Healthy Organization
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Remember Your Purpose
Have you ever gone to the basement, kitchen, or garage to get something and forgotten what? I’ve not done that since probably, yesterday. Sometimes I operate on autopilot. Occasionally, half-awake in the morning, I catch myself unthinkingly aiming my foot-spray can under my armpit! Fortunately, I’ve not pushed the button yet! Forgetting our purpose isn’t funny. The key question, “Are you a mission-driven or tradition-driven church?”
It makes a difference to Jesus. And he [Jesus] said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” (Mark 7:9). We don’t want to be guilty of that.
God’s command in Matthew 22:37-40 is to love him and our neighbor: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commands us to make disciples of all nations. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” In brief, we’re to make more and better disciples. The two commandments in Matthew 22 and 28 are related. When we’re making more and better disciples, we’re loving God and our neighbor.
Christian Schwarz discovered that tradition-driven churches are almost never healthy churches where worship attendance grows ten or more percent annually. He found that only liberal theology has a stronger negative effect on a church’s health and growth than being tradition-driven (Natural Church Development, p. 46). Are your eyes on the fields that are ripe and ready for harvest (John 4:35), or on how have always done things? Being driven by what you did last year is like driving with a constant focus on the rear-view mirror. The backward look, without evaluation, rarely helps the church move forward.
Paul forgot what was behind and strained toward what was ahead (Philippians 3:13). When a champion miler runs, he doesn’t dwell on whether he had the fastest time for the first lap around the track. Who cares? The only time that counts is the one recorded at the finish line. Paul didn’t become preoccupied with his past. His goal was to hit life’s finish line a winner. I’m sure you want to do the same!
It’s easy to become preoccupied with church routines and think spiritual busyness pleases God. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 should scare those of us who think all church work is equally commended. God expects a return on his investment in us.
Imagine the owner of an orchard will be away for an unspecified number of years. He gives you money and entrusts you with 300 nectarine trees. You don’t know anything about raising nectarines. The first year you pray eight hours daily that God will watch over the crop. Now praying is necessary… but so is spraying. All prayer and no sweat produce rotten nectarines. The second year you recruit a group of cheerleaders who come once a week and cheer for the nectarine trees. They don’t know any specific nectarine cheers, so they improvise… Grow, grow, grow, grow, grow! The trees aren’t impressed, but the fungus is. It grows like the national debt. All the fruit rots before it ripens. By the third season, you’re starting to panic. The boss could be back to check up on you anytime. You research how to grow nectarines and learn what sprays will solve the rot problem, how to use them and how often. You provide the right environment and the trees yield an abundant harvest.
Were the trees responsible for the rot problem? No! Fungus was. The tree’s part is to produce nectarines; your part is to remove obstacles that prevent an abundant harvest of quality fruit. The structures you used to care for the trees (prayer alone and cheerleaders) were not effective. You didn’t manage the orchard wisely until the third year. Likewise, the productive potential God has placed into your church is enormous. Provide an environment that allows that potential to have its full effect.
Jesus was not just busy. He was about his father’s business (Luke 2:49). He had only critical words for those who honored tradition above obedience.
Because many churches don’t have a mission statement that drives them, they aren’t channeling their resources toward a target. They’re like a boat without a destination, blown by the wind of circumstances this way and that. Businesses that don’t know their business go out of business. The same happens to churches without a purpose. Some churches have a mission statement in everyone’s copy of the constitution, but on nobody’s mind. It’s totally unconnected to the way they operate.
Develop Effective Organization
In mid-August 2006, my dad and I fished for smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Our goal was to catch and release as many bass as we could. We spent a lot of time planning and organizing. We structured our day to achieve our goal.
Some organization is more effective than others. We could’ve cast our lures while standing in our front yard, but a major problem came to our attention. The river was three miles away! We couldn’t reach it with a class five hurricane helping us. There wasn’t anything “wrong” with casting from our own yard. It certainly would’ve gotten the neighbors’ attention and strange looks from those who drove by our house! It wouldn’t have helped us reach our goal. As it turned out, we had to place our lures inches from the fish for them to strike on that August morning. If our lures are three miles away from the bass, we can cast, cast, cast, but are we really fishing for bass? Many churches hold a week or several days of “evangelistic services” which only members attend. Ever done that? Were you really fishing for men?
On that August day, we could’ve driven to the river and cast for bass while wading. That would’ve put us close to at least some fish. Certainly, it would’ve been an improvement over casting from the yard, but our goal was to catch and release as many bass as possible. That meant we had to get our lures close to as many bass as we could that morning. Wade-fishing would’ve limited us to covering many fewer spots than we could from a boat. Moreover, the Susquehanna River is dangerous for those who wade because of its rapid depth changes. Also, my ninety-three-year-old father would’ve vetoed the idea as one that arrived about fifty to sixty years too late! If we limit our evangelistic outreach to the services we hold within the walls of the bethel, we’re “wading” when we could be using a boat.
We organized for success. We loaded our fishing rods, reels, and tackle and other necessary equipment into the car. We hooked the car to our boat trailer and drove to a local ramp. We loaded the equipment into and launched the boat. We started the outboard motor and traveled to fishing spots as far as two miles from the ramp. We experimented with lure types, colors, and retrieve speeds. We fished deep and shallow water. We fished near the surface, the bottom, and in-between. We cast our lures from a drifting boat and trolled.
Most of the fish did not cooperate. The few that did were in shallow, moving water near rock ridges. We almost had to hit them on the head with our lure. When we did, they attacked it immediately. Lure color was not important. There are a lot of variables in the structures needed to catch bass. Some days trolling produces far more fish than casting. Other days it’s the reverse. Some days, fish will only strike a lure moving very slowly. Other days, they’ll hit one traveling as fast as it can be reeled. The color of the lure can make a big difference. The line must be thick enough not to break easily and thin enough to not be too visible to the fish. The goal remains catching as many fish as possible, but the structures must be flexible. That’s a parable for making more and better disciples as effectively as possible.
Definitions Determine Destination
Your core values, mission, and vision determine your spiritual influence and the size of your harvest. Beware of focusing on a part of your responsibility while ignoring other parts. Be patient. Don’t rush to write your core values, mission, and vision on paper. What’s far more important is that these three drive your ministry because they’re written on your heart.
Bridgeton Valley Church of God’s leaders’ first draft of their mission statement was, “Our mission is to share the gospel with everyone in Bridgeton Valley.” Then they wondered, “Isn’t there more to it than that? Don’t persons who come to Christ by our sharing need to grow in their faith and become an active part of a church family?” After considering these questions, their second draft stated: “Our mission is to share the gospel with everyone in Bridgeton Valley and develop believers into disciples of Christ.” That was much better than the first draft, but they didn’t stop there.
Some of their leaders had been reading the Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy that talked about spiritual multiplication. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). They decided to apply this multiplication principle to many areas of church life. Their third draft read, “Our mission is to turn self-centered persons into Jesus-centered disciples who multiply evangelists, teachers, workers, disciples, small groups, leaders and churches in Bridgeton Valley.” They decided to be a reproducing church! Evangelists, teachers, workers, disciples, small groups, leaders, and the church itself would all reproduce after their kind. That’s a significantly different destination than that envisioned in their first draft! Defining their desire to be a reproducing church doesn’t guarantee they’ll get there, but not defining that as a goal will assure they won’t.
Identify Your Core Values
Core values should grow out of the soil of biblical principles. It isn’t enough to say you value prayer. Non-Christian religions value it also. Paint a biblically-based sketch of the prayer you’re looking for in your congregation. “We value daily, disciplined, dependent, specific, continual, persevering, fervent, bold, balanced, believing prayer.”
Make sure your core values penetrate the barrier people erect between church life and the rest of life. For example, a church can value the Bible as God’s infallible, inspired word and defend it against all attempts to minimize its value. That’s wonderful, but not necessarily transforming. Go a step farther -- “We value the word of God as our most important authority in everyday decisions.”
I suggest considering the following core values: We value healthy small groups, leadership, relationships, spirituality, worship services, evangelism, ministry, and structures. Each of these should be defined. Doing so is a major purpose of this book. I include these because Christian Schwarz has demonstrated in Natural Church Development that all eight are consistently well-developed in healthy churches worldwide.
Define your church’s core values.
Define Your Mission
Your mission statement defines your business. It identifies your “customers” and tells how you’ll serve them. The Red Cross’ mission is “to serve the most vulnerable.” God has already spelled out your purpose in Matthew 22:37-39, Matthew 28:18-20, and John 17:18. Put this mission in your own words. Make it memorable.
A good mission statement is a brief, clear, achievable, inspiring definition of why you exist. It tells what you consider most important. Your mission statement is the bulls-eye on your ministry target. For example, “Our mission is to turn self-centered persons in [your town or area] into Jesus-centered disciples who reproduce after their kind.”
Define your church’s mission.
Define Your Vision
Vision makes a tremendous difference. In the spring of 2005, I shared a vision with a high school junior who was two months into her first season competing in throwing events. At the time, her best discus throw was ninety-five feet. I told her that if she practiced and built up her strength in the off-season, I could see her qualifying for the PIAA state championships in 2006 and possibly placing in the top eight. That vision motivated her to do specific exercises I suggested and work hard. The vision was more than just a dream. It included a strategy she could follow to qualify for the state championships. She placed second in the AA division discus throw in District III in 2006 (118’ 6”), qualified for the state championships, and finished tenth there. An unanticipated benefit of her hard work was significant improvement in the javelin throw (even though she didn’t practice it at all in the off-season) and a District III medal in that event as well. A coach’s vision can spur athletes to maximum performance. The leaders’ vision can similarly impact a congregation. Vision is to a church what gasoline is to a car.
Your vision is your church’s unique image of a successful future. It gives meaning to Christian service. It motivates, challenges, and inspires your people to work together enthusiastically. Your mission rolls on the rails of your vision. Your vision describes your destination (mission) and transportation (how you’ll get there). For example, “Our vision is to provide an atmosphere where self-centered persons in [our town or area] can become Jesus-centered disciples, who reproduce after their kind, through the influence of healthy small groups, leadership, relationships, spirituality, worship services, evangelism, ministries and structures.”
Define your vision.
Promote Progress
If your church’s worship attendance during the last ten years is steady or declining, you’re probably organized to perpetuate the past. If “What did we do last year?” is frequently heard during planning sessions, you’re driven by tradition rather than mission. Looking in your rear-view mirror too long when you’re driving can get you killed! Similarly, the backward-focused look into the rear-view mirror of tradition will sooner or later kill your church.
Organization and structures can help or hurt your church’s health. Effective organization doesn’t guarantee spiritual fruit, but it enables more fruit than ineffective organization. You can’t make a pepper plant grow by pulling the weeds growing around it, but not weeding it reduces its productivity.
You can’t make the church grow. Only God can do that (Matthew 16:18). You can keep the church from growing by structures and organization that maintain ineffectiveness. Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the pastor on a plunging, out-of-control plane who was desperately implored to do something religious. He took an offering! God hasn’t commissioned your church to do something religious. He expects you to use the gifts he has given to bear fruit for his kingdom (Matthew 25:14-30).
If your worship attendance has declined or remained steady for the last ten years, your organization and structures are probably part of the problem. Make sure your branches (ministries) are connected to the trunk (mission).
Pursue Efficiency and Effectiveness
My uncle was a celery farmer. The quantity of celery he harvested depended on his efficiency and effectiveness. He used specially designed equipment to plant, cultivate, water, harvest, and process celery for market. All this equipment increased his efficiency. From years of experience, he knew what celery needed at every stage of its development to produce a marketable product. He provided what it needed, when it needed it. He was effective. He did not waste energy doing things that didn’t make any difference in the harvest.
The quantity of kingdom fruit your church harvests depends on your effectiveness and efficiency. The more spiritual seeds you plant, the more you cultivate, the more you water, the greater your harvest will be. What percentage of your resources as a church are directed by your structures and organization towards sowing, planting, watering, and harvesting versus other activities that don’t expand the kingdom? That determines your effectiveness. Your efficiency is measured by the size of the harvest compared to the time, energy, and money you spend to achieve it. Improving your efficiency increases your harvest.
Healthy churches reproduce after their kind. They reproduce evangelists, teachers, workers, disciples, small groups, leaders, and often, other churches. Many persons who serve in diverse ministries develop others to carry on their ministry. They in turn develop others.
Incorporate multiplication into your church structures.
A Pigskin Parable
Your structures include your ministries, how they operate, and how they’re connected to each other. Organizations with effective structures, whether athletic, corporate, or church related, have similar characteristics. Let me paint a picture of effective structures of a successful football program and help you apply it to improve the effectiveness of your church structures.
Go for the Goal
We cheer for football teams, not football groups. A team is a group with a goal. In the stained-glass world, many groups don’t have goals that strengthen the church. They just meet. That’s a terrible waste of potential kingdom-building power! By contrast, a football team works hard and together, and its members pay a price to win. When they come out for football, they know they’re signing up for pain. They might not break any bones, but smashing into other players at full speed hurts!
Successful teams share specific goals. Those goals could include winning a league, conference, district, state, national, or professional championship. In addition, players have personal goals, such as being a starter, or being named to an all-league, all-conference, all-state, all-American, or all-pro team. No successful football coach allows his players to be either goalless or driven by only individual goals. A team’s goals tap the energy of its members and help it achieve its full potential.
Encourage every ministry to define specific goals that help achieve the church’s mission and vision.
Develop Your Strategies
Strategies are the highways to your goals. In 2005, Penn State’s football team had a goal of making it to the national championship game. Their strategy was to use a spread offense to take advantage of their players’ talents. They didn’t quite reach their goal, but they came very close.
Once goals are set, encourage every ministry to develop strategies to achieve them.
Develop Leadership
A football team needs a leader on the field. On offense, usually it is the quarterback. The leader’s responsibility is to make crucial decisions, inspire the members of the team with confidence, and motivate them to work together. His job is to get his players in the zone, the end zone!
Coach ministry leaders to equip their teams to work together to reach their goals.
Any high school football team that wins most of its games year after year has an effective year-round program of strength development. Through weight training, senior players develop muscles in places that freshmen don’t even have!
Starting high school or college quarterbacks eventually graduate (at least at some schools!). Some become injured and physically unable to play. That leaves a leadership vacuum unless coaches develop the leadership abilities of those who aren’t yet starting players. Teams need continuity of effective leadership on the field to win more games than they lose season after season.
Create a process to develop the leadership abilities of small group members, with special attention given to the one who’ll succeed the leader. See Healthy Leadership for details.
Define Ministry Job Descriptions
Each position on a football team has its own job description. It varies depending on the offensive or defensive system the coach uses. Each player knows his role on every play and how it makes the whole play successful. Eleven persons of average ability who each carry out their role on a given play will outperform eleven above average guys who don’t cooperate. Dazzling teams outperform individuals with dazzling skills. That’s why the United States has trouble winning the world championship in basketball.
Define job descriptions for every ministry role. See the following example.
Ministry: Bread of Life
Ministry description: Newcomers are visited and given a gift of appreciation for having visited our church
Position: Bread of life visitor
Position description: Visit newcomers and present them with a loaf of bread and our thanks for having visited our church
Spiritual gifts: Helps, evangelism, encouragement
Responsible to: Fred Smith (939-5894)
Is church membership required? No
How this ministry helps achieve our vision: It’s a vital part of assimilating new persons into our church.
Maturity level required: Adult
Passion required: Desire for new persons to come to know Jesus and become part of our fellowship.
Ministry target: Church visitors
Ministry location: The homes of visitors.
Schedule: Monday evenings
Commitment: 1 hour per week for 6 months
Temperament desired: Promoter or helper
Match Talent with Ministry Needs
Coaches don’t assign players to various positions by a lottery drawing! They put each player where they think he has the most potential to help the team. A 6’7” player who weighs 325 pounds doesn’t return kickoffs. That job goes to a swift, elusive 170-pounder with the ability to catch the ball and not fumble when tackled. How wisely coaches place players helps determine their team’s success.
Each ministry should mobilize its members to serve God in harmony with their spiritual passion, spiritual gifts, natural gifts, temperament, and life experiences. See Healthy Ministry for details.
Develop Clear Communication Lines
Winning teams communicate effectively. The quarterback sometimes changes the play at the line of scrimmage to take advantage of the defensive alignment. Every player on offense needs to understand the change in plans and make appropriate adjustments. Otherwise, the newly called play won’t work. Effective communication among members of a ministry team is essential for the team to function as a unit.
The defensive backfield, linebackers, and defensive linemen form three separate units. These groups must communicate with each other for the defense to play effectively. If a linebacker is blitzing on a play, the defensive backs need to know it because it affects how they’ll play.
Likewise, your church’s ministries need effective communication lines with each other. Each ministry should know the goals and strategies of all other ministries. This enables it to make decisions and plans and to develop strategies that will help rather than hurt other ministries.
Organize effective communication channels within and among ministries. Err on the side of over-communication. It’s better to tell your spouse, “I love you!” ten times a week through spoken words, gifts, cards, acts of service, etc., than once a year with a mumble! Establish a system for ministries to communicate their goals and strategies to each other at least annually.
Organize Prayer Power
Many football teams have a group prayer before the game. This unifies and strengthens them as they prepare to enter the battle.
Prayer can be helpful to a football team, but it’s essential for a church striving for healthy structures. Leaders in every ministry need the wisdom and power that come through prayer.
Equip leaders to develop needed prayer support within their own ministries.
Evaluate and Improve
Football teams pursue continuous improvement. Coaches evaluate their players by watching videos of the game, and then they make necessary adjustments. Without evaluation and correction, they’re doomed to make the same mistakes play after play, game after game, year after year. Coaches also evaluate teams they’ll play by watching videos of their games. By observing the strengths and weaknesses of these teams, they’re able to adjust their game plan to give themselves the best chance to win.
Many declining churches continue ineffective ministries year after year without making any changes. Their ministries in 2005 differ little from those in 1985. They had no written goals in 1985, and they still don’t. Without goals, there’s no reference point for evaluation. These churches probably don’t know what the needs of their community really are or which of them they’re best able to meet. Without evaluation, ministries are as effective as they’ll ever be, and that might not be very effective!
At least annually, every ministry should evaluate the effectiveness of its strategies in reaching its written goals and make necessary adjustments to those strategies to improve.
Construct a Path to Your Destination
I couldn’t find the church! I had an appointment to meet with the pastor at a church I’d visited only once before. I thought I knew how to get there, so I didn’t take a map. I needed that map in the worst way! I turned onto unfamiliar back road after back road. I fussed and fumed, but it didn’t help! I had another appointment scheduled, so I ran out of time to find the church. With the embarrassment needle pegged to the high end of the gauge, I later called the pastor and apologized for missing the appointment. I didn’t call him on my cell phone to get directions when I was lost because I didn’t have one. Bad experiences can make good illustrations! That lost feeling is how many church folks feel as they navigate toward becoming more like Jesus with a sketchy map or no map at all showing them how to get there.
Your destination as a church is to make more and better disciples. You need a plan. You need a path! You need an easy to understand, clearly marked trail for new Christians to trek toward positions of spiritual leadership. Many churches don’t have one. Sometimes there’s a cow path here, an unconnected gravel section of road there, and another unconnected stretch of paved highway somewhere ahead. If new Christians must hike alone for miles through unmarked woods and fields, many will get lost, never to be seen in the church again. Many others won’t leave, but they’ll never achieve their potential. You need a road that seekers can take to come to faith in Christ, be assimilated into the life of the church, grow in faith, become involved in ministry, and develop into spiritual leaders.
Inventory how much of that road is already in place, so you know what sections need to be designed and built.
Those who work with the disabled have barrier-free standards. Even some hiking trails meet such standards. Your church needs ministries that focus on every section of the upward-winding road—pre-evangelism, evangelism, assimilation, growth, ministry, leadership, missions, and church planting. Each of these is a bridge that empowers persons to move from one level of spiritual development to the next. Healthy churches organize themselves to guide believers along this upward-winding path.
Another option is to employ small groups that have each of these elements as components. In other words, pre-evangelism, evangelism, assimilation, spiritual growth, ministry, leadership development, and missions are parts of the overall ministry of each small group.
The path of Christian maturity produces both laborers for the harvest and leaders for ministries. You can’t depend on laborers and leaders transferring to your church from other churches. Develop your own.
To make your organizational structures more effective, follow this sequence:
1. Define your core values.
2. Define your mission.
3. Define your vision
4. Evaluate your ministries for coverage of the full discipleship path (pre-evangelism, evangelism, assimilation, growth, ministry placement, and leadership development).
5. Create new ministries so you have at least one or two for each portion of the discipleship path.
6. Challenge each ministry to organize its own prayer support.
7. Write job descriptions for all ministry positions.
8. Place persons in ministry based on their spiritual passion, gifts, temperament, and skills.
9. Encourage each ministry to set three to four mission-centered, SMART goals per year, and develop strategies to achieve them.
10. Establish clear communication lines among ministry leaders.
11. Offer leadership training monthly and coaching to all leaders who desire it.
12. Challenge ministries to evaluate their goals and strategies annually and make changes to improve their effectiveness.
13. Discontinue unfruitful ministries and assign their members to more fruitful places of service.
14. Multiply evangelists, disciples, leaders, small groups, and churches using apprenticeship.
Evaluate How Healthy Your Structures Are
To evaluate the health of your church’s organization, complete the Healthy Organization Underlying Issues Inventory in "Underlying Issues Inventories" on this website.
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Remember Your Purpose
Have you ever gone to the basement, kitchen, or garage to get something and forgotten what? I’ve not done that since probably, yesterday. Sometimes I operate on autopilot. Occasionally, half-awake in the morning, I catch myself unthinkingly aiming my foot-spray can under my armpit! Fortunately, I’ve not pushed the button yet! Forgetting our purpose isn’t funny. The key question, “Are you a mission-driven or tradition-driven church?”
It makes a difference to Jesus. And he [Jesus] said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” (Mark 7:9). We don’t want to be guilty of that.
God’s command in Matthew 22:37-40 is to love him and our neighbor: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus commands us to make disciples of all nations. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” In brief, we’re to make more and better disciples. The two commandments in Matthew 22 and 28 are related. When we’re making more and better disciples, we’re loving God and our neighbor.
Christian Schwarz discovered that tradition-driven churches are almost never healthy churches where worship attendance grows ten or more percent annually. He found that only liberal theology has a stronger negative effect on a church’s health and growth than being tradition-driven (Natural Church Development, p. 46). Are your eyes on the fields that are ripe and ready for harvest (John 4:35), or on how have always done things? Being driven by what you did last year is like driving with a constant focus on the rear-view mirror. The backward look, without evaluation, rarely helps the church move forward.
Paul forgot what was behind and strained toward what was ahead (Philippians 3:13). When a champion miler runs, he doesn’t dwell on whether he had the fastest time for the first lap around the track. Who cares? The only time that counts is the one recorded at the finish line. Paul didn’t become preoccupied with his past. His goal was to hit life’s finish line a winner. I’m sure you want to do the same!
It’s easy to become preoccupied with church routines and think spiritual busyness pleases God. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 should scare those of us who think all church work is equally commended. God expects a return on his investment in us.
Imagine the owner of an orchard will be away for an unspecified number of years. He gives you money and entrusts you with 300 nectarine trees. You don’t know anything about raising nectarines. The first year you pray eight hours daily that God will watch over the crop. Now praying is necessary… but so is spraying. All prayer and no sweat produce rotten nectarines. The second year you recruit a group of cheerleaders who come once a week and cheer for the nectarine trees. They don’t know any specific nectarine cheers, so they improvise… Grow, grow, grow, grow, grow! The trees aren’t impressed, but the fungus is. It grows like the national debt. All the fruit rots before it ripens. By the third season, you’re starting to panic. The boss could be back to check up on you anytime. You research how to grow nectarines and learn what sprays will solve the rot problem, how to use them and how often. You provide the right environment and the trees yield an abundant harvest.
Were the trees responsible for the rot problem? No! Fungus was. The tree’s part is to produce nectarines; your part is to remove obstacles that prevent an abundant harvest of quality fruit. The structures you used to care for the trees (prayer alone and cheerleaders) were not effective. You didn’t manage the orchard wisely until the third year. Likewise, the productive potential God has placed into your church is enormous. Provide an environment that allows that potential to have its full effect.
Jesus was not just busy. He was about his father’s business (Luke 2:49). He had only critical words for those who honored tradition above obedience.
Because many churches don’t have a mission statement that drives them, they aren’t channeling their resources toward a target. They’re like a boat without a destination, blown by the wind of circumstances this way and that. Businesses that don’t know their business go out of business. The same happens to churches without a purpose. Some churches have a mission statement in everyone’s copy of the constitution, but on nobody’s mind. It’s totally unconnected to the way they operate.
Develop Effective Organization
In mid-August 2006, my dad and I fished for smallmouth bass in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Our goal was to catch and release as many bass as we could. We spent a lot of time planning and organizing. We structured our day to achieve our goal.
Some organization is more effective than others. We could’ve cast our lures while standing in our front yard, but a major problem came to our attention. The river was three miles away! We couldn’t reach it with a class five hurricane helping us. There wasn’t anything “wrong” with casting from our own yard. It certainly would’ve gotten the neighbors’ attention and strange looks from those who drove by our house! It wouldn’t have helped us reach our goal. As it turned out, we had to place our lures inches from the fish for them to strike on that August morning. If our lures are three miles away from the bass, we can cast, cast, cast, but are we really fishing for bass? Many churches hold a week or several days of “evangelistic services” which only members attend. Ever done that? Were you really fishing for men?
On that August day, we could’ve driven to the river and cast for bass while wading. That would’ve put us close to at least some fish. Certainly, it would’ve been an improvement over casting from the yard, but our goal was to catch and release as many bass as possible. That meant we had to get our lures close to as many bass as we could that morning. Wade-fishing would’ve limited us to covering many fewer spots than we could from a boat. Moreover, the Susquehanna River is dangerous for those who wade because of its rapid depth changes. Also, my ninety-three-year-old father would’ve vetoed the idea as one that arrived about fifty to sixty years too late! If we limit our evangelistic outreach to the services we hold within the walls of the bethel, we’re “wading” when we could be using a boat.
We organized for success. We loaded our fishing rods, reels, and tackle and other necessary equipment into the car. We hooked the car to our boat trailer and drove to a local ramp. We loaded the equipment into and launched the boat. We started the outboard motor and traveled to fishing spots as far as two miles from the ramp. We experimented with lure types, colors, and retrieve speeds. We fished deep and shallow water. We fished near the surface, the bottom, and in-between. We cast our lures from a drifting boat and trolled.
Most of the fish did not cooperate. The few that did were in shallow, moving water near rock ridges. We almost had to hit them on the head with our lure. When we did, they attacked it immediately. Lure color was not important. There are a lot of variables in the structures needed to catch bass. Some days trolling produces far more fish than casting. Other days it’s the reverse. Some days, fish will only strike a lure moving very slowly. Other days, they’ll hit one traveling as fast as it can be reeled. The color of the lure can make a big difference. The line must be thick enough not to break easily and thin enough to not be too visible to the fish. The goal remains catching as many fish as possible, but the structures must be flexible. That’s a parable for making more and better disciples as effectively as possible.
Definitions Determine Destination
Your core values, mission, and vision determine your spiritual influence and the size of your harvest. Beware of focusing on a part of your responsibility while ignoring other parts. Be patient. Don’t rush to write your core values, mission, and vision on paper. What’s far more important is that these three drive your ministry because they’re written on your heart.
Bridgeton Valley Church of God’s leaders’ first draft of their mission statement was, “Our mission is to share the gospel with everyone in Bridgeton Valley.” Then they wondered, “Isn’t there more to it than that? Don’t persons who come to Christ by our sharing need to grow in their faith and become an active part of a church family?” After considering these questions, their second draft stated: “Our mission is to share the gospel with everyone in Bridgeton Valley and develop believers into disciples of Christ.” That was much better than the first draft, but they didn’t stop there.
Some of their leaders had been reading the Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy that talked about spiritual multiplication. “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Timothy 2:2). They decided to apply this multiplication principle to many areas of church life. Their third draft read, “Our mission is to turn self-centered persons into Jesus-centered disciples who multiply evangelists, teachers, workers, disciples, small groups, leaders and churches in Bridgeton Valley.” They decided to be a reproducing church! Evangelists, teachers, workers, disciples, small groups, leaders, and the church itself would all reproduce after their kind. That’s a significantly different destination than that envisioned in their first draft! Defining their desire to be a reproducing church doesn’t guarantee they’ll get there, but not defining that as a goal will assure they won’t.
Identify Your Core Values
Core values should grow out of the soil of biblical principles. It isn’t enough to say you value prayer. Non-Christian religions value it also. Paint a biblically-based sketch of the prayer you’re looking for in your congregation. “We value daily, disciplined, dependent, specific, continual, persevering, fervent, bold, balanced, believing prayer.”
Make sure your core values penetrate the barrier people erect between church life and the rest of life. For example, a church can value the Bible as God’s infallible, inspired word and defend it against all attempts to minimize its value. That’s wonderful, but not necessarily transforming. Go a step farther -- “We value the word of God as our most important authority in everyday decisions.”
I suggest considering the following core values: We value healthy small groups, leadership, relationships, spirituality, worship services, evangelism, ministry, and structures. Each of these should be defined. Doing so is a major purpose of this book. I include these because Christian Schwarz has demonstrated in Natural Church Development that all eight are consistently well-developed in healthy churches worldwide.
Define your church’s core values.
Define Your Mission
Your mission statement defines your business. It identifies your “customers” and tells how you’ll serve them. The Red Cross’ mission is “to serve the most vulnerable.” God has already spelled out your purpose in Matthew 22:37-39, Matthew 28:18-20, and John 17:18. Put this mission in your own words. Make it memorable.
A good mission statement is a brief, clear, achievable, inspiring definition of why you exist. It tells what you consider most important. Your mission statement is the bulls-eye on your ministry target. For example, “Our mission is to turn self-centered persons in [your town or area] into Jesus-centered disciples who reproduce after their kind.”
Define your church’s mission.
Define Your Vision
Vision makes a tremendous difference. In the spring of 2005, I shared a vision with a high school junior who was two months into her first season competing in throwing events. At the time, her best discus throw was ninety-five feet. I told her that if she practiced and built up her strength in the off-season, I could see her qualifying for the PIAA state championships in 2006 and possibly placing in the top eight. That vision motivated her to do specific exercises I suggested and work hard. The vision was more than just a dream. It included a strategy she could follow to qualify for the state championships. She placed second in the AA division discus throw in District III in 2006 (118’ 6”), qualified for the state championships, and finished tenth there. An unanticipated benefit of her hard work was significant improvement in the javelin throw (even though she didn’t practice it at all in the off-season) and a District III medal in that event as well. A coach’s vision can spur athletes to maximum performance. The leaders’ vision can similarly impact a congregation. Vision is to a church what gasoline is to a car.
Your vision is your church’s unique image of a successful future. It gives meaning to Christian service. It motivates, challenges, and inspires your people to work together enthusiastically. Your mission rolls on the rails of your vision. Your vision describes your destination (mission) and transportation (how you’ll get there). For example, “Our vision is to provide an atmosphere where self-centered persons in [our town or area] can become Jesus-centered disciples, who reproduce after their kind, through the influence of healthy small groups, leadership, relationships, spirituality, worship services, evangelism, ministries and structures.”
Define your vision.
Promote Progress
If your church’s worship attendance during the last ten years is steady or declining, you’re probably organized to perpetuate the past. If “What did we do last year?” is frequently heard during planning sessions, you’re driven by tradition rather than mission. Looking in your rear-view mirror too long when you’re driving can get you killed! Similarly, the backward-focused look into the rear-view mirror of tradition will sooner or later kill your church.
Organization and structures can help or hurt your church’s health. Effective organization doesn’t guarantee spiritual fruit, but it enables more fruit than ineffective organization. You can’t make a pepper plant grow by pulling the weeds growing around it, but not weeding it reduces its productivity.
You can’t make the church grow. Only God can do that (Matthew 16:18). You can keep the church from growing by structures and organization that maintain ineffectiveness. Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the pastor on a plunging, out-of-control plane who was desperately implored to do something religious. He took an offering! God hasn’t commissioned your church to do something religious. He expects you to use the gifts he has given to bear fruit for his kingdom (Matthew 25:14-30).
If your worship attendance has declined or remained steady for the last ten years, your organization and structures are probably part of the problem. Make sure your branches (ministries) are connected to the trunk (mission).
Pursue Efficiency and Effectiveness
My uncle was a celery farmer. The quantity of celery he harvested depended on his efficiency and effectiveness. He used specially designed equipment to plant, cultivate, water, harvest, and process celery for market. All this equipment increased his efficiency. From years of experience, he knew what celery needed at every stage of its development to produce a marketable product. He provided what it needed, when it needed it. He was effective. He did not waste energy doing things that didn’t make any difference in the harvest.
The quantity of kingdom fruit your church harvests depends on your effectiveness and efficiency. The more spiritual seeds you plant, the more you cultivate, the more you water, the greater your harvest will be. What percentage of your resources as a church are directed by your structures and organization towards sowing, planting, watering, and harvesting versus other activities that don’t expand the kingdom? That determines your effectiveness. Your efficiency is measured by the size of the harvest compared to the time, energy, and money you spend to achieve it. Improving your efficiency increases your harvest.
Healthy churches reproduce after their kind. They reproduce evangelists, teachers, workers, disciples, small groups, leaders, and often, other churches. Many persons who serve in diverse ministries develop others to carry on their ministry. They in turn develop others.
Incorporate multiplication into your church structures.
A Pigskin Parable
Your structures include your ministries, how they operate, and how they’re connected to each other. Organizations with effective structures, whether athletic, corporate, or church related, have similar characteristics. Let me paint a picture of effective structures of a successful football program and help you apply it to improve the effectiveness of your church structures.
Go for the Goal
We cheer for football teams, not football groups. A team is a group with a goal. In the stained-glass world, many groups don’t have goals that strengthen the church. They just meet. That’s a terrible waste of potential kingdom-building power! By contrast, a football team works hard and together, and its members pay a price to win. When they come out for football, they know they’re signing up for pain. They might not break any bones, but smashing into other players at full speed hurts!
Successful teams share specific goals. Those goals could include winning a league, conference, district, state, national, or professional championship. In addition, players have personal goals, such as being a starter, or being named to an all-league, all-conference, all-state, all-American, or all-pro team. No successful football coach allows his players to be either goalless or driven by only individual goals. A team’s goals tap the energy of its members and help it achieve its full potential.
Encourage every ministry to define specific goals that help achieve the church’s mission and vision.
Develop Your Strategies
Strategies are the highways to your goals. In 2005, Penn State’s football team had a goal of making it to the national championship game. Their strategy was to use a spread offense to take advantage of their players’ talents. They didn’t quite reach their goal, but they came very close.
Once goals are set, encourage every ministry to develop strategies to achieve them.
Develop Leadership
A football team needs a leader on the field. On offense, usually it is the quarterback. The leader’s responsibility is to make crucial decisions, inspire the members of the team with confidence, and motivate them to work together. His job is to get his players in the zone, the end zone!
Coach ministry leaders to equip their teams to work together to reach their goals.
Any high school football team that wins most of its games year after year has an effective year-round program of strength development. Through weight training, senior players develop muscles in places that freshmen don’t even have!
Starting high school or college quarterbacks eventually graduate (at least at some schools!). Some become injured and physically unable to play. That leaves a leadership vacuum unless coaches develop the leadership abilities of those who aren’t yet starting players. Teams need continuity of effective leadership on the field to win more games than they lose season after season.
Create a process to develop the leadership abilities of small group members, with special attention given to the one who’ll succeed the leader. See Healthy Leadership for details.
Define Ministry Job Descriptions
Each position on a football team has its own job description. It varies depending on the offensive or defensive system the coach uses. Each player knows his role on every play and how it makes the whole play successful. Eleven persons of average ability who each carry out their role on a given play will outperform eleven above average guys who don’t cooperate. Dazzling teams outperform individuals with dazzling skills. That’s why the United States has trouble winning the world championship in basketball.
Define job descriptions for every ministry role. See the following example.
Ministry: Bread of Life
Ministry description: Newcomers are visited and given a gift of appreciation for having visited our church
Position: Bread of life visitor
Position description: Visit newcomers and present them with a loaf of bread and our thanks for having visited our church
Spiritual gifts: Helps, evangelism, encouragement
Responsible to: Fred Smith (939-5894)
Is church membership required? No
How this ministry helps achieve our vision: It’s a vital part of assimilating new persons into our church.
Maturity level required: Adult
Passion required: Desire for new persons to come to know Jesus and become part of our fellowship.
Ministry target: Church visitors
Ministry location: The homes of visitors.
Schedule: Monday evenings
Commitment: 1 hour per week for 6 months
Temperament desired: Promoter or helper
Match Talent with Ministry Needs
Coaches don’t assign players to various positions by a lottery drawing! They put each player where they think he has the most potential to help the team. A 6’7” player who weighs 325 pounds doesn’t return kickoffs. That job goes to a swift, elusive 170-pounder with the ability to catch the ball and not fumble when tackled. How wisely coaches place players helps determine their team’s success.
Each ministry should mobilize its members to serve God in harmony with their spiritual passion, spiritual gifts, natural gifts, temperament, and life experiences. See Healthy Ministry for details.
Develop Clear Communication Lines
Winning teams communicate effectively. The quarterback sometimes changes the play at the line of scrimmage to take advantage of the defensive alignment. Every player on offense needs to understand the change in plans and make appropriate adjustments. Otherwise, the newly called play won’t work. Effective communication among members of a ministry team is essential for the team to function as a unit.
The defensive backfield, linebackers, and defensive linemen form three separate units. These groups must communicate with each other for the defense to play effectively. If a linebacker is blitzing on a play, the defensive backs need to know it because it affects how they’ll play.
Likewise, your church’s ministries need effective communication lines with each other. Each ministry should know the goals and strategies of all other ministries. This enables it to make decisions and plans and to develop strategies that will help rather than hurt other ministries.
Organize effective communication channels within and among ministries. Err on the side of over-communication. It’s better to tell your spouse, “I love you!” ten times a week through spoken words, gifts, cards, acts of service, etc., than once a year with a mumble! Establish a system for ministries to communicate their goals and strategies to each other at least annually.
Organize Prayer Power
Many football teams have a group prayer before the game. This unifies and strengthens them as they prepare to enter the battle.
Prayer can be helpful to a football team, but it’s essential for a church striving for healthy structures. Leaders in every ministry need the wisdom and power that come through prayer.
Equip leaders to develop needed prayer support within their own ministries.
Evaluate and Improve
Football teams pursue continuous improvement. Coaches evaluate their players by watching videos of the game, and then they make necessary adjustments. Without evaluation and correction, they’re doomed to make the same mistakes play after play, game after game, year after year. Coaches also evaluate teams they’ll play by watching videos of their games. By observing the strengths and weaknesses of these teams, they’re able to adjust their game plan to give themselves the best chance to win.
Many declining churches continue ineffective ministries year after year without making any changes. Their ministries in 2005 differ little from those in 1985. They had no written goals in 1985, and they still don’t. Without goals, there’s no reference point for evaluation. These churches probably don’t know what the needs of their community really are or which of them they’re best able to meet. Without evaluation, ministries are as effective as they’ll ever be, and that might not be very effective!
At least annually, every ministry should evaluate the effectiveness of its strategies in reaching its written goals and make necessary adjustments to those strategies to improve.
Construct a Path to Your Destination
I couldn’t find the church! I had an appointment to meet with the pastor at a church I’d visited only once before. I thought I knew how to get there, so I didn’t take a map. I needed that map in the worst way! I turned onto unfamiliar back road after back road. I fussed and fumed, but it didn’t help! I had another appointment scheduled, so I ran out of time to find the church. With the embarrassment needle pegged to the high end of the gauge, I later called the pastor and apologized for missing the appointment. I didn’t call him on my cell phone to get directions when I was lost because I didn’t have one. Bad experiences can make good illustrations! That lost feeling is how many church folks feel as they navigate toward becoming more like Jesus with a sketchy map or no map at all showing them how to get there.
Your destination as a church is to make more and better disciples. You need a plan. You need a path! You need an easy to understand, clearly marked trail for new Christians to trek toward positions of spiritual leadership. Many churches don’t have one. Sometimes there’s a cow path here, an unconnected gravel section of road there, and another unconnected stretch of paved highway somewhere ahead. If new Christians must hike alone for miles through unmarked woods and fields, many will get lost, never to be seen in the church again. Many others won’t leave, but they’ll never achieve their potential. You need a road that seekers can take to come to faith in Christ, be assimilated into the life of the church, grow in faith, become involved in ministry, and develop into spiritual leaders.
Inventory how much of that road is already in place, so you know what sections need to be designed and built.
Those who work with the disabled have barrier-free standards. Even some hiking trails meet such standards. Your church needs ministries that focus on every section of the upward-winding road—pre-evangelism, evangelism, assimilation, growth, ministry, leadership, missions, and church planting. Each of these is a bridge that empowers persons to move from one level of spiritual development to the next. Healthy churches organize themselves to guide believers along this upward-winding path.
Another option is to employ small groups that have each of these elements as components. In other words, pre-evangelism, evangelism, assimilation, spiritual growth, ministry, leadership development, and missions are parts of the overall ministry of each small group.
The path of Christian maturity produces both laborers for the harvest and leaders for ministries. You can’t depend on laborers and leaders transferring to your church from other churches. Develop your own.
To make your organizational structures more effective, follow this sequence:
1. Define your core values.
2. Define your mission.
3. Define your vision
4. Evaluate your ministries for coverage of the full discipleship path (pre-evangelism, evangelism, assimilation, growth, ministry placement, and leadership development).
5. Create new ministries so you have at least one or two for each portion of the discipleship path.
6. Challenge each ministry to organize its own prayer support.
7. Write job descriptions for all ministry positions.
8. Place persons in ministry based on their spiritual passion, gifts, temperament, and skills.
9. Encourage each ministry to set three to four mission-centered, SMART goals per year, and develop strategies to achieve them.
10. Establish clear communication lines among ministry leaders.
11. Offer leadership training monthly and coaching to all leaders who desire it.
12. Challenge ministries to evaluate their goals and strategies annually and make changes to improve their effectiveness.
13. Discontinue unfruitful ministries and assign their members to more fruitful places of service.
14. Multiply evangelists, disciples, leaders, small groups, and churches using apprenticeship.
Evaluate How Healthy Your Structures Are
To evaluate the health of your church’s organization, complete the Healthy Organization Underlying Issues Inventory in "Underlying Issues Inventories" on this website.
