by Randy Knutson
Introduction:
It is estimated that less that 4% of the evangelical churches in the United States intentionally retreat to pray, plan, and envision the future with their leadership teams. Therefore, the tyranny of the urgent is running their staff meetings and calendering. Hurried, reactive, marginless planning will do more to frustrate a godly church's growth than any other attack of the devil. So, when we are beginning a new church, we need to ask ourselves, what is involved with developing a healthy core group. Let's start with the end in mind. There are four things to think about when putting together a healthy core group:
- The key principle behind intentional planning, prayer, and vision casting:
You are always in the first year of your five year plan.
Why? ...
- Because the terrain is constantly changing.
- You will have to react to things you cannot see in your planning.
- It keeps you depending on God to lead the Church
- What happens to a church that does not intentionally retreat and pray, plan, and envision the future?
They immediately need:
- Resourcing
- Refocusing
- Restoring
- Restarting
Question: How do you get from 10 new believers to 1000 new converts?
- Who should we bring together as our team for planning, prayer, and envisioning?
A Leadership Community is ...
The Leadership Community is the place for active small group leaders to gain personal support, expand their vision, develop ministry skills, and intern new apprentices into active leadership.
- Leadership Community: A congregational unit of leadership from all ministry activities which involve small groups of people, which meets for dinner, worship, prayer, direction, and support for personal growth .
- Active Small Group: We have decentralized the pastoral care of our church and given pastoring responsibilities to the various small groups (e.g. music/worship ensembles, drama teams, intervention groups, junior senior high sponsors, and all small groups from the youth, men's, women's, singles, and couples studies).
- Leadership: The Leadership Community is for those who are currently in, or about to enter into, the active leadership level of service in a small group .
- Personal Support: This is a time for the shepherds of the church to become sheep and be cared for.
- Develop Skills:Time is set aside to train and prepare their leadership gifts for effective service.
- Expand Vision:A place to express our core values, paint the big picture, and plan for future growth in ministry.
- Intern apprentices: A place to bring newly identified apprentices into entry level leadership to nurture them in the use their giftedness.
- How do you unify your core group for prayer, planning, and moving into the future with the dreams God gives you?
- What is the purpose of the Church?
- What does God value?
- Retrieve the lost...
How will you gather and interest others in Christ?
- Live reciprocally and serve ...
How will you identified your people's giftedness and let them sever?
- Teach to obey ...
What is God asking you to teach your people this next four months?
- Strengthen Your leaders and apprentices ...
What are doing to groom the leadership entrusted to your care?
- Intimacy with God Through worship and listening prayer...
What questions should be asked of every ministry in the church?
- Here are some of the benefits that comes with the spiritual discipline of intentionally retreating to pray, plan, and envision the future of your church:
- It connects programming to win the enter family to Christ.
- It give you a vehicle to field test new ideas.
- It enhances already existing leadership teams.
- It unifies staff but does not manage everyone the same.
- It brings proper value to all types of ministry.
- It encourages new apprentices to grow.
- It creates healthy accountability
- It reflects the needs of the church so changes can be made.
- It celebrates the Holy Spirit work and builds team work.
- It address the complex issues of governing today
- It allows leaders to learn from each other.
- It creates self managing leaders.