Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary

The Necessary Strategic Principles for Church Growth

A Paper Submitted to Dr. Rick Garner In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Course Strategic Driven Ministries DSMN 620

By Michael Sellers 8 March 2012

Table of Contents

I.

Strategic Planning..................1

II.

Purpose as a Strategic Principle.... 2

III.

Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses..... 3

IV.

The Intended Target..4

V.

Mission and Vision Statements.6

VI.

Conclusion7

VII.

Bibliography

Strategic Planning

The importance of having a solid foundation, which a church can build upon, all begins with the process of strategic planning. A strategic plan offers the church the ability to know where it is heading, what are its steps in achieving its vision, the steps towards its mission, and differentiating the future from the past. A strategic plan also allows the church to evaluate how close they are to reaching their goals, visions and whether or not their implemented ideas are working. Having a strategic plan in place allows the church to be built on a strong foundation. Solid foundations are biblical and should be applied to any church, which desires stability and growth. Luke 6:48 states, He is like a man building a house, which dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. Strategic planning has biblical connotations and in order for a church to achieve its potential they must be willing to adhere to the principles set forth by God. Jesus communicated to His disciples the importance of planning. In Luke 14:25-35 Jesus discusses the importance of proper planning and building on a strong foundation. The Bible is clear on the importance and purpose of strategic planning; therefore, it should not be overlooked by any existing church or church plant. The website Building Church Leaders states, God's Word establishes strategic planning as one of the ways He works in and through His people. There are a number of leaders in Scripture who thought and acted strategically. 1

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1

Mark Marshall. Building Church Leaders. Accessed March 2, 2012. http://www.buildingchurchleaders.com

Purpose as a Strategic Principle

A church needs a purpose principle and that purpose must be tied directly to what God desires for that church. Some people might question whether having a purpose is a crucial part of any strategic principle process. The biblical support for purpose can be seen in Proverbs 19:21 which states, Many are the plans in a mans heart, but it is the Lords purpose that prevails. Rick Warren puts it nicely by stating, Plans, programs and personalities do not last. But Gods purpose will last.2

The purpose of a church must be clearly defined during the strategic planning process. As stated previously, planning is the beginning of having a solid foundation. For a church to be successful it must ask itself why do we exist.3 Understanding the importance of knowing where one is headed, to whom it plans to service and how it plans to service those individuals is crucial. Starting off with a biblical purpose is essential in any effort of building a strong, established and growing church. With all this said, any purpose that is not set in the form of biblical connotations will fail at its true endeavor. If it is Gods will it can and will be done. If it is mans will the chances of success is less likely, because God has not commissioned anything by mans will. Establishing a purpose for ones church, needs to be accomplished and implemented up front during the planning process. Adding purpose later will be more difficult, but possible.
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Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1995), 81.
3

Ibid. 81.

Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

A church must identify and acknowledge both its strengths and weaknesses, in order to facilitate the desired results of its ministry. Also, just as important is for each member of the leadership team to do the same. According to Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger, congestion is a form of weakness within any church. When congestion occurs, in a church, the spiritual movement of that church will be stifled.4 Therefore, it is crucial to identify any program, process, tradition, ministry, and any other element within the church that might be lessening the churchs ability to accomplish Gods will. Again, identifying such elements ties directly into planning. The Book Simple Church outlines a process that indicates that programs, if offered, should be able to place people in the pathway that God has given the church.5 However, it is crucial to understand the sequence between process and program. The process should be identified in the churchs vision or mission statement first. Secondly, the program will then be added to the process, which will enable the program to be built around the process and not the other way around. This approach strengthens the church and helps place all the focus on God. Remember, processes and programs are implemented to keep people in the pathway of God and not detract their attention away from their spiritual growth. The importance of connecting spiritual growth to programs is vital.
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Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger, Simple Church: Returning to God's Process For Making Disciples (Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Books, 2006), 136.
5

Ibid. 141.

2 Peter 1:3-8 identifies the importance of continuing to grow spiritually. The verse offers directions on how to obtain and fortify the believer to be more Christ-like. The verse also details the importance of increasing ones knowledge of Gods Word, decreasing ones sins, trying to achieve Christ-like qualities, increasing ones faith, and trust in God.5 Implementing this concept can be done at various stages, however, the proper time to implement it would be during the strategic planning process. Identifying weaknesses and strengths that God desires for any church will keep the members focused on increasing their Christ-like abilities.

The Intended Target

First, it is important for every church leader and member of the leadership team to realize that it is impossible to reach every lost soul.7 According to Warren; many leaders will confirm that one of a churchs goals should be identifying its intended target.8 Note, that it is important that this intended target come after the churchs purpose has been established. By establishing the purpose first the leaders are following biblical guidelines in order to secure their success.

There are questions that have to be answered in order to determine the intended target, which are geographical, demographical, cultural, and spiritual questions. Determining these said factors, during the strategic planning process, the church can implement the correct programs.
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All about God. Spiritual Growth: The Qualities. Accessed March 3, 2012. http://www.allaboutgod.com/spiritual-growth.htm Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1995), 156.
8 7

Ibid. 157.

A church must follow the will of God and by following the Great Commission they are doing just that. Acts 1:8 illustrates the need for reaching out to the community it states, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. A leadership team has to understand who they are trying to target. By doing so, they are able to narrow down their approach and apply it in a way that allows for better success. All of this can be part of either a churchs vision or mission statement. Discussing it during the strategic planning process creates the opportunity for any program to become more successful for both God and the church. When a church decides on a target or targets, it can then initialize programs that will be the most effective. Programs must have competent leaders, which understand the churchs mission and its importance. Again, it cannot be over emphasized that any program needs to be connected to the churchs strategy. Eliminating the connections between a churchs strategy and programs will cause ill effects. Programs that intend to outreach are part of the process that leads a church into a productive transformation. All the processes must be pushing in the same direction, as to create the desired outcome; each decision has an effect on the entire program. This point can be clarified using a business strategy offered by Jim Collins and his Flywheel approach. He states, Good to great comes about by a cumulative processstep by step, action by action, decision by decision, turn by turn of the flywheelthat adds up to sustained spectacular results.9 With this, the most important component is that any program be in line with the churchs overall direction. ___________________________
Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap--and Others Don't (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001), 165.
9

Mission and Vision Statements Admittedly different, mission and vision statements allow everyone to know where a church is headed, how it plans to get there, what the church believes in, and provides a look into future expectations. A vision statement refers to the big picture of the church. It is the conception of the future of the church. Whereas, a mission statement flows directly from the vision statement it offers the implementation process and outlines how the church will achieve its vision.10The principles described, in the previous pages, need to all be considered during the process of creating both statements. However, it is understood, when a church or ministry evolves so will their mission, vision, and strategy. Realizing that the strategic plan of any church or ministry will change due to factors outside the churchs control is indispensable.

The biblical approach, to each of these statements is easily obtainable. In Exodus 18:1718 Jethro states to Moses, What you are doing, is not good. You and theses people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. By planning, Moses was able to lighten his burden and at the same time fulfill Gods wishes. The leader of a church can become more successful, in my opinion, when he realizes that he cannot do it all by himself. He cannot teach every Sunday school class. He cannot lead every ministry within the church. Nor can he visit everyone in the church, if it is extremely large. It is evident that both mission statements and visions statements can help a church grow.
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Marylyn Scwartz. Whats the Difference between Vision and Mission. Accessed M arch 4, 2012. http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20010130_statements.htm

10

It does not take one long, when reading Acts, to identify this very concept in biblical terms. As stated earlier, Acts 1:8 identifies both vision and mission. Jesus revealed what He expected of His disciples, which was to witness and He also stated his vision by declaring where they were to evangelize. Acts 6:7 is another important verse because it illustrates the vision of growth by stating, The Word Grew. Another biblical growth aspect the church needs to recognize can be found in Acts 9:31, which discuses church growth. Each of these verses is necessary when discussing vision and mission statements, because they show the purpose God has for the church. God does not want the church to sit idly by doing nothing about the Great Commission. His desire is for the church to be productive and influential in lives of people associated with the church, as well as those the church is trying to reach. Finally, a church must realize that their vision and mission statements should be about Gods intentions and not their own.

Conclusion

The key principles, with regard to strategic church planning, that have been discussed in this paper, are all essential to having the church fulfill Gods desires. Admittedly, the principles discussed are not the only mentionable strategic principles; however, in my opinion they are the most critical. In most cases, a strategic plan and its principles are short term processes. A church will determine the key elements of its strategic plan, which most often focuses on values, outreach ministries, mission, vision, strengths, weaknesses and strategy. A church or ministries strategic plan will be successful when they achieve most, if not all, of the key elements that have been stated previously. A church has to know where it has been to know where it is going, which is the staple to the above mentioned principles.

Bibliography

All about God. Spiritual Growth: The Qualities. Accessed March 3, 2012. http://www.allaboutgod.com/spiritual-growth.htm

Collins, Jim. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap--and Others Don't (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001).

Marshall, Mark. Building Church Leaders. Accessed March 2, 2012. http://www.buildingchurchleaders.com

Rainer, Thomas & Eric Geiger, Simple Church: Returning to God's Process For Making Disciples (Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Books, 2006).

Schwartz, Marylyn. Whats the Difference between Vision and Mission. Accessed March 4, 2012. http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20010130_statements.htm

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1995).