| Every process for transformation is designed to be - |
| This means it is a process for making direction-setting decisions that will have long-term effects, impacting every aspect and segment of life in your congregation. |
| The process will involve a "critical mass" of your congregation who call upon the Holy Spirit as they become involved in study, prayer, conversation, discernment, and transformation. |
| The process is not based on marketing surveys. Rather, it engages the congregation in discerning God's mission, taking seriously the current cultural context, and discovering life together as a Spirit-formed missional community. |
| Churches who engage in an intentional journey of missional transformation will find that it is a challenging yet highly rewarding process. Participants on the journey - leaders and members together - consistently report, "We are learning what it means to be the church." As a result, new excitement and shared focus occur. |
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A Process for Discerning and Embracing God's Vision
A process for missional transformation involves discerning and embracing God's vision in today's changed and changing cultural context. It is a dynamic, faith-filled, and results-oriented journey. A range of practical steps, and training where needed, may be offered in each of the following five phases: |
| Goal: To help key leaders and the congregation as a whole develop commitment in advance of the process. Involves: Designing the transformation process roadmap; building the case for taking this journey; introducing the process to leaders and members; getting organized. |
Goal: Develop a consensus picture of the current key issues facing us. Involves: Learning from heritage, history, cultural context, members' mindsets, and an organizational analysis; identifying the strategic issues that block us and strategic resources that will enable us to become a more faithful missional community.
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Goal: Define the future direction of the congregation. Involves: Scripture study, prayer and reflection; crafting a Missional Strategy to embed the Vision and guide the church into the future.
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| Goal: Design the action plans, policies, and structures required to embody the Missional Strategy in and through all aspects of the congregation. Involves: Developing a well-coordinated and carefully mapped Strategic Plan to guide the church over the next 5-10 years toward a missional identity and character. |
Goal: Make the transitions that embed the Vision and Missional Strategy in practical and concrete ways that have been designed. Involves: Forming and implementing a transition plan to make the changes, managing endings and new beginnings.
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Transforming your church is not simply a new way to keep doing what is presently going on. It does not offer merely a "tune-up," or adaptations to existing programs and priorities. Rather, in a very constructive and faith-filled manner, it enables the congregation to evaluate and define anew the nature, purpose, and practices of life together in light of God's mission. It offers the opportunity to make the changes discerned to be necessary in order to become more faithful to God's calling and purpose in their situation.
A congregational journey of missional transformation is not a canned program. It requires careful design and ongoing stewardship by a leadership team chosen for this purpose. A flexible process plan, detailed with a time and cost budget, is worked out in the first phase to meet the particular challenges and opportunities facing your church.
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| Some benefits you can expect - |
1. Church leadership more highly skilled in strategic leadership.
2. Church members along with leaders more committed to a missional church vision.
3. The church itself on the cutting edge of new knowledge and practice.
4. Spiritual and theological awakening.
5. Leaders and members re-discover and use the language of faith with meaning.
6. More resources available as people become more satisfied and excited about the church with its clear sense of purpose direction.
7. A missional church.
What benefits can you imagine for your church?
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