Renewing Your Church Through Vision and Planning

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Any endeavor that works seems to require a leader.
—Don Cousins

As a whole, ministers are rarely accused of not working hard. But I want to make sure I'm also working smart.

When I look at the marketplace, which I often do as a strategist, I see leaders who are forced to work smart because there's a bottom line telling them if their strategies are working. But in the ministry, the bottom line remains more intangible. It's difficult to evaluate how well we're doing, so we tend to work hard and pray hard and trust God that the "bottom line" will turn out to his liking.

I try to work hard, pray diligently, and trust God. But I don't want to spin my wheels using unproductive strategies. So I've learned to be specific about what it is we're trying to accomplish.

For example, I was once part of a fine church youth group. The Bible was taught week by week. The group served at a state hospital and a children's home. We sponsored activities on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. There was Wednesday night Bible study and Sunday morning Sunday school. But we averaged the same number of kids year after year. We had no end of activity, but it wasn't focused.

Then, through improving the program a little, our attendance shot from thirty to seventy. We began to wonder, What would happen if we designed the program to meet the needs of the outsiders?

So we built a program around outreach. The first night 150 showed up. The Christian kids all brought friends whom they'd been afraid to invite to our earlier activities designed for Christians. I brought three myself, and they came back the following week because it had been such a positive experience. Many such friends became believers. I've continued to be impressed with the way the Son City ministry ...

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