Introducing Vision Renewal

Transcription

1 Introducing Vision Renewal A Unique Approach. Vision Renewal is unique among the resources available to assist congregations with church health, growth, and reproduction in the following ways: Vision Centred. It focuses on the central issue of vision, the erosion of which is the most common reason for Christian congregations to plateau or decline, Whole Congregation. It involves whole congregational participation rather than just a select group of key leaders, Prayer Focused. It is a prayer focused process that begins with the mobilization of the whole church to seek God s direction for the future. It maintains a prayer and listening to God focus throughout, Context Connected. It does a serious study of external (community) trends, opinion, and opportunities in the church s context as well as the internal congregational dynamics to create a one of a kind vision and ministry action plan, Church Driven. It is puts the steering wheel for the process squarely into the hands of a team of key local leaders rather than an outside expert or an off the shelf curriculum, Coaching Based. It supports the process through a live, skilled resource person with on-site help rather than just a automated web-site or impersonal resource packet, Buy-In Oriented. It seeks to build full, crucial congregational buy-in during the process rather than at the end.

2 Assumptions. Vision Renewal assumes the following principles in the process it uses to assist churches: Great Commission Obedience. Vision Renewal assumes that a congregation sees making disciples as a core commitment and that they will pursue that activity as a high priority. By making disciples we mean, winning people to Christ, building them in their faith and equipping them to do ministry using their spiritual gifts and talents, Local Church Responsibility. Vision Renewal sees the local church as ultimately responsible for its own health, ministry, and future planning and structures its process to keep the sense of ownership for action at that level, Unique Calling. Vision Renewal believes that, while all churches are called by Scripture to a common set of functions, each local congregation has its own unique calling that is shaped by its core values, capabilities, community, and history, Congregational Competence. Vision Renewal is based on the belief that the average local church has the core competencies to discern God s unique calling for them and the ability (with support) to create and implement wise plans that will enable them to pursue it effectively, Discovery Learning. Vision Renewal works on the belief that people would rather be guided toward personal discovery (than told what to do) and tend to commit to initiatives they participated in creating, Renewal Cycle. Vision Renewal assumes that healthy congregations will regularly review, update, and extend their vision and action plans into the future in light of their ministry progress and changes occurring in their ministry setting.

3 The Church Life Cycle Research indicates that churches assume one of two life cycle patterns during their history The Healthy Church Life Cycle. Healthy churches tend to cycle through a four stage process in a pattern resembles a circle. The Typical Church Life Cycle. However, the typical church life cycle can be characterized by a bell curve with the following phases: Jumping the Curve Maximum Effectiveness Ministry Start-Up Ministry Wrap-Up

4 The Role of Vision in Church Revitalization "In every one of the growing, healthy churches I have studied, there is a discernible link between the spiritual and numerical growth of those congregations and the existence, articulation and widespread ownership of God's vision for ministry by the leaders and participants of the church. Conversely, there is invariably a clear absence of vision in those congregations in which there is neither spiritual nor numerical growth taking place. Rarely in my research do I find such overt, black and white relationships." George Barna, The Power of Vision A Sign of Health. Healthy Churches have a vision! This is nothing new. But, where does the vision come from? Some suggest from the Pastor or leadership team. They cast the vision and convince or entice the people to follow. Others suggest it should come from the people. Actually, however, it is God's vision the church needs not the pastor's or the leadership's. The church's vision must come from God. Given by God. Healthy Churches have a vision given by God! But there is more. Does God only speak to pastors or leaders or does He speak to all members of the body? The scriptures make clear the priesthood of all believers. God speaks to the entire body! As the entire body listens, they can know God's vision for their ministry. When they discover it collectively, they own it and develop a passion to see it realized. Therefore... Received and Owned By All! Healthy Churches have a vision given by God, received and owned by all. The greatest thing a pastor or leader can do for the people is lead them in a discovery of the destiny God has for them. How can this be done? The Vision Renewal uses many methods to involve the entire congregation. Effectively Implemented. Healthy Churches have a vision given by God, received and owned by all, and effectively implemented. Churches can have the right vision but still not accomplish it. Vision Renewal provides an easy-to-follow structure that the leadership can use to monitor progress sharpen the church's effectiveness. The Vision Renewal process can help a congregation jump the curve from the typical church life cycle and move into the healthy church life cycle of reproduction.

5 Coaching One of the unique qualities of Vision Renewal is that it is more coaching than curriculum based for effectiveness. As a coach, you are a vital component in the impact of the process in the life of the congregation. Defining Coaching Support Relationship. Coaching is a support relationship between a church, leader, or team and a skilled resource individual in which it is agreed to meet regularly for a period of time to sharpen the focus of leadership and ministry in order to enable that church or ministry to fulfill God s specific intention for them related to obedience to the Great Commission and Great Commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ. Based on Agreement. Coaching, by definition, includes an agreement with clearly expressed expectations between the congregation and its leaders and the coach. The Role of the Coach What the Coach Does. The role of the coach is to provide supportive leadership to the entire Vision Renewal process. The coach can be a denominational leader or a lay facilitator who understands the process and has the respect and trust of the congregation. He must have no agenda of his own and possess a commitment to help the church discover the Holy Spirit s agenda for them. He orients those participating in the process and is the unbiased chair person of all Congregational Discovery Sessions. Where the Coach Comes From. There is usually significant advantage to engaging an individual from outside the congregation to serve in the role of Coach. They have the fresh perspective of an outsider and are often afforded greater influence than that which is normally granted to an insider. They are often outside the group dynamics of the congregation and are less likely to have a personal agenda for the congregation. If the Coach is from the church itself, he might also assume the role of chair of the 20/20 Team. Assessing Basic Health Level and Motivation. At the beginning, a coach is wise to identify the basic health level of the church as well as specific motive for doing Vision Renewal. Some general questions like the following can be used to gather that information: How have things been going here in the last three years? What are you encouraged about here? What concerns do you have? How did you hear about Vision Renewal?

6 What factors have led you to think that Vision Renewal might be the right thing for your church? Approval of Recommendation. The following provides a sample of a recommendation to elicit commitment to Vision Renewal by the congregation (or the appropriate group of decision-makers): In light of our desire to be a church that has a clear vision for future ministry, we as a Church leadership recommend: That we set aside specific Sunday evenings for prayer That we implement the process Vision Renewal and request that (coach s name) provide coaching as necessary. That we appoint a 20/20 Team consisting of five to seven individuals to help us Face ourselves and our community honestly Help us articulate our vision Help us develop plans to achieve the vision God gives us Description Vision Renewal Manual Survey Data Entry Access Fee (You may arrange to enter your own data) Standard Report Package (up to 100 surveys) Price** $289 plus shipping $0.50 per questionnaire $275 Demographic Report $175 CoachTravel Costs Estimate can be given

7 Selecting Prospects for the Team The Right People. Once the coaching agreement has been finalized, the selection of the Team is one of the next tasks in preparing to launch Vision Renewal. Selecting the right people to drive the process within the church is essential to effectiveness in doing Vision Renewal. Make sure the whole team is selected before the first meeting. Qualifications. The following list of general qualifications is helpful to local church leaders in selecting prospects for this key team: Commitment to Christ and their local church, Positive community testimony and credibility within the congregation, Familiarity with the church and its ministry, Key competences that would contribute to the team (i.e. creativity, attention to detail, ability to interpret data, good listener, writing skills, team leadership, delegation, etc.). Chairperson The Chairperson should be a church Member who is highly respected and recognized as a spiritual leader. This person will be responsible for organizing and communicating the Vision Renewal process, and should have gifts in administering and delegating tasks. If the church is not working with a Coach, there will be public speaking roles and leading of congregational meetings that will be required. The Chairperson also needs to be wellconnected to the leadership structure of the church. In most churches this combination of skills and spiritual maturity indicates that one of the pastoral staff, elders or church board would lead Vision Renewal. Prayer Coordinator The Prayer Coordinator will be given the primary responsibility for developing prayer awareness and making sure that the whole Vision Renewal process is bathed in prayer. Another aspect of the position is communicating the Spiritual Focus materials to the pastor and leaders to incorporate this materials into the content of Sunday School classes, home groups and sermons. The Prayer Coordinator should be a recognized spiritual authority in the church and someone who works well within the church s framework for communicating Christian content. Church Profile Coordinator This position involves a lot of detail work and the ability to analyze and synthesize large amounts of data. The person should have some familiarity with the existing structure of the church, and have some ability to write clear, concise reports from large amounts of disparate data. The ability to delegate effectively is also useful (as it would be in all positions). Duties: -coordinates volunteers to administer surveys

8 -gathers and analyzes the results from the Ministry Fitness Check, Facility Survey, Personnel Inventory, Attendance and Offering Survey, and Program Inventory -write Church Profile Community Profile Coordinator Since this position works with a lot of statistical data, some familiarity with numbers and statistics are important. The Community Profile Coordinator will also need to mobilize groups of people to carry out surveys and collate that information into a meaningful summary. Duties: -administer the Community Survey -collect and collate the pertinent community information -write the Community Profile Purpose and Values Coordinator As one of the key people writing materials for the updates and proposals, the Purpose and Values Coordinator should have good written communication and word-crafting skills. A gift of discernment to distinguish those things that are most important would also be an asset. Duties -administer the Purpose and Values Survey -write the Purpose and Values Statement -see handout

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11 VISIONING PROCESS (by Helen Konetzka) Introduction Vision Renewal is a manual for listening to God s direction through his word and his church. It is a Spirit-led, whole-church process that involves lay people and leaders in discovering God s vision and developing realistic, detailed plans that the whole church owns. Communication is integral to the whole process, including the Spiritual Focus materials, which are distributed at four key points to help build and sustain an attitude of openness to God s work in the church. Few churches have a clear ministry vision. Consequently they lack focus and effectiveness in their overall ministry and do not achieve maximum impact on their communities. In an effort to remedy their situation they often try to create a vision rather than discovering the one that God has for them. Vision Renewal offers a way for churches to listen to God collectively and discover his agenda and the future he has for them. The result is a focused church with a realistic vision that makes a maximum kingdom impact. Vision Renewal guides the church to a discovery of God s vision for them by: a. Calling them to pray for God s direction and leading. b. Providing a congregational forum for the entire church to participate in recognizing God s leading. c. Discovering and facing the truth about themselves and their community. d. Developing practical ways to accomplish the goals God has given. e. Translating their plan into ministry. Healthy churches have a vision given by God, received and owned by all, and effectively implemented. Vision Renewal provides an easy-to-follow structure that the leadership can use to monitor progress and sharpen the church s effectiveness. Vision Renewal guides the church through the process of discovering God s vision and direction for the future, led by a task force, or 20/20 Team. During the 32 weeks of Vision Renewal the congregation will be involved through Congregational Discovery Meetings, led by the 20/20 Team and Ministry Leaders, and will seek God s face through Concerts of Prayer. Informal coaching is an optional, but highly valuable, step available to assist the church in discovering God s direction. The church will complete two congregational surveys, canvass the community with a brief questionnaire, analyze its historical statistics to glean insight into current and future ministry, and identify its target community s needs through a community profile and demographic study. How To Get Started After the Consistory decides to be involved in a Vision Renewal Process, a Vision Renewal Team--from now on called the 20/20 Team, is formed. This consists of a

12 Chairperson, the Prayer Coordinator, the Church Profile Coordinator, the Community Profile Coordinator and the Purpose and Values Coordinator. These people aren t necessarily from Consistory--but should be people who are gifted in a particular area. The team itself is five people, but the more people you can get involved in gathering the material, doing the surveys etc., the better. What we did was call the greater consistory together, John explained the process to us and we chose our team. Positions Needed Chairperson The Chairperson should be a church Member who is highly respected and recognized as a spiritual leader. This person will be responsible for organizing and communicating the Vision Renewal process, and should have gifts in administering and delegating tasks. If the church is not working with a Coach, there will be public speaking roles and leading of congregational meetings that will be required. The Chairperson also needs to be wellconnected to the leadership structure of the church. In most churches this combination of skills and spiritual maturity indicates that one of the pastoral staff, elders or church board would lead Vision Renewal. Prayer Coordinator The Prayer Coordinator will be given the primary responsibility for developing prayer awareness and making sure that the whole Vision Renewal process is bathed in prayer. Another aspect of the position is communicating the Spiritual Focus materials to the pastor and leaders to incorporate this materials into the content of Sunday School classes, home groups and sermons. The Prayer Coordinator should be a recognized spiritual authority in the church and someone who works well within the church s framework for communicating Christian content. Church Profile Coordinator This position involves a lot of detail work and the ability to analyze and synthesize large amounts of data. The person should have some familiarity with the existing structure of the church, and have some ability to write clear, concise reports from large amounts of disparate data. The ability to delegate effectively is also useful (as it would be in all positions). Duties: -coordinates volunteers to administer surveys -gathers and analyzes the results from the Ministry Fitness Check, Facility Survey, Personnel Inventory, Attendance and Offering Survey, and Program Inventory -write Church Profile Community Profile Coordinator Since this position works with a lot of statistical data, some familiarity with numbers and statistics are important. The Community Profile Coordinator will also need to mobilize groups of people to carry out surveys and collate that information into a meaningful summary. Duties:

13 -administer the Community Survey -collect and collate the pertinent community information -write the Community Profile Purpose and Values Coordinator As one of the key people writing materials for the updates and proposals, the Purpose and Values Coordinator should have good written communication and word-crafting skills. A gift of discernment to distinguish those things that are most important would also be an asset. Duties -administer the Purpose and Values Survey -write the Purpose and Values Statement -see handout Strong Foundation of Prayer Needed I can t emphasize enough the importance of having a strong prayer team as the foundation of this process. Just before we started doing our Visioning, we had begun two extra prayer activities in addition to our regular prayer chain which has always been in operation. We started a weekly prayer group and a prayer and healing service once a month. At one point we were up to 8 people meeting regularly to pray--now we are down to 4 and we need to start building this up again. We also have many Prayer Partners who don t come out to the meetings, but they are given prayer concerns on a regular basis and pray at home for us--i think we have at least 10. This is wonderful for older members of the congregation who find it difficult to come out at times. Timeline It says in the handbook that the process takes 32 weeks--i can only tell you what our experience was. We basically started everything in January, met once a month with John as a team and also later that evening we would have a congregational potluck dinner and share what we were doing and ask for input. This was important to maintain the support and confidence of the congregation. Our final Visioning Statements and Strategies were approved at a congregational meeting in May. First Our first step involved our Church Profile Coordinator. One Sunday in January we had the congregation fill out the Ministry Fitness Check questionnaire. This is a 5 page document that basically takes the temperature of the church and how we are presently doing and it also shows us the areas that need improvement. It takes about 20 minutes to do. John then took the questionnaires with him and had them analyzed at Outreach Canada. The next time he came out he brought the Master Report with him. This has an analysis of every area in the greatest detail. Second

14 At our second meeting we analyzed the results and be prepared for some surprises! We went over the results in great detail at our 20/20 team meeting and then later that evening we presented the results to the congregation and opened it up to discussion. In Between the second and third meeting 1.The Church Profile Coordinator was gathering together the necessary data to complete our church profile which were--program inventory, personnel inventory, facility inventory, attendance charts, offering charts and a strength/needs worksheet. One of the neat things she did was to draw a map to show where our members live in relationship to the church. 2.Our Purpose and Values Coordinator handed out the Purpose and Values Survey one Sunday after church. We were asked to take them home and bring them back the following week. It s 4 pages and takes 20 minutes to half an hour. This covers such areas as--things you really like about a church, what do we need right now, things I value most etc. 3.Our Community Profile Coordinator was handing out community surveys to families in the area, talking to community leaders and going through statistical data that John sent from Stats Canada. Third On our third meeting with John, we went through the rough draft of our Church Profile and later that evening the draft Profile was presented to the congregation for their input. Also presented were the community profile and the results of the Purpose and Values Survey. We then divided up the congregation into tables of 6 and did some brainstorming on what we would like to see for our church--this was our dream session. We had someone at the front writing down the ideas and we put them up all over the walls. In Between the third and fourth meeting Two of our members were selected to write a Vision drawing from all the information and congregational input that had gone before. Fourth At our fourth meeting we really got down to business. We took the rough Vision statement and worked it and reworked it until we all felt that this was what God was calling us to become. This was our longest meeting by far. Again, we wrote it all down on sheets and put them up all over the wall. At the congregational meeting that night we went over each Vision and each Goal and encouraged discussion. In Between the fourth and fifth meeting The 20/20 team met and wrestled with specific strategies--how could we practically implement these goals? Fifth This was our last meeting with John. We fine-tuned the strategies and that evening presented them to the congregation who were very excited about the final document and voted to accept this as our final Vision. Throughout this whole process from start to finish, our Prayer Coordinator was working away with her prayer team, lifting each step we took along the way. She handed out prayer slips with specific things for people to pray about each month. We did not hold

15 concerts of prayer as we held our monthly prayer and healing service instead. She led devotion at all of our 20/20 team meetings and also at our congregational meetings. We also didn t hand out update sheets, but put regular updates into the bulletin. What Going Through This Process Has Meant To Us I know this whole process sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but it is only for a short while, and the more people you can involve the better. I found John to be extremely helpful and supportive--he wants you to be successful! This whole thing has helped us enormously as we got into our Pastoral Search. We know very clearly what our goals are and what kind of a Pastor will help us to achieve these. It is also helpful to prospective candidates to have such detailed information about your church. It was helpful when we were doing our church profile for Pastoral Search and it has brought us together as a team. We are confident in where we are going and what we need to get there. It also helped the congregation to know that yes, we do have a future without Les and Nina! We are alive and well and God is here! It also helps John to get to know you a little better, and conversely, you get to know him and the wider church a little better too. I highly recommend that you do this--believe me, the benefits are far reaching!