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The Plan: Evaluation and Transformation

In my last post we discussed the need and the basic  job of a passionate core/transformation team.  Basically, it's job is to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of vital church activities and then to make the needed changes, based on their evaluation, so that those activities continue to be effective in the life of the church as it moves forward in an ever changing culture.  Churches have life-spans like any other organization, for continued life it must strategically and regularly evaluate the effectiveness of its methods and ministries if it's going to continue forward with purpose, passion, and power.

For Pathway we need to focus on six areas of our church life.  These areas are essential to the continued life and growth of our church, must be seriously evaluated, and must the roles and tasks within these areas must be fulfilled to the best of our knowledge and ability.

Before I list these areas. it's important to understand that to evaluate our church is to evaluate ourselves.  Furthermore, if our church is going to transform then WE must be willing to transform ourselves because WE are the church.

The six essential areas of church life that we need to focus on are:

  1. Leadership
  2. Spiritual life
  3. Assimilation 
  4. Ministries
  5. Outreach
  6. Finances
In our meetings on Sunday and in future posts we'll discuss these areas in more detail.

Evaluation and Transformation

To assess these areas we need to do more than just ask ourselves whether or not we like what's happening within these areas.  In order to evaluate effectively, we need good criteria upon which we can base our judgements.  By that I mean that we need more than just our opinion of whether something is effective, we need to learn what makes these areas successful, then we can evaluate them more effectively.  In the near future those assessment tools will be provided for you as part of this team.

The same is true with regard to transformation:  We'll need to know as much as we can about what makes these areas successful in our context today so that we can make the changes that are really needed.  That means we'll have to do some reading and some learning on our  own so that can bring something more than our opinions to the meetings as we seek to make changes.

In our Sunday meetings we'll begin to learn more about these areas.  Where it applies we'll gain insight from the Bible.  We'll recommend some outside reading too, whether it books or online sources.  Some will go to seminars with me for more training to gain a better understanding of the importance of these areas and how to make them effective. I will post a list of the books in the group page soon.

As we go through the process of transforming these ares of our church, we'll be transformed as well.  When that begins to happen, we'll  begin to see real success.

One Final Word:

During our morning meetings we'll be closing with prayer regarding the things we've discussed and learned. This prayer will be led-prayer, meaning we'll pray along with a leader uniting around the success of the areas we're discussing.  It's intended to be out-loud praying too.  We'll discuss more of this when we get into the area of spiritual life in a few weeks.  For now, join us in prayer and expect God to hear and move on our behalf.


Next up: Church Leadership

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