Bible Students

The good navigator prepares well. However, one must know if they are even a navigator. Others must make sure the navigator is properly experienced and ready to learn. Many leaders do not plan well, because they do not see the reason for planning. They feel their predecessor has taken care of everything. However, failing to plan is planning to fail. The importance of the strategy is huge. The church is to reach out to their community, so churches must plan on how to reach out to those communities. 

Must make a strategy for making disciples in those communities. There are three strategy teams. The first is the whole congregation. The second is the whole staff. The third is the counsel of the church. These teams grow smaller and more exclusive, with more responsibilities. The church must have a plan for raising money and making disciples. 

The pastor is the one who must be the planner. For the pastor to leave early would destroy the process. The pastor may have an overemphasis on preaching and teaching. However, the pastor must be asking what they should have delegated long ago. Keep goals nearby so that you do not forget them. 

The strategic leadership team must be prepared to develop a strategic plan for the whole church and for individual ministries. Formulate objective goals so that the team has a place to be heading. The goals must be clear and objective, as there must be a place where the team can say they have arrived. Additionally, the mission may have many goals. They must be timely and clear. Leaders must help those on the team to accomplish things for Christ. 

There should be end goals, deadlines. This keeps the ministries from procrastinating. Some teams may need more time to do their specific goal. However, they need to have a deadline. There should be a timeline that helps to check on the progress of each team. People should not join multiple teams, as this will run them thin. Leaders should interview people who are experts and seek to truly learn about the area they are overseeing. Leaders must pray for their teams. Leaders and pastors should seek to give away responsibilities to others out of growing them. 

Mission statements are absolutely essential. The task of the leader is to develop mission. The mission is essential to the ministry’s direction. The ship without direction is not able to go anywhere good. Great biblical leaders had direction and a goal for where they were headed. The ministry will never do what matters before what matters is defined. Why does this ministry exist? What matters is what is defined as mattering. The people should know what their mission is, and the ministry should be focused around their mission. Without a mission, there is no future. 

Even good things can become bad things when they are contrary to the specific mission of the church. The church must use their resources to move in a specific direction. Effective, God-honoring churches have a clear mission. The mission helps the church and the congregation to know what their point is, and that allows resources to move to where the church is heading. 

What is evaluated will perform well. The pastor must evaluate different ministries and leaders in their area to see how they submit to the mission of the church in order to consolidate efforts to a single main goal (the mission). The mission statement is the church’s marching orders, not the community’s. However, it should focus on ministry outreach to the community outside. The church should make a positive contribution to the community and have a positive image in the eyes of the community. What is the image of the church in its community? Pastors should seek to build a ministry not for themself, but for God, and for the next generation of leaders in the church. 

The purpose of the church is not the mission. The mission of the church must be broad and comprehensive, the thing that is over everything the church does. The mission statement should not be the purpose, which is too broad. For example, the church’s mission is not to glorify God, because that is the purpose. The mission is how the purpose is expressed, and the goals are how the expression is broken up into its individual parts. If the mission is not short, the people will not remember it. Candidate pastors need to ask what the church should be doing, what they are doing, what they are not doing, and how they can get back on track. The mission must be moved from an unconscious to a conscious expression. The team must express the mission in words. 

If evangelism is not a core value of the church, it will not be a Great Commission church. The church must know its values and stick to them. The mission must be written down. The terms in the mission statement must be defined well and should be memorable. If they are vague religious terms, the congregation will not know what they refer to. If they are not memorable and easy to say, they will not be remembered. 

The Spirit will accomplish His work through the church. Disciples are also tasked with the responsibility of making disciples. Some mission statements are simply better than others. The church may want to take another mission statement and use it as their foundation for their mission statement. Why go through the trouble of reinventing the wheel when there is a mission statement that works well already? 

The mission should be related to those outside the church. It should be something the church is actually called to do. It should be centered around the Great Comission. There will be a lot of things which come up to try to stop the church from having a proper mission, and a drive for something specific. People will threaten to leave, but the Lord’s servants must be sure not to be swayed by empty talkers. 

If the mission is not a good mission, it should be changed. However, if it is a proper mission, the leaders of the church must support the mission and be prepared to defend it. It will come around to be a normal thing in the church. However, until then, it must be embraced, even when it is uncomfortable. It may be helpful to put the mission statement on the church’s business card. Additionally, it should be used in new congregant classes, sermons, bullitens, and other written/spoken communications in the church.