lead your church. The Pastor is the primary culture-creator in a church, and every leader creates culture within their ministry by sharing and living out some key values.

Who Are You Reaching?

In other words, at what stage of spiritual development are the people to whom you are speaking? In most churches, you will have a mixture on Sunday morning. But as you launch ministries and design processes and prepare sermons, remember that you have people at various places spiritually to think about.

You’re moving some people from the community into your crowd through evangelism. You’re moving others from the crowd to the congregation through fellowship. Others, you’re moving from the congregation to the committed by involving them in ministry. And still others are ready to move from the committed into the core to live out their life mission. And those who are living their life mission are bringing others into the crowd so that the cycle continues.

What Is Your Strategy?

Answer these two questions: Where would I like to see my church be six months from now? And, a year from now? Write your goal down in a sentence, and feel free to add it to the comments below. If you could dream your wildest dream and the ministry you’re involved in right now, how would you see it or a year from now? Now, listen to God. If possible, withdraw from the noise around you, take a deep breath and just wait on the Lord. Then ask God this question, “Father, where would You like to see my ministry six months from now? How would it be different?” As an idea comes to your mind, write it down.

What Systems Do You Need to Have in Place?

What does the word “system” have to do with the church? Remember, the church is a body, and your human body is made up of nine systems. You have a circulatory system, respiratory system, nervous system, a structural system, a digestive system, and so forth. When one of those systems gets out of order, it’s called illness or disease. God wants you to have a healthy body and the body of Christ needs healthy systems too.

What People Do You Need to Hire or Empower?

Who do I know that ought to be a part of this ministry but isn’t? Who could I recruit to serve with me? Who is right under my nose that I should be empowering for leadership? Come up with at least one name, maybe two or three, and write them down. Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Pray for laborers.” When you get a name and you put it down, you can start praying for them.

How Are You Adding Value to People’s Lives?

This is one aspect of ministry – serving people by adding value to their lives. How does this ministry serve people? Are we meeting the real needs that people experience? Those needs can be physical, emotional, spiritual, and social. All four are legitimate needs. The Bible says in Luke 2:52 that “Jesus increased in wisdom (emotional and intellectual) and stature (physical), in favor with God (spiritual) and man (social).” A ministry that adds value to people’s lives finds ways to minister to these needs in a balanced way.

How Can Your Structure Increase Your Effectiveness?

Saddleback Church is structured according to five purpose teams. Each of the purpose teams of our church relate to the five purposes of our church and the five targets that we have for moving people forward in their lives. We have a Membership Team which helps cares for and supports the membership of the church through lay counseling, prayer, and recovery ministry. We have a Maturity Team that oversees our thousands of small groups. Our Ministry Team helps people to plug in according to their SHAPE. Our PEACE (Missions) Team carries out our calling to take on the global giants threatening our world. We’ve gone into every nation on the planet and are now infiltrating every possible people group and planting international campuses. And our Worship and Creative Arts Team leads our church in its corporate worship life. We have a few other teams that overlap or support these, but our approximately 400 staff are organized around our purposes in a structure that lets us maintain healthy systems so that we can move people forward and produce mature disciples.

This might be a good time to do some real brainstorming and writing. Begin by asking God to help you define your ministry for greater effectiveness.

Tags: Rick Warren, Strategy, Values, Vision, ministry definition

| What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Vision >