Bible Students

Does the church have such an impact that if it disappeared, the community would notice? How will this church reach its community? Where is the community of the church? How will they reach out? 

The community of the church should take into account. The community of the church likely does not go further than a certain geographical distance, which for the author’s church is around 25 minutes. Find the boundaries and prepare to especially impact that setting. Younger areas are easier to reach than older areas. Demographic studies should be studied in order to understand the culture of the church community. These should be compared with the church demographics to see where the church is especially connecting and where they are not. 

What does the community feel about the church? What do they believe about life, and what are their goals? Understanding the community is helpful for appealing to them. What is true of the marketplace is true of the church. The need of the community must be communicated by the church to them in words they will understand. The community profile will be the demographics and the psychographics. 

When it is time for a revitalization of the church in order to reach the community, the rest of the church needs to be on board. Reaching the community may be an inconvenient task for the congregation, but for the community it is the difference between life and death. As the congregants leave the church, they should be greeted by a sign which says, “You are now entering the mission field.” All Christians are missionaries in the current setting. 

The church should be growing mature disciples. Ministries should all be pushing toward the specific goal of discipleship. The preaching should reflect the ministries present. For example, if the main values of the church are evangelism and discipleship, there should be specific ministries to cover these, and preaching should be focused on these topics. The congregation understanding these things is one of the best ways to make disciples relevant in your church context. 

All ministries of the church can be split into primary and secondary ministries. Primary ministries directly attempt to tackle the sanctification of the congregation into a disciple. Every ministry should have a specific purpose which contributes back to the values, mission, and vision of the church. If the ministry does not have a purpose, it should not exist, or it should have a proper purpose. What gets measured is what gets done. 

The only way the church is able to achieve certain goals is through growth. If a church desires to have a spiritually mature congregation, they should measure the congregation’s maturity. 

The ministry dream team is a highly motivated staff who wants to connect with the community. Teams should be built based on a willingness to learn, and a variety of gifts. The team must have a variety of gifts in order to cover all bases. You may need to release people who do not benefit the team as much as desired. The challenge is not finding people, but finding the right people. 

There may not be a proper board of elders in all churches. Some churches may not need boards. However, most churches will likely have boards to keep the main pastor accountable. The pastor must be responsible to the board, though the board must also allow the pastor to lead, as the pastor has the most amount of experience and formal training. The qualifications for board members back in the writing of the New Testament are likely helpful for today as well. A board of elders should likely only be ten or less people. Any more than that becomes very complicated. Leaders should want to be a part of the team because they want to serve the Lord. They do not only want to collect a check, though they should be paid, but should be here for the long haul and should commit to serving each other well. The best time to hire people for the dream team is before they are needed. 

There should be those who make sure to protect certain ministries. This seems to directly contradict ministry wisdom from other readings. This source claims that having a ministry champion makes sure the senior pastor does not see one ministry as the most important. In order to find a middle-ground and use the wisdom from both, there should be those who look out for their individual ministries, such as the youth for the youth pastor, but they should also be able to see the whole organism as a whole, and not be selfish with resources. 

A legal defense team is important for a church, especially in the case of sexual assault accusations. If the leader does not seek to make something happen, it will not happen. If the leader can not trust people on his team, he should replace them if reconciliation is not an option. The pastor may disagree with the rest of the team, but ultimately the pastor should have the power to make a decision in a moment when needed. Team members should do their jobs, not gossip, and not talk poorly about the decisions of the pastor. 

The development of lay leaders is one of the most important leadership functions of the church. The church should be growing leaders from within rather than taking from outside. The church should be growing their own congregation in order to put them into positions of leadership in the church, rather than depending on outside resources. 

Before the church seeks to build for people to come, they should know exactly why they are building something. The electronic church should be used to reach many people outside of the community of the church. Of course, this can not replace the physical church. The church should be critiqued by someone who does not attend to see what it looks like for first time attendees. 

When churches are present but unkept, this gives a bad impression. The church building should likely reflect the culture of the people in the church. When the church knows its culture and mission, they can know the function and expression (form) of their ministries and building projects. There should be a strategy to get the maximum from the buildings and locations. Where are the current attendees relative to the building? Are the people you seek to reach within driving distance of the church? The churches should be quickly sending out more church planters from their church to plant a church outside of its area.