Kay Kotan's Blog, page 3

How to Strategically Select and Stay in the Right Leadership Lane

In churches of all sizes it is important for leaders to know and understand their leadership role.  This includes the expectations, intended outcomes, authority, and responsibility each role entails.  Without these critical details, leaders are set up to fail or at least not succeed to the degree possible.  However, in the life of the church we often place people in leadership roles without any training, job description, or setting clear expectations, stating intended outcomes, identifying their authority, and defining their responsibility. Leaders are not set up for effective leadership, positive ministry outcomes, or leadership growth.

 

Two of my favorite words when it comes to leadership are intentional and strategic.  While some church leaders are sometimes taken back by using what they view as ”corporate” language, most leaders understand the importance of leading strategically and intentionally regardless of the setting or context.  For me, strategic and intentional leadership is helping leaders how to best invest their time, gifts, passions, and experience and leveraging the church’s resources in the best way possible to grow disciples and reach new disciples.  Or as Hinkins explains, intentionality is identifying the “guiding light”

 

“Choose your intention carefully and then practice holding your consciousness to it, 

so it becomes the guiding light in your life.”

Roger Delano Hinkins

 

In our new book, Mission Possible for the Small Church: Simplifying Leadership, Structure, and Ministries in Small Churches, co-author Blake Bradford and I explore intentional and strategic leadership approaches for small church leaders.  One common struggle small churches (and larger churches, too) experience is (unintentionally) driving in the wrong leadership lanes.  Boards/councils veer into the management lane rather than staying in their governance lane.  This leaves the governance lane abandoned with no one performing the critical role of mission accountability, monitoring contextual competence viability, nor completing the crucial generative or strategic work.  With the best of intentions, the pastor also commonly merges into the management lane (often without a turn signal) and attempts to manage most everything rather than developing and empowering laity leaders to manage the ministries.  Those who are leading ministry areas often “do” (and/or are expected to do) the ministry rather than identifying, recruiting, equipping, and deploying disciples to “live out their discipleship through “doing” ministry.  As a result, too many people in the congregation are tied up in managing the church leaving very few disciples to actually carry out the ministries – the most important “lane” in the church. 

 

The church has placed too much emphasis and focus on being a committee member having lost sight of the true intentions of serving on a committee (growing disciples, serving disciples, making new disciples).  In other words, it’s become more about the tradition and method of getting the task completed (getting names on required reports to submit to judicatory leaders and getting everyone “involved” ) and less about the church’s true purpose of discipleship and Kingdom impact.  Without being intentional and strategic, the end result becomes the successful completion of the nominations report instead of growing people in their Christ-likeness.

 

When a church becomes strategic and intentional in their identifying, recruiting, equipping, and deploying disciples using their gifts, passions, and strengths to best align with the mission, vision, core values, and goals of the church, the church will be more vital.  Furthermore, when leaders know which lane their giftedness best aligns with and how to stay in their leadership lane, the church will flourish resulting in incredible Kingdom impact for the surrounding community.

 

Are leaders in your church fully equipped and deployed for ministry?  Do your leaders clearly understand their role, authority, and responsibility?  Do leaders know the four lanes of accountable leadership and which lane their role is intended to drive in?  Do your church leaders recognize the danger of veering into others’ lane?

If your small church is looking to eliminate  lane confusion in church leadership so your ministries can have a deeper community impact, gather a small team to study  Mission Possible for the Small Church.  Your team will find applicable small church resources, suggestions, practical tips, and next steps.  Each chapter includes team questions to help your leaders process the information in the chapter, apply it to your context, and make decisions towards faithful next steps for your church to be more missionally focused.  

 

If you are interested in a Mission Possible for the Small Church workshop or fall cohort experience, let us know here.

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Small Church, Big Impact: Know the Practical Expectations of Pastoring

Pastoring and leading any church is unique due to its congregation, context, and size.  Each has their own distinctive strengths and concerns.  The communities surrounding small churches can experience big impact just like the communities surrounding their sister mid-size and larger churches. Intentionality of being a missionally-focused church is the most important regardless of size.  If the church is focused on reaching new people and maturing its disciples (in that priority order), its size is inconsequential as its impact can be substantial.

There are, however, particular aspects of the small church where practical expectations need to be named and understood.  Without the pastor and laity being on the same page about the expectations of the pastor, a small church can get derailed from the tremendous ministry impact that is possible.  In our book, Mission Possible for the Small Church, coauthor Blake Bradford and I explore these critical practices and expectations of pastoring a small church: 

Because relationships are the superpower of small churches, building relationships is a priority for pastors of small churches.  In larger churches, these relationships are often established through shared committee work, other meetings, and church functions.  In the small church, these relationships are often built through one-on-one time together often at the homes of the congregants. In the book, Blake describes this as pastoring from the porch swing.Pastoral care, discipleship, and leadership are often intermingled through one-on-one interactions with congregants.Pastors in small churches need to resist being the switchboard operator.  In other words, it is unhealthy for the laity and the pastor alike for all decisions, plans, and forward movement being dependent on the pastor’s approval or involvement.Some small churches have less than full time pastors. Laity must adjust their expectations accordingly.  In these settings it is even more important to establish and communicate clear pastoral expectations.  Without the establishment of clear and practical expectations, the pastor and laity alike may find themselves headed towards a rocky relationship and disappointment ultimately reflecting in ineffective ministries.  In the book, we explore several practical methods of navigating part time pastorates.Regardless of church size, it is important to practice missional and leadership accountability.  Assessment of ministry impact for effectiveness must be non-negotiable.  Accountability is a practice of stewardship (time, energy, capacity, and resources). 

If your small church is looking to simplify its leadership, structure, and ministries so your ministries can have a deeper community impact, gather a small team to study  Mission Possible for the Small Church.  Your team will find applicable small church resources, suggestions, practical tips, and next steps.  Each chapter includes team questions to help your leaders process the information in the chapter, apply it to your context, and make decisions on faithful next steps for your church to be more missionally focused.  

If you are interested in a Mission Possible for the Small Church workshop or fall cohort experience, let us know here.

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Unique Advantages of the Small Church to Make the Mission Possible

Many churches have at least an event or two every year to connect with their wider community.  There is always much anticipation and expectation that said event will result in neighbors showing up for Sunday worship.  Too often that anticipation is met with great disappointment. The expectation is that when folks show up for the event and find out how friendly the church is, they will automatically want to be a part of the church.  Unfortunately, for the most part this strategy is not working for the majority of churches. 

While some churches find themselves new to being a small church post pandemic, many churches have been a small church since they were planted decades or perhaps a century ago. Being small in size does not mean small churches are small in their ministry and kingdom impact.  

There are unique strengths and advantages in being a small church. Dante Alighiere reminds us, “A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark.”  Here are some of the advantages and strengths lifted up in our new book, Mission Possible for the Small Church: Simplifying Leadership, Structure, and Ministries in the Small Church, co-authored with my good friend and colleague, Blake Bradford.

 

Relational Superpower

Due to their congregational size, small churches can more easily recognize first-time and returning guests, welcome them with open arms, and engage with them more quickly than larger churches.  

 

Empowered Laity

Small churches are tenacious. Often the pastoral leadership is part time or shared with another church or two. While some may see this as a disadvantage, small churches congregants have taken a more engaged role in leading the church and have empowered laity more readily for ministry.

 

Know Your Name

In small churches, everyone knows your name.  This is a place for all to be known and feel known, seen, and nurtured by the whole congregation.

 

Simple Organizations

Due to their size, it doesn’t take multiple meetings and layers of committees to make decisions.  Since family-sized churches are relationally driven, often decisions about the church are made at family functions outside the church where most of the same people are in attendance thus eliminating the need for another committee meeting.  Decisions can also be made quicker and more easily since there are not the multiple layers of committees to navigate for seeking approval.

 

Routines

One can count on routines, schedules, and traditions in the small church.  No time is wasted on creating and planning new ministries.  Everyone knows what is expected of them and what needs to be done. Congregants go to work instead of going to as many committee meetings! This makes budgeting automatically kick into gear as they have done for years.

While this is not an exhaustive list of strengths and advantages, we hope that by lifting them up, congregants in small churches can be reminded of these strengths and advantages, embrace them, and use them to leverage ministry in powerful ways.

If your small church would like to take further advantage of the power of being a small church through simplifying the leadership, structure, and ministries, check out Mission Possible for the Small Church.  This resource will help churches further simplify leadership approaches, church decision-making structures, and approaches to ministry.  It also offers tools to help clarify, focus, and guide small churches to operate more effectively and efficiently as they become more missionally focused. Gather a small group to read and study each chapter.  Then process the “Team Questions” at the end of each chapter to help consider the topics and ideas and determine the faithful steps you feel called to take for your context.   

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Revamp Your Event Strategy: Unleash its Power of Connection to Boost Engagement

Many churches have at least an event or two every year to connect with their wider community.  There is always much anticipation and expectation that said event will result in neighbors showing up for Sunday worship.  Too often that anticipation is met with great disappointment. The expectation is that when folks show up for the event and find out how friendly the church is, they will automatically want to be a part of the church.  Unfortunately, for the most part this strategy is not working for the majority of churches.

 Before your church hosts the next community event, consider revamping your planning and implementation using the following tips to unleash its power of connection to boost engagement with your neighbors:

Consider fewer events for a niche demographic rather than more events trying to reach everyone. You’ll actually reach more people.

Create the event around an activity that is of interest or meets a need for your niche demographic. Too often churches plan events for what the church likes (or has done for decades) and then wonders why the new neighbors are not interested in the event.  

Consider hosting the event in a neutral space where more people might be comfortable (i.e. city park) rather than the church.

Don’t combine purposes for events.  If the purpose is a fundraiser, then call it a fundraiser and do a fundraiser!  If the event is for building new relationships with your neighbors, then conduct an event for relationship building.  It shouldn’t cost someone a dime to build a relationship with the church.

If the event is to meet and connect with your neighborhood, plan and implement the event with opportunities for interaction, connection, and relationship building.  For example, churches often host Trunk or Treat for their communities, but they don’t build in any opportunity for conversation, connection, or follow up. Congregants drop candy in neighborhood children’s bags. The interaction is merely a few seconds.

Don’t assign all your congregants jobs to do at the event!  If everyone is “busy” doing their job to pull off the event, no one is left to host your neighbors, have conversations, make connections, and build relationships!  Guests are unintentionally ignored.  Be sure that those with the gifts of never having met a stranger are not assigned tasks.  Instead, they are event hosts and invest in getting to know the neighbors.

Get their name.  For those that are comfortable participating, provide a drawing for a gift with a perceived higher value to the targeted demographic to collect names.  Make sure you have a team in place before you even advertise the event who have agreed to invest in the relationship follow up. If your church does not have a team of people who are willing to invest in multiple personalized follow up steps, you are not yet ready to host a relationship-building event.

What’s next?  Before launching the community event, make sure you have the next step for your guests planned. This hand-off is the next baby step in relationship building with your new friends. The next step is likely not inviting them to worship. This would be too big of a leap for most unchurched folks. The handoff needs to be related and of interest to the same niche demographic who attended the community event. It could be a gathering of people to focus on neighborhood crime prevention, an invitation to hear a psychologist who specializes in parenting elementary-age children, or the formation of a neighborhood basketball team.  Again, the handoff would need to be a felt need or of interest to the niche demographic who attended the event.

Having a focus and understanding of the purpose and intended outcome of your community events is critical. Reimagine your relationship-building events using the tips above to help your church be more intentional and strategic.  By implementing these tips, your church will be sure to build more new relationships, make deeper connections, and engage with more of your neighbors to impact your community.  If your church would like to take a deeper dive into learning more about revamping your community events to boost engagement, check out this on demand webinar for even more tips and strategies. 

 

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10 Easy Tips for Building Genuine Connections with Your Neighbors

What church doesn’t want to form new relationships with their neighbors, right?  Desire is not the issue!  More often than not, the dilemma is more about how to connect with your neighbors. In our modern culture, relationships are formed differently than they once were.  Life partners are now often found through dating apps. People with common interests and hobbies find one another through social media posts.  One can even avoid interacting with other people by having their groceries and other daily supplies delivered directly to their home.

The expectation we once had as the church for people to show up on Sunday mornings because it was the cultural norm is no longer true. Going to church is now counter-cultural.  More people aren’t involved in a faith community than are. Yet, a great deal of people still report being spiritual while not being religious.  An even greater number of people are seeking to be part of a meaningful community.

So what does this all mean for today’s church? Just like the people who are looking for life partners meet and build those relationships differently in today’s world, the church must adapt the way we meet and build relationships with our neighbors. We must move beyond the expectation that our neighbors will come to us. Instead, we must adapt and adopt the model that Jesus provided and go out to meet our neighbors.

Here are ten tips for your church to consider in building genuine connections with your neighbors:

Patronize the businesses in your church’s neighborhood.  Get to know the owners and/or managers.  Ask them how the church can help support him/her, their employees, and their business.

Walk the neighborhood – repeatedly.  Pray as you walk.  Pray for the neighbors, the community, the well-being of your neighbors, and that God would open the eyes of the church for how to connect with the neighbors in meaningful ways to provide a positive impact for the community as a whole and the individuals who make up the community.

Be more present in the community.  Be in the places where the community is already gathering (i.e. city meetings, neighborhood watch groups, homeowners associations, school board meetings, parent teacher associations, etc.).  Listen to what your neighbors are involved in, what they care about, what concerns they have, and what gaps exist.  Where does the church have gifts and passion that could address one of those gaps or concerns that no one else can address?  How might your congregation be called to eliminate this identified gap?

Conduct a community focus group to learn more about your neighborhood.

Invest in one-on-one conversations with neighbors.  Approach the conversations with curiosity, a genuine interest in the person, and a desire to know them, hear their story, and understand them.  The purpose is not to persuade them to come to church!  The purpose is to know and understand your neighbors stories so you can better connect and serve with your neighbors.  Strive to listen (not talk) through 80 percent of the conversation.

Have repeated conversations with those same neighbors to begin to form relationships and build trust.

Work with community partners to better your community.  For example, team up with another organization and conduct a make-over on the city playground.  Invite the neighborhood to participate.  Hold a neighborhood celebration when the project is completed.

Consider starting a Turquoise Table movement in your neighborhood with multiple open tables at homes of church members to begin connecting and building relationships with neighbors.

Walk your neighborhood and bless people.  For example, hand out bottled water or seedlings to people working in their lawns or sitting on their front porch. Gift a bottle of bubbles to children out playing in their yards or in the park (with parental permission).  Perhaps wear your church t-shirt declaring the church has left the building, but again it’s not about inviting people to church.  It is the simple gesture of being neighborly and blessing people.

Deliver donuts or other special goodies to local school personnel and businesses.  Thank them for serving and investing in the community.

None of these tips are difficult nor are they expensive.  They are also not a one and done checklist. Choose two or three ideas that resonate with your congregation, your congregation’s giftedness, and will best connect with your context and provide the most impact.  Then, repeat those activities.  It is through that repetition and the investment in building connections that trust and genuine relationships will build over time.
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Venture Out into Your Church’s Neighborhood With Courage to Sincerely Know Your Neighbors

 When is the last time your church set out on an adventure?  Has your church recently tested its endurance and strength by learning new skills and stretching their current familiar conditions?  What was the last thing your church did that really stretched them out of their comfort zone and caused them to have to trust God fully as they stepped out with courage and boldness?

This is not typically how we would describe the average church’s normal actions.  Too often churches are fairly complacent and prefer to place it safe. We find ministries that are low-risk (i.e. don’t take us out of our comfort zone or cause us to act with blind faith) and are safe (no risk of internal relationships or cause us discomfort or dis-ease).  We are very friendly and open to new folks coming to our facility on Sundays at 10:00 am as long as they like what we like.  Afterall, change is difficult and many feel they have “earned” the right to their own preferences. For too many, membership apparently has privileges rather than responsibilities.  

 

What if the church was called to set out on a new venture?  Fear not!  We are not suggesting a trip to a foreign country.  No one will need a passport or vaccinations for travel.  Packing a suitcase won’t even be necessary.  Yet, this venture will be a new experience for many of us.  This venture may cause us to flex muscles we haven’t used, learn new skills, act outside our comfort zone, stretch our ideas of what the church is and looks like, and will cause us to examine our own thoughts and beliefs about being a follower of Jesus.

 

The picture of this new adventure does not sound like a luxurious vacation at a high end resort that most anyone would sign up for in a hurry, right?  Instead, it sounds pretty scary! Yet we are reminded that being a follower of Jesus is not meant to be a walk in the park, but it is also filled with blessings.

 

 

Then He said to everyone, “If anyone wants to be my follower, he should deny self [i.e., of always having its own way] and accept his cross [i.e., his responsibilities, with all their difficulties] everyday, and [then he can] become my follower. For whoever would [try to] save his life [i.e., by neglecting spiritual things] will lose it [i.e., miss out on the blessings of God].  Luke 9:23-24  Source

 

 

 

 

 

To be the church and to be a follower of Christ, it will take us into unchartered waters and new territories. These are not unchartered or new territories that are completely undiscovered by anyone before.  Instead these are typically unchartered areas for us as individuals and as the church. Instead, they are simply venturing into the neighborhoods surrounding our church buildings. These ventures we are speaking of are not going blindly about serving our neighbors transactionally. The highstake ventures we are challenging churches to take are to invest relationally in truly and authentically getting to know the neighbors, serving the community with the neighbors, investing time to understand the neighborhood and their stories, spending time with the neighbors, and providing ministry that will bring about transformational kingdom impact throughout the neighborhood.  

 

Is your church ready to boldly and courageously venture into your neighborhood that you are called to reach?  We believe there is no greater adventure than traveling alongside someone on their discipleship journey.  That’s why a group of thought leaders from around the country came together to build a ministry toolbox of resources for venture leaders who are ready to step out and discover new ministry pathways and reach new people.  For more information on the Greatest Expedition Click Here.

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Who Are Your Church’s Neighbors and How Well Do You Really Know and Love Them?

When we think about our neighbors, one generally refers to the people who take up residence next to their own personal residence.  We don’t as often consider those residing around our church as our neighbors (unless you also reside in the neighborhood surrounding the church facility, which is growing less and less likely).  We drive from our homes in one neighborhood to the church building in another neighborhood (or town) to see our friends who also attend the same church. Even the neighbors we live beside are often merely acquaintances who we occasionally wave at as we drive or walk by one another’s homes.

With the sense of loneliness and depression at all time highs, people have a deep yearning for a sense of community and belonging.  Yet, according to the Belonging Barometer – The State of Belonging in America, an alarming 74% of people report a sense of non-belonging in their local community.  Being a part of a community provides many benefits including support, connection, new and deepening relationships, sense of belonging, increased knowledge, encouragement, and influence.

Who are the neighbors God is calling your church to connect with and provide community and a sense of belonging?  What area of your city, town, or county (depending on population density) is your church taking responsibility for reaching people to share Jesus? How is your church investing in the community so that because of your church people’s lives are better?  What individuals in your community are your church investing in with such generous love and authentic relationships that lives are being transformed?  How are the congregants in your church seeing, investing, and serving with your community that they are being deeply formed and growing ever more Christ-like?

Long gone are the days of opening the church doors and expecting the neighbors to show up on Sunday morning.  As we shared in Inside Out: Everting Ministry Methods in the Postmodern Church, it’s time to reclaim our roots and become a pioneering community who is sent to serve, share, and love.  People are starved for community and a sense of belonging.  A loving, outwardly-focused congregation can be the very means for those neighborly needs to be met!  However, this “community” will need to look and feel very different from what it did a decade ago or even just a couple of years ago.  The church must offer the type of community people are seeking and let go of the expectations of the neighbors conforming to the models of community the church has offered without change for the past decade or two. Just as Jesus met people right where they were, as Jesus’ disciples, we are called to do the same.

If your congregation is ready to venture out to meet and love your neighbors, but feel like you need some tools to get you started, check out the webinar,  Who Is Your Neighbor.  This on-demand webinar will equip leaders with the steps to determine not only who the neighbors are, but how to start conversations, begin building relationships, and create ministries to reach your neighbors.  When your leaders are ready for the next step, check out this additional

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Boldly Look at the Current Reality of Your Church and Your Community

When was the last time your church took a long, deep look at the current reality of your church?  When was the last time your congregation really peered into the greatest needs, gaps, opportunities, and desires of your community?  Often congregations think they understand their church’s current reality and know their community. In working with congregations and leaders across the country, I find these understandings and ideas are often outdated and inaccurate.  Church leaders often make incorrect assumptions about their neighbors. In addition, church leaders too often assume they know the realities of the congregation.  Sometimes the “niceness culture” of the church keeps congregants from feeling comfortable enough to ask the important questions to allow the current realities of the church to be known.

What’s the danger of not knowing the current reality of your church and your community?  In short, without knowing and applying these realities to the ministry strategies, a church will become disconnected, irrelevant, and unable to live out its mission of making disciples. Now let’s dive a bit into how to assess the current reality of your church and your community.

To assess the current reality of your church, it will take some strength and courage of the leaders.  Sometimes looking in the mirror is painful – necessary, but painful.   Without knowing a congregation’s gifts, leaders’ passions, full inventory of church resources, and the unwavering commitment to align and leverage all the church’s resources to the church’s vision/congregational call, a church will struggle to know their current reality and live out their mission effectively. As Peter Serge said, “An accurate, insightful view of current reality is as important as a clear vision.”

 To assess the current reality of your community, there are several steps to gain this perspective and understanding.  Start with a demographic report (often MissionInsite) to take a deep look at the current and future trends.  Pay special attention to the neighborhood right around your church’s location.  This is the neighborhood your church was planted in and called to serve. 

As long as your church is located in that neighborhood, your primary mission field is to reach your neighbors. After your leaders have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the multiple layers of information in the demographic report, it’s now time to hit the streets. With a sense of curiosity and love, engage in multiple conversations.  These conversations are with neighbors, community leaders, and community groups to gain an understanding of the needs, desires, hope, dreams, problems to be solved, opportunities available, and gaps to be filled in your neighborhood.  These conversations are confirming and contextualizing the demographic information from the report.  Having these conversations should be an ongoing practice of congregations to stay relevant and connected to their community.  

As with all areas of ministry, start with prayer and discernment.  Who is God calling you to reach?  How is God calling you to respond and impact your community?  To discern your area of impact, make sure the need, problem, opportunity, or gap you feel God is calling you to address is not being addressed already by others.  In addition, does your congregation have the giftedness for this call/vision?  Make sure the call is relational and not just transactional.  Does the church leadership have the passion for this call/vision that will sustain the call?

If your congregation is ready to take a bold look at the current reality of your church and your community, check out this resource. Journey Preparation, Surveying Your Church’s Landscape, will guide congregations through a congregational assessment to ascertain the current lay of the land of the church.  

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Boldly Look at the Current Reality of Your Church and Your Community

Let me just admit it right upfront.  I’m a bit geeky when it comes to strategic planning.  Yes, I love the process.  But even more so, I love the outcome when churches work through the  strategic planning process and hold themselves accountable to reaching the goals through the objectives. It doesn’t have to be a complicated process, but it takes intentionality.  It provides clarity, focus, and direction for churches and their leaders.  Being strategic for churches  means keeping the mission of making disciples at the center of ALL the decisions.

There is not one congregation or one church leader that I’ve worked with that hasn’t wanted to help people grow deeper in their faith and reach new people.  However,there are many congregations and leaders who I have worked with that had no intentionality in doing so. They hoped to reach new people, but there were no intentional steps being taken to make this a reality. Curt Kampmeier reminds us,  “If you are going to grow, you have to be intentional.”  I think this pertains to individuals as well as organizations. 

Besides being intentional, we must also be strategic.  Michael Porter tells us, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”  Often, the church needs to shed some ineffective practices, methods, and ministries in order to be more intentional and strategic.

And Paul reminds us about being diligent about how we use our time and focus. 

Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.  Colossians 4:5-6 (MSG)

When it comes to launching new cooperative parishes, being strategic and intentional are key to moving forward towards a healthy and fruitful future together.  Too often churches move into a cooperative parish model without any strategy.  They have hope.  They hope that by these congregations coming together, they will “save” one another from further decline.  Without an intentionality towards a new future, God’s preferred future, there will most likely be no change of trajectory.

When a person takes a big vacation, most often there are months of planning that occur prior to the trip.  Research is done on the location, transportation options, sleeping accommodations, attractions to visit, and special restaurants to enjoy.  Next comes the purchasing of any required tickets and the making of reservations.  Perhaps even applying for a passport is required.  The days leading up to the trip require packing all the necessities, making sure someone looks after the home, plants, and pets in your absence, and stopping the mail and newspaper while you are away.  

There are very few people that would just wake up one morning and take off on a big trip without all of these intentional and strategic steps becoming completed first.  However, too often churches or even judicatory leaders make big decisions about bringing churches together as cooperative parishes without any intentional or strategic steps or planning.  For example, have even these first few intentional and strategic steps been taken?

Have the churches prayed and discerned together?  What is God’s preferred future for these churches?What’s the “why?”  Why do these churches believe they are being called to cooperate in ministry in this season?  How will participation in a cooperative parish make them more effective in reaching new people?What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each church individually and the potential cooperative parish?

There is much potential for enormous kingdom impact through cooperative ministry.  But, we must approach the possibility with great intentionality and strategy if the cooperative parish is to be healthy and vital.  If your church is discerning a potential cooperative ministry, consider a congregational guide to help your leaders walk through the discernment process with intentionality.  You will find this step-by-step congregational guide in our book, An Effective Approach to Cooperative Parishes.

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Strategic and Intentional Are Key When Launching Every Healthy Cooperative Parish

Let me just admit it right upfront.  I’m a bit geeky when it comes to strategic planning.  Yes, I love the process.  But even more so, I love the outcome when churches work through the  strategic planning process and hold themselves accountable to reaching the goals through the objectives. It doesn’t have to be a complicated process, but it takes intentionality.  It provides clarity, focus, and direction for churches and their leaders.  Being strategic for churches  means keeping the mission of making disciples at the center of ALL the decisions.

There is not one congregation or one church leader that I’ve worked with that hasn’t wanted to help people grow deeper in their faith and reach new people.  However,there are many congregations and leaders who I have worked with that had no intentionality in doing so. They hoped to reach new people, but there were no intentional steps being taken to make this a reality. Curt Kampmeier reminds us,  “If you are going to grow, you have to be intentional.”  I think this pertains to individuals as well as organizations. 

Besides being intentional, we must also be strategic.  Michael Porter tells us, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”  Often, the church needs to shed some ineffective practices, methods, and ministries in order to be more intentional and strategic.

And Paul reminds us about being diligent about how we use our time and focus. 

Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.  Colossians 4:5-6 (MSG)

When it comes to launching new cooperative parishes, being strategic and intentional are key to moving forward towards a healthy and fruitful future together.  Too often churches move into a cooperative parish model without any strategy.  They have hope.  They hope that by these congregations coming together, they will “save” one another from further decline.  Without an intentionality towards a new future, God’s preferred future, there will most likely be no change of trajectory.

When a person takes a big vacation, most often there are months of planning that occur prior to the trip.  Research is done on the location, transportation options, sleeping accommodations, attractions to visit, and special restaurants to enjoy.  Next comes the purchasing of any required tickets and the making of reservations.  Perhaps even applying for a passport is required.  The days leading up to the trip require packing all the necessities, making sure someone looks after the home, plants, and pets in your absence, and stopping the mail and newspaper while you are away.  

There are very few people that would just wake up one morning and take off on a big trip without all of these intentional and strategic steps becoming completed first.  However, too often churches or even judicatory leaders make big decisions about bringing churches together as cooperative parishes without any intentional or strategic steps or planning.  For example, have even these first few intentional and strategic steps been taken?

Have the churches prayed and discerned together?  What is God’s preferred future for these churches?What’s the “why?”  Why do these churches believe they are being called to cooperate in ministry in this season?  How will participation in a cooperative parish make them more effective in reaching new people?What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of each church individually and the potential cooperative parish?

There is much potential for enormous kingdom impact through cooperative ministry.  But, we must approach the possibility with great intentionality and strategy if the cooperative parish is to be healthy and vital.  If your church is discerning a potential cooperative ministry, consider a congregational guide to help your leaders walk through the discernment process with intentionality.  You will find this step-by-step congregational guide in our book, An Effective Approach to Cooperative Parishes.

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