Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Strategic Planning - Part Two

Note: This is the second of a three part overview of the strategic planning day that our ministry staff had last week. Be sure to read yesterday’s entry prior to reading today’s.

I then took time to once again review our purpose as a church. Grace church is all about meeting people where they are and moving them to where God wants them to be. We want to meet people where they are both geographically and spiritually. We then want to help move people through six levels of ministry. These levels are defined as:

Level 1: The Community: Those who live within driving distance of Grace Church but have had no contact with Christ or our church

Level 2: The Crowd: Those from the community who have had some limited but positive contact with our church but who have no relationship with Christ or our church

Level 3: The Curious: Those from the crowd who have a more regular contact with Grace Church but have yet to make any commitment to Christ

Level 4: The Convinced: Those from the curious who cross the line of faith and commit their lives to Christ, trusting in the death and resurrection of Jesus alone for their forgiveness of sin and their eternal life in heaven

Level 5: The Committed: Those from the convinced who are growing deeper in their faith and in their knowledge of Scripture

Level 6: The Core: Those from the committed who are involved in ministry and spiritually reproducing in the lives of others

I then shared how I believe that the timing is right for our ministry as a whole to go from good to great. I base this on three main marks. First, our team that we have put into place in our ministry and support staff here at Grace is outstanding. I believe that our staff is our greatest asset and we have a dynamic team. Second, we have a unity among our ministries that did not use to exist. At one time our ministry was a church a school and a daycare that shared the same roof but struggled to get along and rarely cooperated with each other. Those days are gone. Today, we function as one team. The school cares about the daycare and the church. The daycare cares about the school and the church. The church cares about the school and the daycare. We are one ministry. And thirdly, the heart of our church is positive and enthusiastic. Though there are some small pockets of complaints in minor areas (which there always will be), overall, our people are excited about Grace Church and come to Grace week in and week out with a sense of anticipation and enthusiasm. We are seeing as never before the reality that there is nothing like the local church when the local church is working right! For these three reasons, I believe we are ripe to become great. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do through Grace Church!

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