Thriving or Declining: Building Effective Church Systems

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Thriving or Declining Building Effective
Church Systems

• Source Ray Johnston, www.baysideonline.com
• CCN Online, May 10, 2001

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Whats your System?

• Declining Church Systems
• 87 Protestant congregations in US are stagnant
  or declining
• 77 of people on church boards said the quality
  of their spiritual life went down while serving
• Every group of churches over 20 years old are
  declining as a group

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Thriving Church Systems
Anything left of center!

Administrators
Leaders
Bureaucrats
Aristocrats
Barbarians
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The Top Ten Essentials for Developing Thriving
Churches

• 10. Passion
• The one constant in growing churches of all
  types Atmosphere
• What kills passion?
• 1. Problem-solving syndrome
• 2. Busy-enough now
• 3. No vacancy (no more energy)
• 4. Nostalgia
• 5. Lazarus syndrome (recovering the dissatisfied)

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9. Core Values and a Commitment to Expansion

• Unhealthy core values that drive churches (Rick
  Warren)
• 1.Tradition (what did we do before?)
• 2. Personality (what does the leader want?)
• 3. Finance (how much does it cost?)
• 4. Program (what are we already doing?)
• 5. Building (if you have a room the teens cannot
  use )
• 6. Seeker (do we simply give people what they
  want?)

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8. Balanced Ministry Strategy

• Three types of people attend church
• 1. Casual (ready to visit)
• Reached by outreach ministries
• 2. Curious (ready to grow)
• Reached by spiritual growth ministries
• 3. Committed (ready to serve)
• Reached by equipping ministries

Thriving church systems minister to each stage!
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7. Intentionally create new waves of people.

• Seasonal waves
• 1. Christmas
• 2. January 1
• 3. Easter
• 4. Mothers Day
• 5. Fathers Day
• 6. Start of school year

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Making More Waves

• Front door waves
• Marriage conferences, recovery ministries, having
  a variety of services (style, location)
• Message waves
• Preaching in series (start on key days)
• Postmodern (conversational) style
• Titled for take-home value
• Staffing waves
• Bringing on folk who attract new group of people
  (more on this in a moment)

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6. Prioritize ministry to kids and teenagers.

• 50 of world is now younger than 16 and 80
  become Christian before age 21
• Wrap up VBS on Sunday a.m.
• Pay heavy attention to middle school ministry
  (and younger)
• 2/3 high school students have part-time jobs
• Launching high-school ministry from scratch is
  nearly impossible, but m.sers graduate
• And, middle schoolers like something to do
• M.S. parents have more disposable income

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5. Grow an expanding staff.

• Build a staff which builds ministries which build
  people
• The future is above the line!

Future
Staff which Attracts Growth
Staff Which Supports Growth
Present
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Staffing Keys

• Hire for
• 1. Character (can I trust them?)
• 2. Competence (can they do it?)
• 3. Chemistry (can I fish with them?)
• 4. Energy (I need to chase them home)
• Part-time hires
• The future is soccer moms retirees
• Make outrageous asks up front

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4. Mobilize laity.

• People grow and serve best when they know what
  the steps are
• i.e., the 5 Gs at Willow
• Or, Saddleback diamond
• Whats your game plan and how do you teach it to
  people?
• Spiritual gift implementation
• Being high expectation

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3. Build healthy homes.

• Friday p.m. Sunday a.m. marriage retreat, with
  leader being the Sunday speaker
• Annual parenting and marriage series of sermons
• Those who are not parents or spouses are educated
  for other roles in relation to these

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2. Prioritize building small groups.

• A church can get bigger as long is it keeps
  getting smaller.
• Different spiritual needs are met by different
  size groups in the church.

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1. Climate control.

• The 1 job of the pastor is to guard the spirit
  of the church
• Model healthy family relationships
• Public/personal encouragement
• Creating atmospheres of grace while making
  phonies and critics squirm

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Whats your System?

• When churches deal with these factors, they
  pollinate the church and create the kind of
  greenhouse in which seeds can grow and flower.

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Thriving or Declining Building Effective
Church Systems

• Dr. John P. Chandler
• Virginia Baptist Mission Board
• Chandler_at_vbmb.org
• Copy Right John P. Chandler, 2002