Are you clear about the strategic priorities for your ministry? I’m not asking if you have a vision statement. I’m asking if you have boiled that vision down to a handful of meaningful, actionable priorities. Being a church on mission is a vision. Developing a long-term partnership locally and internationally where the church can involve large numbers of members is a strategic priority.
Do you know what steps will catalyze those priorities? There might be dozens of steps that ultimately need to occur for your strategic priority to come to fruition. Which step has the greatest immediate leverage? For a church that wants to launch a new worship service, hiring the right leader might be the catalytic step. It’s the specific, catalytic step that you will want to fund if given a Christmas gift.
Who might fund this catalytic step? In many homes around the country, Christians are deciding where to give an extra year-end gift. If they have a pattern of generosity or if they live in the right zip code, they’ll be flooded with invitations to support various charitable causes. In a few cases, they may contact you to see if you have a specific need. But why wait for them and probably miss an opportunity. If you have a clear and exciting answer to questions 1 and 2, then perhaps you should take the initiative on question 3.
This Christmas, I hope that you and your ministry will receive an unexpected gift that will enable you to tell more people about the greatest gift of all.
It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner byclicking here.]]>
Every church has some form of governance (at least on paper), but the practices of “oversight” vary widely. Oversight has existed in various forms since the beginning of the church.…
What characteristics are most valuable for a leader? Scores of leadership books offer lists with the 5 or 7 or 10 (but never 11 or 13) attributes that successful leaders…