STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKBOOK

for

CHURCH LEADERS
Guide to Growing a Healthier and More Impactful Church

Meet The Need Ministries, Inc.

info@[Link]
(813) 527-0222
Jim Morgan, President and Founder
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 3

Key Principles 7

Initial Questions 11

Strategic Planning Modules 16

Overview 16

PART 1: ORGANIZATION
1. Time Allocation 17
2. Budget Allocation 24
3. Role of Pastors vs. Members 33
4. Expectations of Members 41
5. Organizational Structure 49

PART 2: STRATEGIES
6. Marketing 55
7. Discipleship 65
8. Retention 74
9. Programs/Ministries 84
10. Local Missions 91

PART 3: FRUIT/RESULTS
11. Member Engagement/Service 99
12. Impact on the World 107
13. Influence in the Community 115
14. Perception by the Community 122
15. Success Metrics 130

Critical Success Factors 139

Additional Information and Support 140

About Us 141

Strategic Planning Workbook 2

 INTRODUCTION
Why Use Meet The Need’s Workbook?

There are many church consultants today. Each promises revitalization and rapid growth.
Renowned pastors publish articles and books giving advice from their experiences turning small
congregations into thriving megachurches. Conferences feature speakers and promise ideas
sure to intrigue and excite any pastor whose church is not growing – which applies to an
astounding 93% of America’s churches.

With all that information at your disposal, who should you trust and listen to?

It also begs the question – with all that advice available how can such a high percentage of
churches not be growing? At Meet The Need we believe it’s because nearly all of the
consultants, articles, books and conferences are working within and perpetuating the same
fundamentally flawed church growth model.

Given that the Church grew at a rapid clip for 1900 years, why has growth ground to a halt in
recent decades? Something foundational has changed. We believe we know what that is.

In fact, a number of leading church advisors believe Meet The Need has come up with the “root
cause” for why such a large majority of churches in America are in decline in terms of not only
growth, but also in impact, influence and public perception. We contend that the church in
America has gradually adopted a new baseline assumption – one which has caused the demise
of countless organizations of many different types.

In the next section, Key Principles, we’ll introduce this “root cause” and explain how the
prevailing church growth models won’t produce what they promise – at least not healthy
growth.

Our Commitment

This workbook will:

• be instrumental as a guide for your strategic planning exercises

• move your church’s leadership team quickly and productively through your on-site of
off-site planning sessions
• allow for rapid planning (e.g. a 2 day offsite) or more extended strategic planning efforts
• help your executive team analyze where your church is now, envision where the Lord
wants you to go and then plot the path to get there
• give you a roadmap to take you through the transformation process from your current
state to your desired future state
• provide suggestions yet enable your team to come up with its own plan based on a
common, shared set of guiding principles
• facilitate buy-in to the changes, increasing the likelihood of successful implementation

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 INTRODUCTION
• focus on translating knowledge into action, not leaving you with just strategy

Meet The Need also provides other sources of information to assist you and your team through
the strategic planning process:

• Blog – [Link]
• eBooks:
1) The 5 Steps to Revitalize Your Church:
[Link]
[Link]
2) Transform Your Community Forever in 6 Months:
[Link]
[Link]
• Online Assessment – [Link]
• Personalized Consulting – contact Jim Morgan directly at (813) 230-0189 or
jmorgan@[Link]

What to Expect

Strategic planning in general is a process, not an event. Making the transition to a healthy,
growing church will take time and patience. However, the journey is beyond worthwhile. It’s
the opportunity to break free from modern church-growth conventions that are not only stifling
your church’s progress but hindering the advancement of the Kingdom throughout America.

This workbook is an exercise in self-discovery. You may be surprised by some of the realizations
you make about your pastors, staff and members. Meet The Need questions the underlying
model for how most churches are run today, believing they don’t align with Biblical mandates,
the early church or the best practices of successful organizations of any kind. Therefore, be
open to an entirely new way of thinking about your role in leadership, the role of members, and
the church’s role with those outside the “4 walls”. Without an openness to change, strategic
planning is unlikely to produce meaningful progress.

Some concepts that this workbook asks you to consider will be challenging, but warrant honest,
careful debate. For example:

• Is your church more focused on building an institution than making/sending disciples?

• Are you fully leveraging the capabilities of your members or underutilizing the “power in
your pews”, concerned about what would happen if you challenged them to live up to
their potential for Christ?
• Do your members and attenders act like church “shoppers” or do they realize that they
are the living, breathing embodiment of church between Sundays?
• Are your actions and behaviors inadvertently feeding the perception that your church is
not very interested in caring for those who need “a physician”?

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 INTRODUCTION
Layout

First we’ll introduce Key Principles to determine your alignment with Meet The Need’s
philosophy about the current issues and recent direction of so many churches in our country.
Unless you agree on some of those fundamental assumptions, there is a high likelihood your
church won’t take full advantage of the concepts and recommendations in this workbook. Next
we’ll explore a few introductory questions to stimulate your thinking about those topics. Then
we’ll dive into the first of 15 modules, each addressing a different component how leaders
manage churches. Each module is broken into:

• Topic Insights
• Current State Assessment
• Future State Visioning
• Gap Analysis

Topic Insights speaks to common issues experienced by churches of all sizes within various
geographies and demographics. Those articles outline helpful ideas and give live examples of
the actions and behaviors that are contributing to the declining growth, impact, influence and
perception of churches in America. You will likely see aspects of how your church operates in
those articles, giving context to your own situation and a possible visual for how to emerge
from the issues you’re experiencing. This section also may help convince any leaders who are
content with the status quo that change is needed. It is intended to adjust the lens through
which church leaders view “success” or “health”, shifting them from an internal focus on the
quality of church services to the degree of impact the church is having on the lives of both
members and the community at large. A fresh perspective may be necessary for some before
taking the self-assessment and developing a future state vision.

The Current State Assessment includes three components to see where your church stands in
terms of the framework we present in this workbook, benchmarking your church relative to the
practices of other churches:

• Assessment Questionnaire
• Proficiency Model
• Scoring legend to plot yourself on the Proficiency Model

Future State Visioning is designed to prompt your thinking around how to institute changes at
your church, putting you back on the path to growth, and more importantly, health. Rather
than presuming Meet The Need can provide you all the answers, this section is an article
providing key concepts to bake into your analysis of potential next steps, moving you further
along the Proficiency Model. These articles will bring up problems that churches typically face
when they subscribe to the prevailing church growth models. They also provide alternative
frameworks to begin contemplating, showing how your church can emerge from underneath
those flawed theories.

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 INTRODUCTION

Likewise the Gap Analysis section includes only high level recommendations, with space for you
and your fellow leaders to determine the appropriate action items for your church. We believe
that if you build a consensus among your leadership around the Key Principles advocated
throughout this workbook, then you are more than qualified to come up with the next steps
best suited for your particular church. Our hope is that the readings, models and suggestions
will be helpful in getting the ball rolling in an exciting new direction, knowing you possess the
savvy and knowledge of your situation to devise the right go-forward plan – through prayer and
the Lord’s leading.

This interactive approach – reading, then questions to facilitate open discussion on your end –
will also facilitate buy-in across your leadership team. Unless all pastors, key staff, deacons and
elders each believe they’ve been given an opportunity to draw their own conclusions and
provide input, the likelihood of success dissipates.

This workbook contains printable pages you can distribute to each of those leaders to fill out.

Preparing Your Team

Depending on your leadership style – either wanting participants in the strategic planning
process to have some background or walk in without any preconceived notions about the
concepts in the workbook – decide whether to have your leaders review some postings on the
Meet The Need Blog. However, the Online Assessment contains many of the same questions
and scoring models used in this workbook so we do not recommend pointing them toward the
Meet The Need web site or having them take the Online Assessment prior to your strategic
planning sessions.

Before engaging other leaders at your church in strategic planning, follow some of commonly-
accepted change management best practices to set the stage for success:

• Ensure you have strong “executive sponsorship” for what’s about to take place
• Prepare hearts and minds to be open to change through:
o Prayer
o Bible Study around Jesus’ model for reaching the lost and the early church
o Emphasizing that what they encounter may not be exactly what they expect
• Get leaders ready to take on responsibility for leading change initiatives that come out
of the planning process

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 KEY PRINCIPLES

My Story

Meet The Need began fifteen years ago, during a long drive back home to Atlanta from a
vacation in Jacksonville. Weeks earlier, I had asked my church where I could serve somewhere
in the community. I told them my passions and interests, hoping for direction. I was surprised
but they didn’t have an answer for me. As I was driving, I was thinking about how the
corporations I consulted all had those types of answers – they knew where to direct people
when they wanted to buy something.

It didn’t take much of an understanding of church history to know that the Church had been the
food bank and homeless shelter for its first 1900 years. How could churches, even one as large
as mine, be so disconnected from the needs in the community? Didn’t Jesus and the early
church model the power of demonstrating love and compassion in sharing the gospel? People
don’t care what you know until they know that you care, right?

The 2nd Half of Meet The Need’s Mission

To mobilize and equip the Church to lead millions more to Christ

by following Jesus’ example of meeting those in need exactly where they are.

That was the mission statement we came up with after I got back to Atlanta that day. And it
remains the same today. We quickly learned back then that even if churches wanted to engage
much more in the community (and we hoped they did), they lacked any modern day tools to
help them share local needs with members. So we spent years and millions designing, building,
testing and rolling out systems that empower churches and charities to show needs to those
who could help. Meet The Need expanded nationwide and has had tremendous success in
many cities.

However, #1 Equip – building systems that enable churches to do more – wasn’t our entire
goal. Our mission statement also calls Meet The Need to #2 Mobilize – encouraging churches
to follow Jesus’ example. That 2nd part of our mission is where Meet The Need plans to spend
much of our time going forward. The systems are built, powerful and have recently been made
much more accessible, simple to use and state-of-the-art. Now it’s time to focus more of Meet
The Need’s energies on mobilizing and encouraging because…

…There’s a Problem

We developed Meet The Need’s systems based on an assumption – churches would move
beyond seasonal events if Meet The Need could be the first to bring the tools they need to
manage and communicate needs on a year-round basis. For many churches that has been the
case. However, with or without Meet The Need, the general trend among churches in America
today is not toward unleashing members into year-round ministry. Systems don’t change heart
and minds. We continue to see far too many unmet needs in communities across the country.

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 KEY PRINCIPLES

The greatest source of help and hope available to families in need resides, largely idle, in the
pews of America’s churches.

My background was in management consulting – solving strategic problems for “Fortune 1000”
companies. So for the past few years we’ve put on our management consulting hats and done
extensive research, trying to find out why:

• the role of the Church in communities across America has fundamentally changed
• American church growth models encourage internal, not external, focus
• the Church (overall) in the U.S. is not succeeding on any significant metric – growth,
impact, influence, or perception – in fact, 93% of churches today aren’t growing

We’ve Made a Huge Discovery

After all that digging, it turns out that organizational behavior best practices and principles,
which align very well with Biblical principles, held the key all along to why the Church is
struggling today. There is a flawed assumption underlying most decisions churches make. The
modern American church is violating one of the most basic tenants of all successful
organizations, including the early Church. Making that groundbreaking discovery would not
have been possible without my extensive experience in management consulting followed by
years of work with churches of all sizes. Little did I know the Lord was preparing me all that
time to understand and unveil the “root cause” issue behind the Church’s decline.

This workbook, along with Meet The Need’s other coaching tools, explore and unveil those
findings in hopes of fulfilling the 2nd aspect of our mission – to Mobilize the Church.

Do you want to see your church growing faster and having a greater impact for Christ?

Only recognizing and rectifying this faulty premise can reverse the decline. Treating symptoms
won’t do it. Turning the tide requires uncovering and dealing with the core, underlying issue.

The Root Cause for the Church’s Decline and its Path to Revitalization

This root cause is extraordinarily simple – yet profound. The logic is straightforward – yet
compelling. I honestly believe the Lord placed me in strategy consulting to corporations for 10
years and then another decade working with churches across the nation so I could make this
discovery. It took being in both of those positions to grasp this key concept. Without futher
ado:

Baseline assumptions:
1. A church is not defined as its pastor, staff and buildings. That’s how we define
companies – as its executives, employees and assets. Instead, in a church, the members
and attenders ARE the church.

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 KEY PRINCIPLES

2. Who an organization seeks to attract and retain and where it invests the bulk of its time,
resources and dollars define who it considers to be its “customer”.
3. Studies show that nearly all churches today invest the vast majority of their time,
resources and dollars on organizational management, facilities, programs, services and
marketing to attract and retain members and attenders.

If you agree with those assumptions, the following must be true:

4. According to our definition, churches today treat congregants as their primary
“customer”. Churches in America have redefined their “customer”.
5. However, if members ARE the Church, they CANNOT also be the Church’s “customer”.
6. Therefore, churches are investing the vast majority of their time, resources and dollars
in the wrong “customer”.

Further:
8. Any organization that is not focused on its “customers” or focused on the wrong
“customers” is unlikely to succeed.
9. Customers are always outside of, not internal to, an organization. Because the Church
today treats “insiders” (members, who ARE the Church) as its “customer”, the Church is
by definition internally focused. Internally-focused entities of any kind rarely grow.
10. Because churches treat congregants as “customers” they tend to cater to them and
hesitate to challenge them (to be discipled, to disciple, and to serve the Church’s true,
intended “customer”) for fear of losing them to a church down the road (who won’t
challenge them).
11. As a result, churchgoers have adopted a consumer mentality. As evidence, most
churches growing today are those who can afford to provide better facilities and
“customer” experiences than smaller churches – appealing to those consumers. Not all
church growth is “healthy”.
12. Jesus and His disciples spent the vast majority of their time going out into the
community to reach the lost and hopeless. And although Jesus had the perfect words,
He nearly always healed and fed to demonstrate His power and love before He said who
He was.
13. Therefore, Jesus, His disciples and the early Church considered the community to be the
“customer”, continually engaging and serving those around them.
14. The Church followed Jesus’ model for centuries, serving as the food bank and homeless
shelter, allocating a significant percentage of its time, resources and dollars to serving
the community.
15. However, the Church today allocates a very small fraction of its total budget and time to
engaging and serving the community – its true “customer”. The Church can’t possibly
“outpreach” Jesus, yet it has largely separated words from action.
16. Other religions understand the importance of spreading out and “taking ground”,
infiltrating all facets of society; yet Christian churches continue pulling inward.

So, it stands to reason:

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 KEY PRINCIPLES

17. The Church is not succeeding – in terms of overall growth, number of churches closing,
perception in society, or degree of community impact.
18. Since churches are not focused on the right “customers” (i.e. the communities where
those churches are planted), those “customers” do not feel the Church cares about
them.
19. People don’t “care what you know until they know you care”. The Church’s intended
“customers” aren’t listening as much today to what the Church has to say. No longer
seeing the Church actively engaged, interacting in relationship with them, most
unchurched do not feel the Church has earned the right to speak into culture. As a
result, too many of them now believe Christians are more about judgment than justice,
condemnation than compassion, self-righteousness than selflessness, and hypocrisy
than humility.

Ok, I’m convinced. Now what?:

20. With proof of the misdefinition of the Church’s “customer”, a flawed assumption driving
most decisions churches make, pastors have little grounds for maintaining the status
quo.
21. If churches keep treating members as “customers”, the Church’s influence and
reputation will continue to decline.

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 INITIAL QUESTIONS

YOUR MISSION, VISION AND MODEL

Purpose: Establish a solid baseline for who you are as a church and the foundation the Lord
established for your church, which should not be fundamentally altered by this or any other
strategic planning exercise

Do you have a church vision statement? If so, please provide it below.

What is your church’s stated mission? Elaborate on any aspects of your mission or the calling
your leaders received that stand out from other churches.

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 INITIAL QUESTIONS

PHILOSOPHICAL ALIGNMENT

Purpose: Provide your view on some of the core concepts addressed in this workbook

What is your perspective of the standing (position/place) members and regular attenders
occupy at your church? In other words, are they participants in the work of the church or are
they the embodiment of your church? How do you encourage them to live out the latter role?

How do you see the role you and your staff play relative to members/attenders in
accomplishing the mission of your church?

Do members have any responsibilities or just options (i.e. are they held accountable at any
level or simply viewed as volunteers)?

Why did you plant your church in your particular community? In other words, what did you
hope the Lord would do through your church in your city?

Do you find yourself today allocating your time, energy and budget in ways that don’t align well
with your original vision for how you hoped to impact the community? If not, what changed?

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 INITIAL QUESTIONS

Are you or your staff more focused on “retaining” people (i.e. making them happy to make sure
they come back) than you would like? Do you agree that pastors who move too far in that
direction contribute to some churchgoers adopting a “consumer” mentality?

Is your church doing as much as you think it should to prepare and push members to reach
others for Christ? How could your church do better in that regard?

Is the orientation of your pastors, staff and members more inclined toward building a church
(centralized) or building and deploying disciples (decentralized)?

What role does serving play in evangelism? Do you believe Jesus’ model for evangelism was to
demonstrate His love and compassion before telling people who He was?

What do you believe are the reasons why 93% of churches in America aren’t growing? Why do
you think the Church’s impact, influence and perception by society are diminishing?

In addition to prayer, what are your recommendations for what should be done to revitalize
churches in America?

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 INITIAL QUESTIONS

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Purpose: Provide your (self) rating of the strengths and weaknesses of your church and the
Church in America in general

Your Church in
Church General
(1-10) (1-10)

CHURCH
Growth – Rate, in terms of number of members and attendees
Culture – Unity, excitement, buy-in to vision/direction
Impact – In the community (e.g. on spiritual climate, moral compass
and/or alleviation of social issues)
Influence – Leading by example; having a voice outside the “4
walls”; well connected to key influencers in the local area
Perception – How well known is the church locally and how well it is
regarded
Openness to Change – Are deacons, elders, members set in their
ways or willing to make adjustments as the Lord leads?

MEMBERS
Engagement – Large number of members regularly involved in
activities organized by the church
Compassion – For each other, for the lost and for causes in the
community
Generosity – Giving joyously, sacrificially and consistently
Fellowship – Love for and companionship with one another
Life Change – Personal growth in Christ; walking with the Lord
Prayer – Strong relationship and communion with the Lord
Evangelism – Courageous in sharing their faith with others
Discipleship – Willing to be discipled and to disciple others; 1-on-1
or triads, not just attending a small group

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 INITIAL QUESTIONS

INITIAL IMPROVEMENT IDEAS

Purpose: List any solutions you already have in mind for issues identified in the prior section,
whether or not those initiatives are already planned or are not yet on the docket

Of the issues you’re currently aware of at your church, areas where you’d like to see your
church be more effective in carrying out its mission, what are your ideas or current initiatives to
improve in those areas?

Inside the church?

Outside the “4 walls”?

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 STRATEGIC PLANNING MODULES

Overview
Structure the schedule and format of your strategic planning exercise around the following 15
modules, each of which should require no more than 1 hour to complete:

Part 1: ORGANIZATION
1. Time Allocation
2. Budget Allocation
3. Role of Pastors versus Members
4. Expectations of Members
5. Organizational Structure

Part 2: STRATEGIES
6. Marketing
7. Retention
8. Discipleship
9. Programs/Ministries
10. Local Missions

Part 3: FRUIT/RESULTS
11. Member Engagement/Service
12. Impact on the World
13. Influence in the Community
14. Perception by the Community
15. Success Metrics

As we discussed in the Introduction, the outline for each module is as follows:

a. Topic Insights – Thoughts to frame discussions and reset thinking in preparation for step 2
b. Current State – Assessment and scoring on the Proficiency Model
c. Future State Vision – Ideas to help you develop church’s go-forward strategy
d. Gap Analysis – High level recommendations and detailed implementation planning

Again, all recommendations are just that – suggestions. If you track with our “members are the
church, community is the ‘customer’” assumption, then we believe you are well qualified to
develop specific action steps to lead your church further in that direction, taking into account
the vision the Lord gave you, the people He has led to you, the community where He planted
you, etc.

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STRATEGIC PLANNING MODULES Module 1: Time Allocation

PART 1: ORGANIZATION
MODULE 1: TIME ALLOCATION OF PASTORS AND STAFF

TOPIC INSIGHTS

Assumption
A church is not defined as its pastor, staff and buildings.
That’s how we define companies – as its executives, employees and assets.
Instead, in a church, the members/attenders ARE the church.

Few pastors would argue with that. It’s the people in the church who make up the church,
right? A church is not those it employs or what it owns. That’s what comprises a business – the
business is whoever works for the company and whatever belongs to the company.

What does it truly mean to be a church that’s not defined by its employees and assets? We
understand in principle that the people – members, attenders, staff and pastors – are the
Church , but do most churches really live out that belief? We hear it often on Sunday mornings
from the pulpit – “you are the church” or “the church is a who, not a what”. However, a church
fully committed to that basic concept would look and act differently than most churches today:

The Members/Attenders Would Realize:

We Have a Job to Do

We have responsibilities – we aren’t simply visitors expecting to be fed or entertained

We are just as responsible as pastors for bringing people to Christ, discipling, and serving –
let’s not leave those tasks to the “professionals”

We Need to Give up Some “Rights”

We are not here for ourselves, but for each other

We lose our voice to complain. Customers can complain, but as members we surrender that
privilege. Why? Because we are owners – we are on the hook for what happens in the
church, not bystanders.

We Should Reevaluate Why We Contribute

We’re not giving to build an institution

We’re giving to build each other into a powerful force for Jesus

We Are Called to Impact the World Around Us

We are the Church but we don’t live in the church building – we live our lives primarily
outside the 4 walls

Therefore, Church is a decentralized, distributed model – it walks and breathes as we each
go to work, neighborhoods, and soccer practice

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STRATEGIC PLANNING MODULES Module 1: Time Allocation

Church is not somewhere we go on Sundays and Wednesday nights

…and The Pastors and Staff Would:

Raise the Bar for Members

Hold members accountable for their responsibilities

Expect them to carry out those responsibilities at a reasonable level of proficiency

Train them to perform effectively as the living, breathing body of Christ

Get Them in to Send Them Out

Not focus on member/attender retention or engagement

Instead, bring people in to prepare them for a life on mission

Teach them the cost of following Jesus, not just the advantages of doing so

Stop trying to build an entity

Unlike businesses, don’t take steps to increase loyalty to the institution

Build disciples, not an organization

Equip and encourage members equally to serve both inside and outside the “4 walls”

“Flatten” the organization

Empower members to “be” the Church, elevating their leadership role relative to pastors

Prepare the church to outlive its leadership – since members/attenders, not just pastors,
define the church

Realize the power of leverage – increase the church’s impact by no longer underutilizing the
vast resources sitting in the pews

We’ve all seen how badly kids behave when parents spoil, defend and cover for them. Failing
to let children take responsibility for their actions “enables” them to be slackers, expecting to
be entertained, complaining when they don’t get what they want, with no consequences for
bad behavior and caring about no one but themselves.

Aren’t their signs of some of those tendencies among today’s church members? Too many
remain spiritual children, spoiled because pastors were reluctant to push them to deeper levels
of faith and commitment. Too many never advance to maturity because pastors, their spiritual
parents, never fully entrusted them with the power, knowledge and responsibility to go and
make disciples.

Accepting a role no higher than that of members, as a servant leader, takes a great deal of
humility. Leading less, empowering more, relinquishing authority and no longer trying to build
an institution works against everything seminary, books, articles and conferences today are
telling pastors. Yet those are necessities for exponential disciple-building and “taking ground”
in a city. A church built around one big personality or controlled by a couple powerful lay
members can only grow so far. Pastors must be secure enough to surround themselves with

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STRATEGIC PLANNING MODULES Module 1: Time Allocation

(and disciple) senior, capable individuals who have enough experience and savvy to (in turn)
effectively disciple many others.

Are the same characteristics that make many people want to become pastors the same that
should disqualify them from being one? For those who love the Lord, have an entrepreneurial
spirit, and enjoy leadership becoming a pastor would appear to be the perfect career path. But
what if the desire to lead a church means you shouldn’t? Those hungry to lead are often those
who will be most inclined to read and believe their own press when “success” comes. Those
who like to present to groups are often not great listeners.

Christianity hinges on humility. It’s the only religion that requires its followers accept that they
are hopeless sinners in dire need of a savior. Pastors should model humility and be shepherds
who are more inclined to one-on-one listening than presentations. Maybe pastors should be
pulled into the pulpit – like Peter who never made leading his aim. A church cannot become
vibrant and healthy if the pastor is susceptible to falling into the trap of enjoying leadership and
centralizing power, knowledge and responsibility – thereby failing to challenge and empower
members.

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment
Purpose: See where leaders in your church invest the bulk of their time and energy to
determine whether their emphasis is more on building an institution or building world changing
disciples:

Instructions: Enter a % distribution of time for each activity by each group. Make sure each
role/column totals to 100%.

Pastors Staff Elders/ Lay

Deacons Leaders
Worship Services and Preparation
Programs (youth, singles, etc.)
Meetings with and Services for Members (e.g.
visitation, weddings, funerals, etc.)
Staff/Internal Meetings
Church Administration (Financial, Ops)
Marketing (“Outreach”)
Discipleship
International Missions
Local Missions
Networking with Community Leaders

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STRATEGIC PLANNING MODULES Module 1: Time Allocation

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Nearly 100% of <10% of time 10%-25% of 25%-40% of time Majority of time
pastor/staff invested in time shifted focused on spent discipling,
hours invested building and from activities that empowering
in member/ engaging disciples attraction/rete prepare and teams, equipping,
attender-related (versus building ntion to equip members deploying, and
attraction and and growing the training and to “be the networking
retention organization) sending church” to those
activities members into around them
ministry work

Level 1 – Sum of last 4 rows for pastors or staff is less than 6%

Level 2 – Sum of last 4 rows for pastors or staff is between 6% and 19%
Level 3 – Sum of last 4 rows for pastors or staff is between 20% and 50%
Level 4 – Sum of last 4 rows for pastors or staff is between 51% and 80%
Level 5 – Sum of last 4 rows for pastors or staff is more than 80%

FUTURE STATE VISION

Pastor’s Role Inside the Church

If members are the church and the community is the customer, then pastors are the coaches,
strategizers and organizers, responsible for rallying and mobilizing the troops into action. What
does that entail in practical terms as it relates to a pastor’s activities inside the church?

• Act as the “Executive Sponsor” for the substantial changes we recommend to revitalize
your church – in any organization, change projects always fail without strong advocacy
from senior leadership
• Set the example for:
o Compassion
o Seeking and serving the lost outside the church – not just taking care of the
church “family”
o Evangelizing and networking, even if it means venturing outside one’s comfort
zone
o Getting involved in whatever local cause(s) the pastor holds near and dear
• Encourage the congregation to follow suit in all of those same areas
• Unite the church (i.e. members and regular attenders) by rallying them around a mission
outside of itself (i.e. the “customer” – the city where it’s planted)
• Consistently promote the responsibility members have to lead people to Christ – many
of whom would never accept an invitation to a church
• Disciple leaders and challenge them to disciple others

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• Ensure a program is in place to help members discover their giftings

• Engage the church in local “care and share” activities year-round, not just through
occasional events – providing enough outlets for members to apply their skills, interests
and resources

As Acts 6 stresses, pastors are called to be teachers, not serve tables. Yet churches have
become too teaching-centric rather than compassion-centric because pastors (teachers) have
become more the definition of “church” than members (the instruments of compassion). Jesus
was both compassionate and a teacher – to those among and outside of his closest
followers. Pastors no longer represent both of those roles to their communities. Leaders act
almost exclusively as teachers and rarely as sources of compassion to the world around them,
as they did for 1900 years. No wonder most “unchurched” believe churches and Christians are
more about condemnation than caring. Pastors must lead churches to reclaim a more balanced
role in society, following Jesus’ model, or watch as the remaining 7% of churches that are still
growing begin to stagnate as well.

Pastor’s Role Outside the Church

Imagine if a CEO of a company, an Executive Director of a charity or Peter as pastor of the first
church saw their role as pastors do today. Would the business have made a profit, the charity
thrived or the early church exploded in growth if their leaders:

• rarely networked with other local leaders?

• only served those inside the organization?
• didn’t adequately train those “insiders” to pursue their target audience?
• were cautious about challenging them to step out of their comfort zones for the greater
good?

To revitalize a church, the pastor must assume the external duties required of the chief
executive of any organization that expects to be successful:

• primary networker with leaders of churches, charities, city governments, businesses and
schools – with no set agenda or proposal, but willing to serve however needed
• visionary for how to demonstrate the love of God throughout the community
• spokesperson for the church in the city
• community organizer, assembling a consortium of diverse players to address pressing
local issues

That means delegating several responsibilities pastors spend far too much time on today,
entrusting them to deacons and elders, as well as to staff members:

• Church administration
• Pastoral care

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• Staff meetings about internal matters

For more information, read our eBook The 5 Steps to Revitalize Your Church.

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Do Less – Evaluate each initiative and program at your church to see if it is consistent with
the concept that members ARE the church and the community is your “customer”. Are the
investments of your pastors’ and staff’s time all geared toward (and effective in) preparing
members to BE the church after they leave the building on Sunday?
2. Exchange Good for Great – Trade in some staff meetings for opportunities to network with
local secular and Christian leaders, offering your church to serve where needed most.
Pastors should reallocate much of their administrative time to personal discipleship of
leaders and members.
3. Delegate More – Let lay leaders lead. Entrust more of the operations of the church and
care of members to Deacons – that’s much of their Biblical role. Meanwhile, empower
Elders to disciple, teach and pray as they were intended, alleviating much of the burden on
pastors.
4. Look for Efficiencies – Whatever activities you decide are most worthwhile, do them more
efficiently. For example, mobilize more members to engage in showing the love of Christ to
your church’s intended “customer”, the community where your church is planted, using
Meet The Need ([Link]).

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

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4.

5.

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PART 1: ORGANIZATION
MODULE 2: BUDGET ALLOCATION
TOPIC INSIGHTS

The most controversial and challenging aspect of adopting a Biblical definition of the church’s
“customer” is – Money.

Script Flip #1 – The Generous “Church”

Current Lens: Member Generosity

Member generosity is one of church leadership’s greatest concerns and the lens through which
it views the generosity of its church. They see the church as the object of generosity, not the
instigator of it. What percentage of members/attenders are giving? What’s the average giving
per family?

However, the congregation IS the church so if pastors are worried about whether members
are giving enough TO the church, they’re missing the point. It’s not about “them” giving to “us”
(the church), they are us (the church). If we’ve truly empowered the congregation to BE the
church, we’ll ask a completely different set of questions.

New Lens: Church Generosity

What leaders should be asking is whether their church (the entity) is generous. In other words,
how much is the organization giving out of its budget to its real “customer” – the
community? And how generous are its members in sharing their wealth with those in
desperate need of help and hope around them? Would members be more generous if they
fully grasped that they ARE the church and the community is their “customer”? Are churches
aggressive enough in challenging members to give not only money to support community
causes, but also their time and talents? Generosity should be defined to include all three –
time, talents and treasures. Or are churches more concerned with getting members to do
“church chores”?

Script Flip #2 – First “Fruits”

Current Lens: Member Priorities & Obedience

A common complaint among pastors is how churches winds up getting the “leftovers” after
members pay all their bills. The Bible is clear on this subject – the Lord deserves the first and
best of what we have to offer. Pastors know it’s wrong for churchgoers to lock in so many fixed
expenses that they only have a couple cents on the dollar available at the end of the day to give
to the church.

New Lens: Church Priorities & Obedience

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Yet aren’t nearly all churches today doing the exact same thing? Buildings, salaries, programs,
and other costs that accrue to the benefit of the “insiders” leave little left over to engage and
bless the church’s “customer” (“outsiders”). Churches were the food bank and homeless
shelter for 1900 years. They started the schools and hospitals. They had far few fixed expenses
and allocated a much higher percentage of their budgets to sharing the gospel through serving,
as Jesus’ modeled. Maybe if churches were more obedient in giving their first fruits, members
would follow suit.

Script Flip #3 – Investing for Growth

Current Lens: Reinvest Inward

It’s interesting, and probably not coincidental, that churches budget roughly the same small
percentage for local missions that members budget for their church. New Christians never plan
to short-change God – but then life happens. Likewise, churches plant with a vision of the
Biblical model – impacting the community mightily – but then get sucked in by the demands of
running a church. Gradually, budgets get redirected toward staff and buildings to attract and
retain people. One day they realize they should have never compromised, but as we said
earlier, by then it’s too late to extricate the organization from its fixed costs.

New Lens: Invest Outward

The same cycle occurs with nearly all entrepreneurs. The companies that survive reorient
outward at some point. If they persist in serving internal stakeholders and neglect the
marketplace, they go under. Over 90% of today’s churches are not growing because they fall
into the latter camp. They don’t adequately equip churchgoers to pursue the real “customer”.
If church is not the end but the means, what does it mean to live that out financially? What if
we budgeted to maximize community impact? Strategic planning with that as the goal would
reverse some of the percentages. How many more people in your city would want to know
what’s up with your church if you reallocated 40% of your dollars to year-round community
engagement – e.g. school partnerships, neighborhood “adoption”, and employment
assistance? What if you challenged members much more to BE the church and 40% of them
engaged in weekly community service activities all over town? How would the brand
awareness and perception of your church change?

Script Flip #4 – Give More, Get More

Current Lens: Catering = More Dollars

Are churches being rewarded for “bad behavior”? In business, you don’t make profits if you
ignore your target “customers”. Yet in churches, many leaders believe their financial viability
hinges largely on catering to members – and wind up ignoring their intended “customers”. For
example, a wealthy family leaving is cause for concern in most small churches. That mentality is
natural and expected, but wrong. It’s also wrong if pastors would be more inclined to challenge
their congregations more directly and preach the gospel more boldly if NONE of their funding
came from members/attenders and if everyone HAD to come back the next weekend.

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New Lens: Challenging = More Dollars

Would your church bring in more income if it were more focused on community
engagement? No doubt that reallocation of funds would be painful at first. What about if
leadership stepped up its challenges for members to BE the church? You’d quickly lose some
long-time attenders who weren’t prepared to alter their lifestyles for Christ. However, in the
long run your church’s income would actually increase:

• Evidence shows that members are more generous with generous churches
• People are more likely to donate if they know their dollars will go toward more
emotional “causes” than administration and buildings
• More challenging translates into greater community impact, which in turn produces
more attenders

Would you give to a charity that essentially gave back 97.5% of its donations to benefit
donors? Charities and churches both share the same “customer” – the community. The
beneficiary of a charity’s or church’s services shouldn’t be almost exclusively those who give to
it (e.g. members). In fact, charitable receipts state that “no goods or services were provided in
exchange for this donation”. Instead, the “customer” – those the church and charity are trying
to reach (e.g. the community) – should be the primary beneficiary of those donations.

For more information, read the 7 Attributes of a Generous Church.

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Is your church as generous with its intended “customer” (the hurting and hopeless in the
community) as it should be?

Would your church’s members be more generous in giving (internally and externally) if your
church‘s budget better reflected a spirit of generosity?

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Complete the chart below to measure where your church invests its dollars. Ensure the line
items total to 100%.

% of Budget
Salaries & Benefits
Facilities (i.e. mortgage, utilities)
Technology and Equipment
Operations (insurance, financial, supplies, etc.)
Programs (youth, singles, etc.)
Marketing/Advertising
Pastoral Care/Benevolence (for members)
Pastoral Care/Benevolence (for non members)
Local Missions
Externally Focused Teams/Ministries
International Missions

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Nearly 100% of <10% committed 10%-25% freed 25%-40% Church
budget spoken to local/global up to train and redirected to operational
for by largely impact through send disciples support and expenses cut to
“fixed” internal funding and support empower point where 40%+
expenses; little discipleship, local local ministries; internal impact can be dispersed
to no investment and int’l missions realizing people teams, to member-led
in community and ministries are more discipleship and non-member-
ministry generous with a programs and led ministries and
generous local ministries or causes
church causes

SCORING:
Level 1 – Sum of last 4 rows is less than 3%
Level 2 – Sum of last 4 rows is between 3% and 9%
Level 3 – Sum of last 4 rows is between 10% and 25%
Level 4 – Sum of last 4 rows is between 26% and 40%
Level 5 – Sum of last 4 rows is more than 40%

FUTURE STATE VISION

The pastor of a large church in a wealthy area made what most would consider an unthinkable
decision. Going forward the church would allocate 40% of its annual budget to local and
international missions. It would form mission teams charged with engaging members in year-

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round ministry, whether launched internally or through partnerships with local organizations.
Lay leaders would take ownership of administration and recruiting for these externally focused
teams. The church would stand behind all of this – providing moral and financial support. Of
course, this new plan met with resistance, but the foundation had been laid for this transition
through years of discipleship, usage of Meet The Need, and “on-the-job training” running
prayer, care and share initiatives in the community.

Why was this church’s move seen as so radical by most other pastors? Interestingly, it reflected
the budget allocation of the average church for 1900 years. It aligned with the decentralized
view of church that prevailed until recent decades, with members empowered to be the “hands
and feet” of Christ.

Let’s Share Another Story…

A single mom with two young children walked into a 200 member church looking for help. Her
lights are going to be turned off next week if she doesn’t come up with enough cash to pay her
power bill. She also needs clothes for the older of the two and a better stroller than one she
has with the bent wheel. From the way she’s looking down when making the request, the staff
member picked up a sense of shame and an expectation of rejection. It seemed likely she’d
been to few other churches in the neighborhood and received a polite explanation from each as
to why they weren’t in a position to help.

How Would Most Churches Respond?

“We don’t have enough in our budget. Sorry, it’s been a tough year.”
“There’s a charity down the road that can help you with that. Have you checked with them?”
“If you start coming to our church, I’m sure we can find a way to do something.”

What’s Really Going on is the Church…

…didn’t make any room in its budget for benevolence for local families
…is not willing to share needs of non-member individuals and families with the congregation,
even though some of them could likely help
…has no way to easily communicate needs to members even if it were willing to do so
…isn’t sure who those walk-ins are and is worried about being taken advantage of

Today, the vast majority of families approaching churches for help are quickly, yet courteously,
turned away. Churches miss those opportunities because they don’t see them as just that –
opportunities. They’ve redefined the “customer”. Attention, funding, facilities, and programs
have been redirected to attracting and retaining – building an organization. Struggling
individuals and families in the community are no longer recognized as valued “customers”. Few
churches still follow Jesus’ model of leading with service and compassion, then telling them
who He is. Consequently, the role of church in society has changed – with the pastor’s blessing.

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What would your church do if this young mother walked in the front door?

Should Your Church Do Something?

• Biblically – Jesus healed and fed those who weren’t his followers – at least not
yet. Once they experienced His love and power, most became followers. Jesus also sent
the disciples out not unarmed but fully supplied with the artillery necessary to open ears
and eyes to the gospel – the ability to heal. Numerous times Jesus, Paul and Peter
spoke of the importance of helping the poor, linking it inextricably to the sharing of the
good news of hope found in Christ alone.
• Historically – Since America’s founding, churches have been the “center of town” – the
cultural, charitable, academic, and spiritual hub in cities across the country. Government
and secular charities weren’t the “go to” sources of assistance when times got
tough. Families could walk into a church and leadership and/or members would do
what they could. As the local food bank and homeless shelter, a significant portion of
the church’s income went toward supporting the “least of these” – and not just those
attending on Sunday. Rather than offering “hand outs”, churches formed relationships
with those hurting and helpless, working with them to extend a “hand up”.

Whether a Church Will Do Something Depends on Its:

• Definition of the “Customer” – If leadership and members see the lost in the
community as their “customers”, clearly they will sense an obligation to serve those
who don’t know the gospel – many of whom would never step foot into a church
building. Yet church leaders are unlikely to be as conscious of their responsibilities
outside the “4 walls” if they’re busy placating members and attenders who are
conditioned to evaluate how well the pastor is preaching, how the music sounds, how
the political landscape of the church has shifted, and why leadership doesn’t recognize
all they’ve done for the church. Bible verses that begin with “I desire compassion…” and
“Pure religion…” won’t be ringing in their ears if criticisms are on the tips of their
tongues.
• Definition of the “Church” – If leaders and members truly see those in the pews as the
embodiment of “church” – a decentralized army rather than a centralized institution –
then suddenly the burden to help local families is dispersed among the many versus the
few. Even if a church has budget for benevolence and is willing to bless a non-member,
maybe the impact would be far greater if members assisted families in need
directly. Pastors and staff don’t have capacity to build long term relationships with
many local families – but that kind of leverage does reside there in the sanctuary. In
this scenario, the task of leadership is only to communicate needs and prepare
members to BE the church at every opportunity. That responsibility should also carry
over throughout the week, where each congregant acts as the church personified –
caring and sharing with neighbors, friends and coworkers in need of help and hope.

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What if Churches Don’t Do Anything?

Fewer people in need approach churches for help today because they don’t think churches are
willing to help. However, studies show that people generally believe churches should be
among the first to help. That dichotomy creates the prevailing poor perception of churches and
Christians by society. Every family in need that churches turn away at the door drives home the
idea that they’re more about judgment than compassion – deeper and deeper into the
American psyche. Every time a pastor speaks out on cultural, social, or moral issue when that
church hasn’t demonstrated a commensurate degree of mercy to the needy – the ditch
widens. To the unchurched, Christians haven’t earned the right to be heard. Jesus realized
people “don’t care what you know until they know you care” – they traveled miles on foot to
hear what Jesus had to say because He proved He cared each and every day. The gradual
detachment of caring from sharing – abdicating that role to others – is possibly the most
damaging trend in the history of the church in America.

What Exactly Should Your Church Do?

Because of that growing perception, churches simply can’t keep turning people away. Instead
churches should:

• Assist families even if they don’t go to that church – Imitating the first church at
Antioch and being wary of abuses are valid reasons to focus more assistance on
congregants. However, as we’ve discussed the church is clearly called to serve the poor
regardless of their religious or church affiliation. Churches today invest
disproportionately in catering and caring for members versus challenging and mobilizing
them to bless others. [Note: Read about the “Alternative View” which holds that
corporate worship is only for those whose names are registered in heaven (Hebrews
12:23). Under that interpretation, all churches that won’t help families who aren’t part
of that church, assuming that the church is only supposed to be made up of believers,
are logically precluding doing anything to help non-believers. In this case, the only way
churches can follow Jesus’ model of caring then sharing is if members individually act AS
the church and choose to help those who aren’t Christians.]

• Don’t be so quick to refer them to an agency or charity – Follow this sequence to show
your true “customers” that your church and the Lord cares for them when they ask you
for help:
o Step 1 – Show Respect: Take the time to get to know them. Listen to their story,
ask questions, learn their name, and pray with them.
o Step 2 – Show Compassion: James 2:15-16 warns that simply saying “Go in
peace” or “Be warm, be fed” isn’t enough. Make some effort to help, like
sharing their need with members via Meet The Need, which manages all
communication logistics.

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o Step 3 – Make Assistance Relational: Don’t do a “transaction” and send them on

their way (outputs). Ensure a member gets to know each individual/family
personally (outcomes).
o Step 4 – If You Refer, Follow up: If your church/members can’t provide all they
need, refer them to a local agency, but contact the agency yourself about the
family. Ask for an update on what the agency was able to do for them.
o Step 5 – Stay Connected: Church should be the place the family lands when they
get back on their feet. An agency or charity can’t put them in relationship with
believers and lead them closer to Christ over time.

• Carve out more for benevolence – The modern day model for running a church that
attracts and engages “consumers” leaves little over for assisting members in need, much
less those outside the church. Remember, the lost in the community, not members, are
your “customer”. Cut operational costs that are not playing a direct role in equipping
and challenging members and regular attenders to BE the church to those around them.

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Be a Generous “Church” – Rather than defining your church’s generosity in terms how much
members give to the church, reevaluate generosity in terms of how much of your church’s
budget goes toward your real “customer” – the lost in the community. As spelled out in the
Future State Vision article above, those investments may be both in terms of empowering
(i.e. funding) internal teams to do externally-focused work and benevolence support directly
to non-member families.
2. Give Your “First Fruits” – Churches often accuse congregations of giving its “leftovers” yet
churches do the same thing – their fixed expenses are so high there’s little remaining when
all the bills are paid to invest in loving and serving those who don’t know Jesus.
3. Investing for Growth and Impact – Church plants begin with a vision for impacting a
community, but typically retrench inside the “4 walls” once the demands of running a church
take hold. Recapturing the initial vision God gave the church often entails moving back
toward the church’s initially allocation of dollars.
4. Give More, Get More – Ironically, as a church is more generous, investing in its community,
the resulting growth and excitement about making a difference drives more donations to the
church. Members are more generous with generous churches.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

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PART 1: ORGANIZATION
MODULE 3: ROLE OF PASTORS VERSUS MEMBERS
TOPIC INSIGHTS

In the last module, we “flipped the script” on generosity, asking whether most church budgets
model generosity for their members and to their communities. Now we’re going to follow the
logic and central assumptions and “flip” something else – the organizational structure of nearly
all of today’s churches.

The concept that “members ARE the church and not the ‘customer’” dictates that churches…

Squash the Org Chart

Pastors Move Down

The prevailing hierarchy in the respective roles of pastors versus members should flatten. As
“insiders”, members should no longer leave the heavy lifting to the “professionals”. Relegating
church members to a role as inviters rather than trained evangelists demeans them and unduly
elevates pastors by comparison. Companies can expect no more of customers than to secure
referrals. However, churches should either raise the standards for members or risk treating
them as “customers”. Members should “close the sale” – not just bring people to church but to
the Lord. Most churchgoers feel unqualified to do so because leaders were hesitant to
challenge them to become disciples. Consequently, they default to letting the pastors handle
“closings”.

In that respect, pastors act as the “church” while the members are their “customers”. Yet
pastors are not the embodiment of church, nor are the staff. They are the paid workers; the
lead teachers and administrators. They should not be elevated to a position they were not
intended to occupy.

“Pastor dominated” sounds like a negative way to describe a church – and it is. Yet by our
definition, nearly every church today in America is “pastor dominated”. This is not an isolated
issue. It’s not restricted to prosperity or mega churches. Only a church heavily engaged in
deep personal discipleship and challenging members to BE the church in the community – to
the point where it’s having a noticeable impact – can be considered adequately “flattened”.

Members Move Up
In “pastor-dominated” churches, members are not considered “insiders” (i.e. assets or
stakeholders in a corporate sense). They don’t share the leadership load. They’re seen as
voluntary, casual participants that leaders need to keep happy or they’ll leave the church.

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The alternative, diminishing the status of pastors and elevating the standing of all others by
comparison, will meet with resistance. Yes, flipping the org chart does involve costs, but they
are minute relative to the enormous upside:

Costs
• Pastor stepping down from any pedestal and accepting no greater recognition than that
of any other member
• Losing some “consumers” who aren’t ready to accept a role involving more
responsibility
Benefits
• More disciples
• More “leverage”
• More growth
• More servants bringing help and hope to the world around them
• More churches known for love and compassion

Where is POWER Held?

Issue
Pastors are servants called by God to teach and to shepherd a flock, as Jesus did. There’s no
room for taking on a role of greater importance than the “flock”, particularly because doing so
severely inhibits the proliferation of the gospel. Unfortunately there’s a long history in
Christian churches (as well as other religions) of viewing leaders as more holy and closer to God
than anyone else in the church. In too many cases, a church’s viability hangs on the popularity
and celebrity of the pastor. If the pastor retires or dies, the church may too.

As an illustration of the issue, fewer and fewer churches have deacons and elders
today. They’re “pastor led” without lay member involvement in leadership. As a result, fewer
congregants are empowered to:

• Provide input into important decisions

• Hold the senior pastor accountable
• Lead discipleship efforts
• Even form a search committee if the pastor is hit by the proverbial bus

Solution
Churches should have a strong “cabinet” of empowered and equipped lay leaders, not
necessarily for the purpose of setting direction, but to take “ownership” of their role as the
living, breathing church. There is far more growth potential in a church where members are
given some authority to lead as opposed to a pastor-led “genius with a thousand helpers”.
Churches need less centralized control, not more. As opposed to the preponderance of articles
and books today, revitalizing a church is not about leading better, it’s about leading less and
empowering more.

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Where is KNOWLEDGE Held?

Issue
The differential is far too great between the Biblical and evangelistic knowledge of pastors and
members. As opposed to many other religions throughout history, in today’s churches that
knowledge gap arises not out of a desire to exploit but a fear to challenge. There is too much
reliance on the pastor to teach while the vast majority of congregants sit back, enjoy the show
and head home. As evidence of this “consumer” mindset, how many criticize the sermon, make
suggestions to the pastor on how to improve it, and decide whether to come back based on
how well they were “fed”?

Solution
A pastor can’t provide enough deep, challenging content during a 30 minute sermon once a
week, particularly with part of the church committed Christians and the rest visitors or non-
Christians. So where else are congregants going to get the deeper stuff? Pastors don’t
challenge members adequately to do self study and small groups aren’t intensive enough to
qualify as discipleship. Only personal discipleship can close the knowledge gap. There’s
tremendous power in sharing versus centralizing knowledge. Leverage is created in the number
of people now equipped to represent and expand the organization. With a strong discipleship
program, churchgoers will feel far more confidence in their ability to share their faith and bring
people to Christ.

Where is RESPONSIBILITY Held?

Issue
Pastors and staff alone can’t materially impact a church’s true “customer”, the community. A
company or church must have “all hands on deck”, trained and active in pursuing and serving
the organizations “customer”. Yet few churchgoers sense that as a “responsibility”. Instead
they see evangelism and serving others as an option. I would contend that most go so far as to
pat themselves on the back each time they do either. Doesn’t the prevalence of that
perception confirm once and for all that too many churches are failing to teach the Great
Commission as an imperative?

Solution
To flip the org chart, pastors should make it clear that “We’re ALL in THIS together”. The “THIS”
is the cause of reaching the community and world for Christ. The “ALL” reflects that members
are “insiders”, equally responsible as pastors for accomplishing that mission. Pastors are simply
the coaches, strategizers and organizers, responsible for rallying and mobilizing the troops into
action. Churches should no longer underutilize its most critical resource – the manpower sitting
idle in the pews. However, rather than seeing members as a resource to be utilized, most
pastors fear challenging them lest they take their “business” elsewhere.

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CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Determine whether your leaders truly consider members to be the church.

If you’re a pastor, if you think back on the vision God gave you for the church, do you ever feel
like you’re spending so much time on internal management and member responsibilities that it’s
taking you away from bigger-picture strategic leadership and undermining the impact you had
hoped to have in your community and throughout the world? If so, how could you shift more of
your energy toward that original vision?

What percentage of your members/attenders are passive “pew sitters” (i.e. not active in church
activities beyond worship services)?

Do most or your members/attenders sense that they “ARE” the church or expect to be served by
the church? In other words, how are you preventing them from being church “consumers”?

How do you make sure members/attenders sense when serving that they’re working for the Lord
(i.e. “as” the church) and not working “for” the church?

What steps are you taking to better leverage, empower and mobilize members to accomplish the
mission of the church in the community?

Is your church “pastor-led” or is there a broad base on senior, empowered leaders in place?

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As it relates to others in the church (of course the Lord comes first), where does your staff’s
allegiance lie – to the senior pastor, other staff, the members, or to the church itself?

Do you see benefit in elevating the role of members, relinquishing some control and empowering
lay leaders with greater authority for leading (e.g. micro church outposts)?

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Hierarchy where Members given Members Pastors humbling Pastors, staff are
pastor is in responsibility for beginning to be themselves to on essentially
charge, staff some ministries, seen as relinquish some equal footing; lay
exists to serve but generally “insiders”; control; lay leaders equipped
pastors & sense they’re plans in place leaders and and empowered
members, and working “for” the to create members to run micro
members are church and not leverage by accepting greater church outposts
passive “as” the church better utilizing responsibility
participants in members to
church activities reach others

To plot your church on the Proficiency Model above for this module, respond Yes or No to the
following 5 questions:

1) Are more than 30% of your members/attenders active in church activities beyond
attending worship services?
2) If you doubled your service duration from 1 hour to 2 hours, do you think 90% of your
congregation would still be in attendance the following month?
3) Are most of your programs and ministries run by lay leaders?
4) Are at least 10% of your members involved in training/discipleship (beyond small
groups) preparing them to reach others for Christ?
5) Is your pastor spending more time equipping members to BE the church than caring for
members and running the church?

SCORING:
Level 1 – No on all 5 questions
Level 2 – Yes to 2 questions

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Level 3 – Yes to 3 questions

Level 4 – Yes to 4 questions
Level 5 – Yes to all 5 questions

FUTURE STATE VISION

Building and deploying disciples should be the primary job of pastors and staff. The Great
Commission is a far more effective and Biblical church growth model than the arms-length
attraction and retention approach used by most churches today. Ephesians 4:11-12 says, “So
Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to
equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” As soon as
visitors become believers, they should be discipled and deployed into service, not just inside
the “4 walls” but to bring more people into the “4 walls”.

There are vast resources within our “4 walls” that can create tremendous leverage for the
Kingdom. Take a full inventory of what your church has to offer to each other and the
community. Some may not have an interest or gifting in the area of greatest social need. The
Bible does speak of a variety of roles within the church. That’s true of any organization, but
successful companies take employees with different skill sets and ensure all hands are on deck
pointing toward the overall goal of pursuing and serving their “customers”. To maximize the
church’s impact in the community, pastors should encourage nearly everyone in the church to
consider:

1. What role they can play in advancing the church’s mission around the key cause(s)
2. How they can develop greater skills and passion for the cause of reaching the community
3. The Great Commission as an obligation of great urgency, not an option

As that process unfolds, the Lord will show your church how so many latent capabilities lying
dormant in your pews align perfectly with the most pressing concerns in your community.

Knowing what resources you have at your disposal isn’t enough. You have to also put them in a
position to be effective. That means setting members up for success in living up to their
intended standing as critical parts of the church “body” – charged with exceeding “customer”
expectations, not their own. Pastors and staff alone can’t network or work hard enough to
make significant progress reversing society’s perception of churches as more judgmental and
hypocritical than caring and compassionate. Leaders have to empower members to lead, likely
requiring alternative organizational structures such as those mentioned in Action Items below.

Far too often, pastors rely on sermons as the primary forum to convince entire congregations to
serve and evangelize. And too many pastors rely on small groups as their discipleship vehicle
and instruct group leaders to find a service project every few months. However, members are
“insiders”, much more like employees of a company than its customers (“outsiders”). When a
company hires a new employee, training is the first priority. Would a company consider a 30

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minute presentation each week to be adequate training? What if it added weekly group
discussions with fellow employees for a few months each year? Would the combination of
those two be enough? Of course not. Companies know that proper training happens through
1-on-1 mentorship, group classes and in the “field” (i.e. on-the-job training).

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Bring Them In to Send Them Out – Your members and attenders, not just the pastors and
staff, ARE the church. The job description for church leaders is to equip and mobilize the
entire congregation to be effective in their role as the living, breathing body of Christ.
2. Build Disciples, Not an Institution – Why do you market your church? Why do you
encourage others to come to your church? It’s important for pastors, staff and lay leaders
to examine their hearts, ensuring the goal remains the Great Commission, not church
growth.
3. Challenge and Direct Members – Any hesitancy to boldly challenge members and frequent
attenders to BE the church - for fear of losing them to the church down the road who still
“caters” to theirs - is wrong. Instead, church leaders should train them as “insiders”, show
them ministry opportunities to reach the “lost” and hold them accountable for living out the
Great Commission.
4. Flatten the Org Chart – For churches to have a dramatic impact on the world around them,
they need leverage. Fully utilizing the “manpower in the pews” entails pastors relinquish
much of their centralized authority, knowledge and responsibility to members.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

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4.

5.

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STRATEGIC PLANNING MODULES Module 4: Expectations

PART 1: ORGANIZATION
MODULE 4: EXPECTATIONS OF MEMBERS
TOPIC INSIGHTS

Is it reasonable to hold members to a standard of performance?

At some point in a Christian’s walk with the Lord they should begin living out the Great
Commission. Churches should challenge them and expect them to do so. To become a highly
impactful church, many of your members will need to be convinced that:

• They ARE the Church – critical parts of the “body” with unique, God-given skills and
passions
• As the Church, they have a responsibility to pursue the church’s “customer”, the hurting
and hopeless in the community where the church is planted
• The Great Commission is an obligation of great urgency, not an option

Is your church willing to break the “consumer” mindset and turn the tables, expecting members
to perform rather than vice versa?

Expecting people to “perform” sounds like a business concept, but churches do it every week.

How many showed up and how much did they give? Churches budget expenses and expect
each staff member to pull his/her own weight. Performance objectives are established around
a set of goals, which tie back to what the church views as its priorities.

1. If member acquisition and retention is the primary goal, then the metrics will reflect
that, e.g.:

• Membership
• Attendance
• Giving

2. If building and sending disciples is the primary goal, then the church will measure:

• Involvement in discipleship
• Lives impacted and changed (whether inside or outside the church)
• Engagement in internal and external ministry

Which of those two sets of measures are tracked more closely at your church?

Those two goals are not mutually exclusive…

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• More members can mean more disciples if the church offers discipleship programs
beyond small groups
• More attendance can mean more lives changed if the church is aggressive in
challenging them
• More giving can mean more engagement in impactful ministries if the church invests
heavily in empowering and equipping leaders

However, which set of metrics take precedence demonstrates whether a church views its
members or the community as its “customer”. In other words, they drive where the church
invests the bulk of its time, energy and money. Is the church building programs to “please”
members (to drive up the 1st set of metrics) or to prepare members to pursue the real
“customer” (the 2nd set)?

Because the impact, influence and perception of the Church in America are in decline it’s clear
that churches aren’t turning enough members into disciples, attendees into world-changers,
and dollars into difference. We believe few churches have made the transition from the 1st set
to the 2nd set of metrics.

Who’s Evaluating Who These Days?

The 2nd set (discipleship, life change and ministry) demands significant commitment by
members. They are big asks – and risky considering that the balance of power today has
tipped in favor of members. The law of supply and demand has given churchgoers the upper
hand:

…the vast number of churches, each carrying fixed expenses that have to be covered
…going after a shrinking “pie” of frequent attenders
…each of whom gives less today
…in a landscape filled with more Walmart churches, making life difficult for “mom-and-pop
shops”
…with seminaries producing significant numbers of aspiring pastors every year

The math will only get worse – fewer people and funds to spread over the remaining base of
facilities – if churches continue chasing after the wrong “customer”. Investing a limited pool of
resources in trying to keep the lights on by attracting and retaining members is a losing
game. The pie will continue to shrink if churches keep ignoring the real “customer” – the
community where the church is planted.

How much leverage do churches have today? Are churches in a position to raise expectations
of members? There are plenty of churches down the road ready to cater to their every whim –
“people pleasing” churches who thank members profusely for barely doing anything – spoiling
spiritual children. The mindset of most pastors today is far from increasing member standards

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and accountability. Upsetting the apple cart could mean a faction revolts and splits the church,
spelling potential doom, particularly if a patriarch or matriarch leads the mutiny.

Churchgoers today “shop” for churches, looking for the one that best meets their needs. They
leave if churches aren’t meeting their expectations. Meanwhile, pastors read books and
articles, selecting from among a wide range of church growth strategies trying to find the path
to revitalization. The scales have tipped.

What Does the Bible Say?

The Bible repeatedly makes the case that members ARE the church. Paul’s and John’s letters
speak directly to the churches – meaning not just the pastors and staff, but the members
themselves. Those letters hold all members to account for their actions, not just the
leaders. Members weren’t seen evaluating churches – members were being evaluated based
on the standards set by Jesus Christ. In fact, the concept of members evaluating the church
was an oxymoron in the New Testament. Members were the church – there was no institution
apart from them. If the church was screwing up, it was on them.

Because members are the church and the community is its “customer” – as Jesus, His disciples
and the early Church modeled – performance measures should be aligned with those
respective roles. Members are “insiders”, much more like employees of a company – and, like
employees, can and should be held to a performance standard. Churches who are reluctant to
do so are treating them like “outsiders” – or “customers”.

How to Begin Raising Standards

Leaders should raise expectations of members rather than striving to meet their expectations.
However, that’s not possible unless church leaders are willing to…

1. Redefine – Consider and treat members as the church and the community as the
“customer”
2. Reprioritize – Put the mission first and institution second, diverting less attention to
maintaining the church (institution) and more to building and sending disciples. That may
mean few fixed costs and fewer programs and services that “please” members.
3. Set New Goals – Reorient metrics from the 1st set to the 2nd set above
4. Empower – As we discussed the past few weeks, train and put lay leaders in a position to
“recruit” and mobilize others to venture into the (local and international) mission field. A
small rebel band of Spirit-filled followers can change a community if they’re motivated and
expected to reach others for Christ – Jesus’ disciples altered the course of history
5. Equip – Devote pastor and staff time to training/discipleship and commit church dollars to
externally-focused initiatives run by lay leaders. People are not attracted to churches but to
disciples – so build not only disciples but disciple makers.

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6. Direct – Have the courage to challenge members to live out the Great Commission, and
network to find opportunities and causes where the church can engage non-believers
7. Track and Monitor – Use measures as they’re intended – to incent action and modify
behaviors – possibly pulling folks well outside their comfort zones. Ensure those actions
flow out of gratitude for the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ as opposed to a sense of duty.
Organizations rarely succeed at what they don’t measure. Trade in internally-focused
performance metrics that track attendance and dollars for “customer”-oriented measures
that gauge how effective members are after they walk out of the building on Sunday

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment
Complete the chart below to evaluate whether the church is doing more to cater to or to
challenge members. In each row, consider which of the two options best describes your church
in terms of what you expect of (emphasize to) members and assign a relative percentage score
(each row should total 100%):

Option A % Option B %
Invite others to church Responsible for leading them to Christ
Participate in a small group Participate in 1 on 1 discipleship
Serve in the church Serve in the community
Give to support church operations Give to help church impact the world
Be a leader inside the church Be a leader for Christ in the community
God wants you to have victory God wants you to give it all to Him
Enjoy a fantastic worship service It’s not about the “experience”
Attend our church Attend any Bible believing church
Fellowship with other members Build relationships with the lost
Regularly attend church Study, pray and journal on their own
Come back next week Become a leader in the church
Baby steps on the road to life change Dramatic life change
Members expect church to perform Church expects members to perform
Church is where we go on Sunday We (members) ARE the church
Build and deploy disciples Build a church
Pastors accountable for its success Members accountable for its success

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Primary focus on Regularly asking Testing concept Weekly High expectations
ensuring first- members to of challenging challenging of all members;
rate church serve and give members; members to “be holding them
experience for but nearly transition the hands and accountable for

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members/visitor exclusively underway from feet of Christ”, performance in

s; culture where internally; little members but no longer serving (in/out),
members expectation and expecting losing them - evangelizing,
evaluate church no accountability church to they’ve bought engaging beyond
performance for life change or perform to into “we are the service
and pastors/staff impact on others church church” attendance; Full
seek to ensure expecting mentality; limited member buy-in
satisfaction members to accountability
perform

SCORING:
Level 1 – Sum of 2nd column is less 300
Level 2 – Sum of 2nd column is between 301 and 450
Level 3 – Sum of 2nd column is between 451 and 600
Level 4 – Sum of 2nd column is between 601 and 750
Level 5 – Sum of 2nd column is greater than 750

FUTURE STATE VISION

Just as we educate our children so they’ll stop being absorbed with self, believers must be
trained (i.e. discipled) to stop being consumed with self. Otherwise, even though they’ve come
to faith, they’ll continue to be immature. Graduating to a higher level of education in their walk
with Christ means coming to grips with what it means to BE the church – in other words,
selfless. Paul refers to that process as dying to self – being crucified with Christ. The new
believer has joined that camp of those called to die to self, just as a maturing child should put
aside childish things and learns to put others first.

However, if churches don’t challenge and disciple new believers (i.e. spiritual children) all the
way to maturity, they’ll remain “consumers” of church rather than the church personified.

Changing the Mindset of Members

Selflessness can permeate and transform a church culture. Not only will selflessness manifest
itself in how members care for each other but it will be evident in how the church body (as a
whole) cares for the church’s true “customer” – the community where the church is
planted. That’s when the transition from childhood to adulthood is complete. When members
recognize the “fields” are white for harvest and take personal responsibility for seeking seekers
– in other words, being the Church.

Yet members won’t arrive at that place of maturity unless they come to realize…

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1. …where the “fields” are

Many today think that planting a church in a community means we’re “in the field”, and believe
that churchgoers in the normal course of daily life will be good harvesters. However, most
churches don’t prepare or empower members adequately – typically only asking them to invite
people to church, leaving evangelism to the “professionals”. How many churchgoers share
their faith or even talk about God between Sundays, except with their Christian friends?

2. …why they’re at church

They are not at church to be served but to serve. They are Christ’s body, designed for praying,
caring and sharing. Instilling a service versus consumer mindset will mean eventually members
and attenders become less dependent on the church for what it can do for them and more
engaged in being the church to others.

3. …challenging is Biblical, catering is not

No longer catering to churchgoers doesn’t mean churches stop taking care of their members or
ignore them. Church is a family. However, it does means transitioning members’ thinking
about their role by investing more in challenging them (e.g. with the Great Commission).

4. …the urgency of the need

It’s human nature to need a cause outside of ourselves to force us to look beyond
ourselves. The hopelessness of the lost in the community should be a mission-critical, common
cause for every church. There are also often pressing social issues such as homelessness,
hunger or troubled youth around which a church can rally. See our short eBook – Transform
Your Community Forever in 6 Months.

5. …their own problems may not be as bad as they thought

Once churchgoers shift their focus to bigger problems in the world around them, their maturity
process kicks into high gear. Self-absorption only drives people deeper and deeper into their
own “stuff”, whereas loving their neighbors is the path to “recovery”.

Changing the Mindset of Church Leaders

Pastors have to lead the way or the congregation won’t reach maturity – dying to self and
taking the Great Commission as seriously as Jesus intended. Before pastors can help others
adopt this new mindset, their own must adjust accordingly…

1. …around “parenting”
Pastors are raising too many spiritual children in the church today. They fear consumers will
leave if they challenge them to have a dramatic impact on the world around them – so they
don’t. Enabling and coddling, particularly of long-time members/attenders, has to stop. The
Kingdom needs more disciples – and disciple makers.

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2. …around expectations
Rather than seeing members as voluntary participants in church activities, view them in their
proper light as “insiders” – more like employees charged with real responsibilities both within
and outside the “4 walls.” Historically, democracies fail because politicians eventually give too
much away in order earn votes. Churches offering cheap grace perpetuate the church’s current
decline in growth, impact, influence and perception. (see 2 Timothy 4:1-5)

3. …around the term “externally focused”

We throw around that term as if it’s an optional characteristic of certain churches, or somehow
deserving of merit. Yet externally-focused is what the Great Commission dictates every church
should have as a core competency. I wonder whether the Lord is pleased with any church
that’s not “externally focused” – one that doesn’t adequately prepare, send and serve such as
to win more to Christ.

4. …around giving back

People in the midst of building their careers often think “once I get where I’m trying to go, then
I’ll start to give back”. Countless times I’ve seen and heard pastors say similar things – “We just
need to get the new building done, then…” or “Once we get a little bigger, we can have more
impact, then…”. Be a generous church now – at any size or any stage of development.

5. …around how to share the gospel

Many pastors and churches find themselves trying to “outpreach” Jesus. He had the perfect
words, but knew they weren’t enough. The Church’s gradual relinquishing of the front-line
compassion role in society to others over the past 100 years, no longer following Jesus’ model,
instead telling people who Jesus is without showing them first, has severely damaged society’s
view of Christians and the Church.

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Fear Factor – Pastors demonstrate a great deal of faith and courage as they start a new
church plant. At that early stage there’s little to lose – no large membership and limited
investments of hours and dollars. As the stakes rise, pastors become more cautious about
challenging members to do all they could and should to win people to Christ. Leaders
should remember and rekindle that initial fire.
2. Cheap Grace – Companies don’t feel at liberty to require anything of customers – they
would never demand customers read the owners’ manual and evangelize the company.
Churches treat members similarly today – treading lightly when it comes to asking members
to live out the Great Commission.
3. What Have You Got to Lose – The modern American church growth model isn’t working -
93% of churches aren’t growing. The perception of churches and Christians is in decline.
Churches should take a chance and readopt the definition it had for 1900 years of its
“customer” – the lost in the community where it’s planted.

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4. Who’s Evaluating Who – Churches track attendance, worrying about losing members, and
turning churchgoers into “shoppers”. Church leaders should turn the tables on the balance
of power – despite fears of a smaller percentage of churchgoers distributed over a large
number of churches - challenging members to BE the church and pursue its real “customer”.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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STRATEGIC PLANNING MODULES Module 5: Structure

PART 1: ORGANIZATION
MODULE 5: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
TOPIC INSIGHTS

No organization thrives without setting goals. The goals of a church are spelled out in the Bible
– principally:

• Teach and care for believers

• Empower them to go and make disciples
• Serve and witness to the hurting and lost in Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth

Within the context of those goals, pastors and staff can set specific objectives designed to reach
them. For churches among the 93% not growing in America today, objectives are primarily
aimed at growth and revitalization. However, most of their strategies to achieve those
objectives point in the opposite direction. Repeating the mistakes that led to the current state
of the church won’t result in a better future state. Today’s prevailing church growth strategy
of “Invite, Involve and Invest” is the rallying cry of the internally-focused church. Internally-
oriented organizations nearly always fail. Tactics to make your church “sticky” may grow your
church in the short term but only engaging and caring for your intended “customer” will make
your church healthy and vibrant in the long run.

The Path to Revitalization

…is essentially the same for all organizations, but for churches it’s an ordained imperative:

• Take “Ground” – In business it’s called “market share”. Democracies call it “voting
blocs”. Unfortunately, nearly all churches in America think of it as “membership”,
“attendance”, or giving. Churches who measure their footprint in those terms are
(possibly inadvertently and unwittingly) viewing members as “customers”. Because
members ARE the church and the community is the marketplace, the amount of ground
“taken” should be calculated in terms of lives “impacted”, regardless of whether they go
to your church. The Biblical goals of the Church are rooted in building and sending
disciples, who in turn impact the lives of those around them for Christ.

• Develop Genuine Relationships – We think of relationships as being between two

people. However, the church itself has a relationship with the community (its
“customer”). Church is the convening of the “body” and that collective body is
commissioned to work together to reach the “customer” – not just as a bunch of
independent agents or only on occasion. Yet the church today is far more transactional
than relational in terms of how it reaches out to the community (as a collective body) –
relying on infrequent outreaches, which are often viewed and intended as

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marketing. Society is waiting to see churches show sincere concern for them, not for
their “own”. Likewise, society is not waiting for members to be generous in giving to
the church, but for the church to be generous in giving to the community. You can see
how the goals of communities and of churches are often in conflict.

• Fuel a Positive Perception – We each do life with Christ separately but when we’re part
of a church, we are the church. Yet by highlighting pastors, buildings and brands,
churches have caused society to see it as an institution, not a collection of
individuals. In other words, our modern day emphasis on the institution has caused the
unchurched to view church as an institution. As a consequence non-believers no longer
assume that a churchgoer who is loving and caring means that the church is loving and
caring. Many today think highly of a particular church member but have a poor
perception of “church”. Unless pastors truly view congregants as the church, society
won’t either. And unfortunately, studies show most unchurched (the intended
“prospect/customer”) feel that the institution (of church) does not care about them.

Setting your Church up for Success

Taking ground, relational propagation and fueling a positive perception all hinge on a single,
critical enabler – people. Businesses can’t grow market share without employees and raving
fans. Politicians can’t win office without staff and volunteers out on the campaign trail. If your
church doesn’t leverage the people at your disposal, equipping them to reach others, there’s
little chance of accomplishing the Lord’s goals for your church. In other words, unless you
empower congregants to BE the church through more decentralized organizational structures
and flatten the church hierarchy, you’ll never reach your objectives of healthy growth and
revitalization.

In consulting, too often we saw companies broken up into functional “silos”, each acting not in
the interests of customers, but around their independent objectives, which often conflicted
with those of other departments. Those companies experienced tremendous inefficiencies,
mis-alignments, and far too much internal politics – and consequently poor sales and customer
service. Our consulting teams restructured those organizations, uniting them through cross-
functional processes designed around the needs of customers, not the interests of internal
departments.

Likewise, churches should restructure around the Biblical goals laid out at the beginning of this
chapter.

Here are 5 proven organizational changes that will exponentially increase your church’s ability
to pursue and win over your intended “customer” – the community where your church is
planted:

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1. Turn Small Groups into Neighborhood Groups, responsible for “prayer, care and share”
in their particular locations (this is the most grass-roots example of structuring a church
relationally)
2. Form teams assigned to work with particular local ministries and/or cause(s)
3. Facilitate “planting” of ministries by members to fill cause-related gaps in the city
4. Consider restructuring into semi-autonomous, medium-sized subgroups around
geographic or cause lines (since entire congregations are hard to mobilize and small
groups lack the scale to make a significant impact)
5. Assign a staff or lay leader to manage your local missions efforts and another to lead
discipleship and elevate those positions to a high standing within the church,
commensurate with the reversion to defining the community and not members as your
“customer”

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Determine whether your church is taking steps to distribute power/influence within
the church so as to fully leverage your members as the living, breathing church to those around
them.

Have you made organizational changes to facilitate a shift from a Sunday morning, attractional
model to year-round, between Sundays engagement with the community? If so, please describe.

What was the result of those organizational changes in terms of your unity, growth, impact,
influence and perception in your city?

How are you empowering and equipping members to be leaders for Christ not just within the
church but within their spheres of influence? Could those initiatives be more effective? How?

Scoring on Proficiency Model

Which of the following best describe how you’ve set up your organizational structure?

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1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

“Pastor-led” Slightly flatter org Modifying Implemented Reorganizing
structure with structure with existing org new org entire church body
young, lower deacons, elders structures to structures to to ensure focus on
level staff; and more senior focus on reach community engaging those
members are leadership & reaching the (e.g. ministry most in need of
treated as staff; members “customer” teams to work help and hope
“customers” to are not viewed as (e.g. Small directly with local (e.g. Mission-
be served by part of the org Groups into ministries and Shaped
pastors and staff structure but Neighborhood engage members) Communities)
served by it Groups)

FUTURE STATE VISION

Implementing organizational changes geared toward decentralizing and empowering – to

better unlock the potential residing in your pews – will require your church to rethink:

• Budgets – Reallocate your church’s budget to generously fund member-led and external
local ministry efforts. You can’t launch and empower neighborhood groups, ministry
teams, ministry plants, or semi-autonomous subgroups without funding. Stand behind
your commitment – financially.
• Buildings – Is it good stewardship to own a building that only accommodates a large
crowd 1 day per week? How often is a significant portion of the building in use? How
many members visit the building between Sundays? How much space does
management and staff activities take up during the rest of the week? What percentage
of those activities could be done elsewhere much less expensively? Would you pay a
full mortgage on a house you only lived in 20% of the time? Only the very rich have
second homes where they spend a small fraction of their time, but in ministry aren’t we
called to be better stewards (with Kingdom resources) than the ultra rich? With a
proper definition of the “customer”, fewer resources would go toward facilities and
more toward serving and engaging the community. Alternatively, keep the building but
use it all week for ministry incubation and to bring in people from the community for
career coaching, tutoring, recovery ministries, health/wellness classes, etc. – all geared
toward demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ and His church.
• Content Delivery – Speaking of which, are there more efficient means in this day and
age for content delivery by the pastor and staff? Too many people drive in Sunday
morning, stay for a non-interactional presentation, possibly hang around a few minutes
afterward to chat, then head home. That single sermon cannot deliver the depth
needed by mature Christians – pastors have to design messages to accommodate the
mix of “students” in the congregation. Aren’t tailored messages based on discipleship
progress more efficiently delivered while people are out exercising or driving to
work? As we’ve discussed extensively, properly equipping members to BE the church in

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the “marketplace” requires intensive training (discipleship) and deployment into local
ministry. Yet there’s been little innovation in (or adoption by churches of) content
delivery vehicles for discipleship or for serving others. Technology vendors invest in
building solutions that churches have set aside budget to purchase, so there is
significant innovation in online streaming of conventional church services, but not much
around discipleship or local missions (besides Meet The Need, a non-profit ministry).

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Turn Small Groups into Neighborhood Groups, responsible for “prayer, care and share” in
their particular locations (this is the most grass-roots example of structuring a church
relationally)
2. Form Teams assigned to work with particular local ministries and/or cause(s)
3. Facilitate “Planting” of Ministries by members to fill cause-related gaps in the city
4. Consider Restructuring into Semi-autonomous, Medium-sized Subgroups around
geographic or cause lines (since entire congregations are hard to mobilize and small groups
lack the scale to make a significant impact)
5. Assign a Staff or Lay Leader to Manage your Community Missions Efforts and another to
lead discipleship and elevate those positions to a high standing within the church,
commensurate with the reversion to defining the community and not members as your
“customer”

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

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4.

5.

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PART 2: STRATEGIES
MODULE 6: MARKETING
TOPIC INSIGHTS

Members ARE the church. Therefore, the church leaders’ job is to grow them, not an institution.
Ironically, if you grow disciples you’ll also grow the institution. However, that can’t be the
objective – it’s a byproduct of disciples being properly trained to be productive in the
“marketplace”.

If your hope is to grow a church, but you don’t see the word “member” as synonymous with the
word “church”, then:

1. you’re trying to growth the wrong thing (a “what” and not a “who”)
2. you’ll fall into the temptation of trying to hang on to members/attenders
3. you’ll make a series of bad decisions that compromise the vision the Lord gave you

Building and sending disciples is the ultimate church growth model. The best church growth
plan was the early Church’s growth plan…and is what works best for any successful
organization:

1. Discipleship (training) maximizes leverage

2. Sending disciples out creates relationships
3. Relationships with disciples create more disciples
4. Disciples get involved actively in the church

…and the cycle repeats.

Is that process in full effect at your church? To help answer that, consider the 3 questions we
addressed in this workbook:

1. Are your members really disciples?

2. If not, how do you get them there?
3. Once they are disciples how do you deploy them to maximize their usefulness for the
Kingdom?

Two Types of Church Growth

The healthy way to go wider (i.e. grow) is to go deeper. Unhealthy churches go wider by
allowing members to wade in the shallow end. The waters are calm and no dangers lurk
beneath the surface. More folks will join them, safe and secure, knowing they’ll never drown or

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become “lunch”. They’ll never be asked to take the risk to head into the deeper waters of real
life change and discipleship. Yet that’s where Jesus demands we swim.

In management consulting, we speak of two types of growth, which apply well to churches too:

1. Acquisitive – Attracting people from other churches

o Competitive Advantage – Offering facilities, programs and services (e.g.
children’s ministry) that smaller churches simply can’t afford
o Trying to Build a “Great” Organization – Countless books, articles, consultants and
seminaries tell pastors how to lead better, but better leadership isn’t going to make
a bad business model successful. And nearly all churches today have the wrong
business model – they ignore their true, intended “customer” and treat “insiders”
like “outsiders”. Therefore, they don’t properly train “insiders” to go after the real
“customer” – the community.
o Invite, Involve, Invest – Relying on growth models that may be “sticky” but don’t
build or empower disciples
o Cautious Sharing the Truth – Avoiding too many messages about sin, repentance,
and the costs of following Jesus
o Hesitancy to Challenge – To be discipled, disciple others and take time to serve the
poor
o Focus on Visibility:

Marketing tactics and collateral likely to attract Christians, not the
unchurched

Compassion as a means to greater visibility versus from a heart of sincere
concern for issues in the community

2. Organic – Reaching people who aren’t Christians

o Train (disciple) “insiders” to be productive in reaching the lost
o Send disciples out to meet the “unchurched” where they are – in the “marketplace”
(e.g. schools, businesses)
o Follow Jesus’ model of demonstrating His love through acts of service before telling
them who He is
o Not measuring growth based on the number of people who darken the church doors
but on the number reached and discipled by members
o Become attractive to those who don’t know the Lord as they see your church’s love,
fellowship and service to the least of these

Which of Those Did Jesus and the Early Church Follow?

At the height of his popularity, Jesus did the unthinkable. He preached His most controversial,
challenging sermon. In fact, He knew few would be left standing beside Him after telling the
crowd of followers to drink His blood and eat His flesh.

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Imagine the pastor of a large church in the midst of rapid growth preaching the most
demanding, challenging message members have ever heard, knowing with near certainty that
few of them would come back to the church again. Imagine that same pastor pulling all the
members aside and laying out the full picture of discipleship costs and expectations, knowing it
was a pill few of them could swallow? That’s exactly what Jesus did. He preached it down to a
select few.

Jesus’ disciples also violated nearly every principle of the Acquisitive church growth model:

• preached hard messages exposing sin, demanding repentance and boldly shared the
highly controversial gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• performed miraculous acts of love and service before, after and often during those
sermons
• were determined to spread the gospel far and wide to all those who would listen,
knowing that few had the humility and audacity to stomach the implications of what it
truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ
• went wherever necessary to find those with hearts ready and willing to commit their
lives fully to Jesus, not waiting for them to show up at the front door of the church
• invested countless hours discipling others

Why is Discipleship the Ultimate Growth Model?

Scale wasn’t the goal for Jesus and his disciples. They were looking to build a rebel band of
Spirit-filled followers fully committed to changing the world for Christ. And they did. And the
church grew dramatically, not because people were attracted to the institution but because
they were attracted to disciples.

The growth potential of discipleship is about leverage and empowerment, fueled by the Holy
Spirit. There is so much latent leverage sitting idle in the pews. We just have to disrupt their
comfort and complacency to mobilize that manpower.

Ironically, the more a church challenges versus caters, the more it will grow. And unless a
church disciples, it won’t have the right kind of growth – the healthy exponential, organic
expansion that comes from people who’ve experienced genuine life change. Acquisitive growth
without discipleship leads to internal turmoil you’d expect of churchgoers who aren’t fully
committed disciples – squabbles, splits and consumerism.

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

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What types of outreach events do you do? How many have you organized in the past year?

Do you do regular servant evangelism (e.g. handing out water bottles) or community service? If
so, do you include the name of the church on items you hand out or on shirts your
members/attenders wear?

Is it possible that you would not need to advertise the church itself if you increased your visibility
in the community through serving and offering programs for your community?

Complete the charts below to help understand how your church makes its name known and
entices people to come:

Which methods are you most reliant on to attract new visitors? Rank 1 through 7 based on
your relative emphasis (not based on effectiveness, e.g. best source of new visitors).

Rank 1-7
Invitations to church by members/attenders
Word of mouth (general reputation, visibility in community)
Direct mail pieces
Other advertising (billboards, newpapers, online)
Outreach events (Servant Evangelism)
Community service/engagement
Evangelism by members/attenders

What messages are you most reliant on (e.g. in your mailers and other advertisements) to
attract new visitors? Rank 1 through 7 based on your relative emphasis (not based on
effectiveness, e.g. best source of new visitors).

Rank 1-7
Environment (casual)
Relevant messages

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Facilities or amenities
Children’s/youth/student ministry
Other ministries or programs available to visitors/members
Faith, hope & love
Community/relationships

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Advertises In addition to Members Year-round Goal of church
attractive Level 1 accept real service based body has shifted
features of marketing, does responsibility outreach is from marketing
services/ occasional for invitations primary church to showing
environment outreach events, and evangelism; marketing God’s love by
(only appeals to such as servant they begin to strategy; Little being the “hands
Christians from evangelism, but understand need for and feet of Christ”
other churches); emphasis is on inextricable link advertising due to in the community
channels are marketing the between visibility in
member church prayer, care community
invitations, and share through service
mailers and
billboards

SCORING:
Level 1 – Total of last 3 rows of methods table + last 2 rows of messages table is more than 30
Level 2 – Total of last 3 rows of methods table + last 2 rows of messages table is between 25-29
Level 3 – Total of last 3 rows of methods table + last 2 rows of messages table is between 20-24
Level 4 – Total of last 3 rows of methods table + last 2 rows of messages table is between 15-19
Level 5 – Total of last 3 rows of methods table + last 2 rows of messages table is less than 15

FUTURE STATE VISION

Not all growth is healthy growth. Earlier we defined healthy, organic growth as building and
sending disciples out into the community to demonstrate and share the love of Jesus Christ
with those hopeless and hurting. The most successful church marketing – resulting in healthy,
exponential expansion – comes from Spirit-filled disciples who’ve experienced genuine life
change. Growth attributable to attracting people from other churches by marketing to them,
catering better to them and expecting less of them is not healthy.

Intensive discipleship gives members the courage to seek the lost, the compassion to serve
them, and the knowledge to speak words that bring them life. It transforms your church into a
fully trained and equipped army of ministers. When the pastor asks the proverbial trick
question “Raise your hand if you’re a minister”, for the first time all hands can go up with

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confidence. Disciples know that their responsibilities as a critical part of the “body” don’t stop
with simply inviting people to come to church.

However, the growth that comes from challenging members to become and make disciples,
given the amount of effort that entails, also comes with ups and downs. Healthy growth is a
roller coaster. You may “preach it down” at first, but you’re in good company – that’s what
Jesus did. You’ll lose some due to “sticker shock” at the price they’ll have to pay to BE the
church. But those remaining will create a foundation for growth and breathe life into your
church’s culture.

Who You’ll Lose

It takes faith to boldly preach the whole truth of the gospel – including sin, repentance and the
costs of discipleship. On the surface, it would seem few want to hear hat entire sermon. Many
in the congregation may not come back for a second dose of that medicine. It also takes
courage to ask churchgoers to muster the level of compassion and sacrifice demanded in the
Bible from those who choose to follow Jesus Christ. Many will find another church more careful
to “cater” to them. Others won’t step back into another church again and risk being confronted
with such unreasonable expectations.

But let’s look more closely at who is most likely to leave your church when you begin to
challenge them to become disciples:

• long-time complacent members and attenders who aren’t ready for changes or
challenges
• consumers who complain when some aspect of church is no longer to their liking
• those in it for “cheap grace”, belief without confession, surrender, discipleship or
material life change
• those more comfortable with sermons about relationships, parenting and a better life
• luke-warm fence-sitters undecided for years whether to dip all of their toes in the water
• people intent on being continually “fed” and served, unwilling to serve
• when they do serve, they may feel better about themselves than those they’re serving

Do you want a church full of those? Jesus and His disciples didn’t try to appease them
either. They confronted sin and never tempered or qualified the gospel message regardless of
whether listeners were ready to accept it or not. Forgive the analogy, but if someone is looking
to get in better shape, that typically means dropping a few pounds. Maybe to become healthy,
churches have to lose some weight too. Many could stand a little less “fat” (e.g. those unwilling
to be challenged despite ample time to take a stand for Christ) and a lot more muscle (i.e.
“disciples” in this possibly inappropriate euphemism).

Of course, keep in mind that Jesus and His disciples had already “primed the pump” by
performing awe-inspiring miracles and jaw-dropping acts of kindness prior to sharing the gospel

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– a model most churches rarely imitate today. Maybe that’s why churches have had to resort
to softer, more palatable messages to attract and retain – because ears are not as ready to hear
nor hearts to accept words not preceded by action. (2 Timothy 4)

What You’ll Gain

Taking the risk that your attendance will shrink if leaders challenge members to BE the church
and pursue the real “customer” is not optional – it’s Biblical. Pastors should have the faith to
follow the Lord’s leading, whatever the outcome. However, while there’s risk, there’s also
tremendous upside. The congregants who do stick around will be those who are:

• hungry for truth

• eager to grow deeper in their relationship with the Lord
• possibly poor in material wealth but rich in faith
• disciples, or willing to become one
• ready to make an impact
• committed to growing the Kingdom
• inspired and excited
• all in!

Imagine what a church could do with a couple pews full of those folks! Twelve disciples
changed the course of history. But you’ll never really find out who those people are or how
much they’re willing to do to impact the community for Christ unless your church challenges
everyone. And you haven’t rooted out those at your church who would leave if you truly
challenged them – because they’re still there. The only way to weed out the “who you’ll lose”
and leave behind the “who you’ll gain” is to spell out what it REALLY means to live out the Great
Commission.

Ultimately what you’ll gain in the longer term is a high capacity, rapidly growing, impactful
church that’s a beacon of light in your otherwise darkening city. Without trimming the excess
and training the remaining “insiders” to be unabashed Christ followers bent on pursuing your
“customers”, your church will never morph into that lighthouse on the hill.

What about Visitors, Infrequent Attenders and Non-Believers?

Seekers may be in a church but they’re not the “church” – at least not yet. They’re still a
“customer” – the lost searching for answers.

Churches should emulate Paul, “becoming all things to all people so that by all possible means I
might save some.” Advertising, facilities, programs, etc. are all fair game for attracting
“customers” to come in to a church. Better yet, go out to them on their turf, on their terms, to
show them the love of Jesus Christ as He did – healing, feeding and serving before telling them
who He is.

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Today, the first strategy of asking seekers to come to us has largely replaced us going to
them. Attraction via amenities has proved time consuming and expensive, not leaving much
staff bandwidth or church budget to invest in community engagement. Likewise, fear of losing
members, those who pay for the amenities, keeps churches from challenging members boldly
to live out the Great Commission in the world around them.

How Did They Become a Seeker?

Maybe they witnessed Christians showing kindness – and are curious

When they come into the church are they seeing kindness lived out by the church? Are they
seeing opportunities to give back to those in need in the community?

Maybe something happened to them – and they want answers

Are they getting those answers within the first couple times they finally dare to step into
a church? Or are they getting life lessons that sound more like counseling than
Christianity? How long will they keep coming back if they don’t find the answers they need?

Maybe they hit rock bottom – and are not only ready to hear, but to accept
They’re still “customers”, but they’re more ready to “buy what you’re selling”. Yet are they
hearing the gospel and getting a compelling invitation to commit their lives to Jesus?

Maybe they’ve seen the fellowship of believers – and they want community
Few today probably see church as the place to make new friends, particularly given the
common perception of churches today as more judgmental than caring. If they do show up,
how many will be comfortable joining in church activities out of the gate?

What do seekers hear when they get to church?

Yet when seekers show up at church, they too often hear:
• More about how to have a better life than to turn theirs over to Christ
• Weekly invitations to serve yet quarterly invitations to be baptized
• More about classes to become a member than classes to become a disciple
• Many ways to give to the church versus many ways to impact the community

I’ll never forget finally convincing an atheist friend to come to church, only to have the pastor
harp throughout about inviting friends and serving at the church. A seeker darkened the doors
that day – open to hearing answers to deep questions. What he got instead was validation of
his suspicions – that church was about church. Of course, he never came back.

When seekers walk in, do they see Christ or an institution? Do they see a factory producing
output or a warehouse storing inventory? Do they see a healthy, organic entity growing “out”
as it grows “up”, infiltrating and infusing all aspects of society with the love of Jesus?

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Unfortunately, most churches today still subscribe to Invite, Involve, Invest, the “rallying cry of
the internally-focused church”, as their growth model – keeping too many seekers from finding
what they’re looking for.

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Community Engagement is the Best Marketing Plan – Ironically, if the intent is to market
the church (institution) then marketing will bring in “consumers”. Instead, training and
sending disciples attracts those looking for much more than that.
2. People are Attracted to Christians, not Churches – Church is not a what – a place. It’s a
who – us. The church’s power is in the vast number and diverse giftings in the body –
fueled by the Holy Spirit. Rather than cater to members, prepare members to be a light to
those around them.
3. Branding versus Targeted Marketing – Consider your branding strategy, what people think
of when they hear the name of your church, versus your targeted marketing strategy, how
you reach out to those you want to attract. Few churches do either of those appropriately.
4. Advertise Love and Compassion – Messaging on mailers and billboards touting service
format, facilities, children’s ministries, etc. – which only appeals to Christians – entice folks
from other churches. Instead, use messaging of hope and love that brings in new believers.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

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4.

5.

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PART 2: STRATEGIES
MODULE 7: DISCIPLESHIP
TOPIC INSIGHTS

Your church won’t change its heart and mind, “take ground” or work together as effective parts
of the church body unless it does this one thing – DISCIPLE.

How did we end up building “skyscrapers” that gather in but don’t disperse world-changing
Christians? Why have many of our “body” parts atrophied, reducing the Church’s impact in
modern-day society? How could 93% of churches not be growing? Because we didn’t disciple
adequately. Our members don’t love Jesus enough. They don’t pray enough. They aren’t bold
enough in sharing their faith. They don’t look enough like Jesus.

Does “The Member is Not the ‘Customer’” Mean Churches Should Pay Less Attention to
Them?

No, in fact it’s the opposite. Churches should focus more on their members; however, the
orientation of that “internal” focus should shift dramatically.

Members are the conduit through which the Church accomplishes its objective in the world –
the Great Commission. Therefore, ministry inside a church is actually more important than
ministry outside its “4 walls” – because the internal dictates how much impact its members will
have externally. If members ARE the Church, then you train them much like a company trains
its employees. Companies don’t survive if their employees aren’t trained to be effective at
their jobs. Likewise, your members are “insiders” – they are your church’s and Jesus’ workforce,
His hands and feet.

Who a church views as its “customer” will determine how it conducts ministry inside the
church. In other words, rather than catering to members/visitors with programs designed to
attract and retain them, a church who truly sees its members as the church and the community
as its “customer” would spend much more time challenging them with programs designed to
disciple and prepare them to impact the world around them.

Are your members disciples?

If not, how do you get them there?
Once they are disciples how do you deploy them to maximize their usefulness for the Kingdom?

We’ll address the first of those questions right now...

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Discipleship…The Key to Church Growth

If your members aren’t disciples they can’t make disciples. That’s why Jesus spent most of his
time discipling 12 men. Through those first disciples, the Christian faith spread like wildfire.

Those disciples looked like Jesus. They acted like Jesus. Jesus was loving, selfless and
compassionate. He attracted a large following. So did his disciples.

Nothing has changed. Disciples are still the key to growing the Kingdom and your church. Yet,
are most churches in the U.S. building enough disciples? The litmus test is whether Christianity
is growing in America today. The answer is no.

If disciples are the means by which Jesus intends for people to come to Him then the most
critical function of the church should be to make disciples. (By the way, discipleship begins with
leading people TO Christ. Then it transitions to leading them IN Christ.) Churches only have
limited access to people each week, so if they spend any of that time not making disciples,
they’re wasting it. If a new program or strategy is not going to help make disciples, throw it out.

Three questions should drive every church’s strategy and decisions:

• What is the next step for each person to grow in Christ?

• Are people changing, looking and living more like Jesus?
• If not, why and what do we do about it?

What is a Disciple…Really?

Some pastors believe they have a church full of disciples, but do they? What does a disciple
look like?

Different people give different answers. A fully devoted follower of Jesus. A student of
Jesus. A follower of Jesus. A follower who reproduces more followers. Someone who lives like
Jesus. All of these are true to a large extent.

If any or all of those are accurate, then to discover whether our members are disciples, we have
to see how well their lives align with the attributes of Jesus. Are they…

• not able to walk by the needy without helping them?

• broken-hearted for the lost and fully committed to their salvation?
• selfless to the point of stepping far outside their comfort zones for Jesus?
• wholly dependent on the Father, living and giving by faith?
• willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the gospel?

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If you examine the lives of most members and regular churchgoers, would they look a lot like
that? How could their lives and hearts not be radically changed when they truly get who Jesus
is and what He did for us? Yet how much time does the average church member spend
studying the Bible or praying or journaling each day? How many go to church every Sunday and
even pray each morning, then essentially forget about God the rest of the day? How many
folks in your church does that describe?

What a Disciple is Not:

• Simply a believer – They’ve only taken the first step on the path to becoming a disciple
• A Christian , or someone who acts like one – Not necessarily a disciple
• An active church member – Hearing sermons, attending small groups, and serving at the
church doesn’t mean they’re living like Jesus
• A person with great head knowledge – Understanding and heart change are two
different things

Why Aren’t We Making More Disciples?

As we’ve discussed, churches have become more cautious about challenging members. True
discipleship is:

• Hard Work – Much more time consuming than our modern day discipleship methods
(which we’ll discuss next week)
• Costly – Luke 9 points out how much hardship being a disciple of Jesus entails
• Risky – How far from their safe, secure existence will members have to venture to “Go
and make disciples”?

For more information, read our eBook – The 5 Steps to Revitalize Your Church.

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: See how your church approaches discipleship and challenges members in that area.

If you have a 1 on 1 discipling program, what is the length of time/duration people are discipled?

How do you ensure that your small groups are truly discipleship? What is the typical format and
agenda of your small group meetings?

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What is the growth rate (in number and personal growth) of those participating in your small
groups or Bible Studies?

What type/format of discipleship do you offer for children and teens?

In the chart below, in the first column indicate which discipleship options your church offers,
and in the second column the % of your total congregation that participates in each.

Yes or No % Participation
Small groups facilitated by untrained members
Small groups led by trained church staff/leaders
Small groups led by members who’ve gone through 1-on-1 or
triad discipling at the church
Bible studies before or after church
Accountability groups
1-on-1 or triad discipleship of staff/leaders by pastor/leaders
1-on-1 or triad discipleship of members by pastors/staff
1-on-1 or triad discipleship of attenders/visitors by previously
discipled members
1-on-1 or triad discipleship of non-attenders by previously
discipled members

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Not available Small group 1 on 1 Small group 1 on 1 highly
except through format only but discipleship format no longer organized and
small groups; solid only among viewed as key to intensive

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seeing only participation; pastoral staff discipleship or discipleship

limited members role is and a a small organized such required for all
participation in to invite others to number of lay that it involves members and
small groups church, not leaders/deacon intensive Bible frequent
with undiscipled pushed to s/ elders; those study by trained attenders;
leaders running evangelize or discipled leaders; requirement that
them; no 1 on 1 disciple, leaving it leaders widespread 1 on all disciple others
discipling even to “professionals” assigned to run 1 discipleship
among pastoral all small groups
staff

SCORING:
Level 1 – 0 Yes responses in bottom 7 rows of 1st column
Level 2 – 1 Yes responses in bottom 7 rows of 1st column
Level 3 – 2 Yes responses in bottom 7 rows of 1st column
Level 4 – 3 Yes responses in bottom 7 rows of 1st column
Level 5 – 4 or more Yes responses in bottom 7 rows of 1st column

FUTURE STATE VISION

Earlier we discussed how members/attenders are the conduit through which the Church
accomplishes its objective in the world – the Great Commission. We looked at how few of our
members and regular attenders are actually disciples exhibiting the key attributes of Jesus. We
promised to talk more this week about why churches aren’t providing the level of depth
necessary to build congregations full of disciples – and what they should do differently.

How Do We Make Disciples?

If as we’ve assumed members are the Church, then they are “insiders”, much more like
employees of a company than its customers (“outsiders”). When a company hires a new
employee, training is the first priority. Would a company consider a 30 minute presentation
each week to be adequate training? What if it added weekly group discussions with fellow
employees for a few months each year? Would the combination of those two be enough? Of
course not. Companies know that proper training for employees entails 1-on-1 mentorship,
group classes and on-the-job (OJT), in-the-field experience.

However, the issue with most churches in America today is simply that few see members as the
church (i.e. “insiders”). Therefore, they are careful not to challenge them to the point where
they may leave. Since discipleship is hard work, costly and risky, pastors don’t push it on
them. Churches provide “LITE”, easier versions of discipleship instead and nudge them toward
those options.

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As a result, most members and attenders are improperly trained to be effective ambassadors
for Christ and His church. Pastors understand that 1-on-1 and group training classes led by
professionals work best in business, but most consider those too demanding and risky to
employ with members/attenders. OJT is also poor with most churches because they know
members have little time in their busy schedules for living out Jesus’ model for evangelism (i.e.
compassionate service as the door opener to sharing the gospel).
Disciples must be well-trained, but we’re not training members well. The Church today is
feeling the effects – collateral damage from churches full of members/attenders who are
generally under-equipped to fulfill the Great Commission (i.e. to pursue the real “customer”).

The Discipleship Process

• Relationship Building – Engendering trust through personal connections

• Conversion – This is just the starting point – it’s someone else in heaven, but it’s not a
disciple. How many are still walking with the Lord, living changed lives, 3 years after
accepting Christ at a crusade or concert? Very few according to George Barna’s findings.
• Ongoing Discipleship – Intensive training

Small Groups Should Not be a Church’s Primary Discipleship Method

People come to Christ through personal discussions, events or maybe small groups. Small
groups are effective for relationship building as well, beginning the process of living in
community with other Christians. However, as we said, when it comes to discipleship, no
effective organization would rely on occasional group gatherings led by untrained professionals
as the primary means for delivering the intensive training required for “insiders” (and once
people come to faith, they are “insiders”). Successful, healthy organizations know 1-on-1 and
OJT are required.

Yet when pastors are asked about their discipleship strategy, their first response is typically,
“small groups”. It’s no wonder the Church isn’t growing, in number or impact. It’s not
surprising that more members aren’t taking on more of the attributes of Christ. As long as
churches don’t fully buy-in to “members ARE the church” they won’t dare challenge them to
endure training at the same level of a corporate employee.

So Why Do Churches Push Small Groups So Hard?

Given all this, we have to ask – why do churches push small groups so hard? Do pastors really
believe that’s the best method for discipleship, or is there another reason? As we’ve
mentioned, the most common church growth model today is “Invite, Involve, Invest“. In that
model small groups are the predominant method for the “Involve” phase. Small groups do help
bring people somewhat closer to the Lord, but they also build relationships and relationships
are “sticky” – increasing the likelihood they’ll come back next Sunday.

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Each church should examine its own heart – is it promoting small groups more to get people
involved (more loyal to the church) or more for discipleship (more loyal to the Lord)? If it’s the
latter, then that presumes the church is very concerned about discipleship – but a church that’s
discipleship-driven would certainly have additional, deeper methods of discipleship than just
small groups. Our contention is that a church which sees small groups as its primary means for
discipleship can’t be that concerned about discipleship. All churches say that building and
sending disciples is key to their mission, but is that reflected in how they spend their time and
in how willing they are to prod members in that direction? In business, goals and intentions
often don’t line up with a company’s allocation of resources.

The alternative, pushing 1-on-1 discipleship, will scare off many of those who don’t feel like
“insiders”. Leading a series of meetings with another person over a long period takes a lot of
time, studying and effort. And look what Jesus says about the costs of discipleship – possibly
leaving those you love and being homeless. None of this is pretty when you present it as an
“action plan” to the congregation! Yet if pastors know 1-on-1 (or triads) is the best method for
discipleship, then any hesitancy to promote it is further evidence of the tendency to cater
rather than challenge, treating members as a “customer” and not as the church.

Why 1-on-1 (or Triads) Work Best

• The process of becoming a disciple is personal

• The best mentors in our lives were those who interacted with us personally, whether it
was a teacher, a coach or some other role model
• People won’t say in public environments that they would in private/intimate ones
• One of Jesus’ favorite method of discipleship was personal questions, allowing for self-
discovery, not just telling them the answers but letting them find them out for
themselves
• Sermons can only cast vision around what it means to be a disciple and encourage them
to take the next (personal) step

Assuming All That…What Should My Church Do Now?

• Pastor disciples leaders 1-on-1

• Those leaders then disciple a couple people each 1-on-1 or in triads
• Encourage all discipled members to disciple others – OJT
• Sunday School – Consider resuming this dying tradition, making sure it’s taught by
disciples
• Small groups – Facilitated only by discipled leaders
• Immersion Bible Study – One night a week (several hours)
• Greater emphasis on private devotion – The fundamental blocking and tackling of Bible
study, journaling and prayer
• Lay out a discipleship track for members

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This approach will quickly and exponentially grow a base of disciples who can make more
disciples. This is a significant part of the turnaround strategy for today’s church. It was Jesus’
model. However, are we willing to chase members this far out of their comfort zones, knowing
so many will leave our church and go to another one that will cater to them?

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Discipleship is the Key to Growth and Impact – Even though the community is the real
“customer”, ministry inside a church is actually more important than ministry outside the “4
walls” because the internal dictates how much impact its members will have externally.
2. Are Your Members Disciples? – Do you members and frequent attenders look and act like
Jesus? Do they share his primary attributes – constantly seeking the lost, a servant,
compassionate, sacrificial, and wholly dependent on the Father?
3. If Not, How Do You Get Them There? – Since members ARE the church, they’re “insiders”-
more like employees than “customers”. Would a company consider a 30 minute
presentation each week and group discussions with fellow employees to be adequate
training? Of course not. Intensive, effective training is 1-on-1 and on-the-job.
4. The Main Impediment to Discipleship – Discipleship is hard work, risky, costly and messy.
When presented with the truth of what’s involved, most “consumers” will leave for the less
demanding church down the road. Be willing to challenge everyone in spite of that.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

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4.

5.

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PART 2: STRATEGIES
MODULE 8: RETENTION
TOPIC INSIGHTS

Profile of a Church “Shopper”

Because most churchgoers don’t see themselves AS the church, they’re susceptible to
becoming consumers OF the church.

• “I’m looking for a new church home”

• “My kids don’t like it there”
• “The sermons aren’t very interesting”
• “The music is too loud”
• “The people are weird”
• “We don’t feel like we belong”

Americans “shop” because we want more. Or we want something else. We keep looking
around to find what makes us happy. I’m not sure that should apply when it comes to church.
What do shoppers do at a store? They find what they want (or not) and then leave. There are
two types of “leaving” church shoppers do:

…Leave a church after weekend worship

• and don’t continue to BE the church once they’re outside the “4 walls”
…Leave a church entirely
• and start looking for another one

But we shouldn’t stop being the church on the way home. Nor should we leave our church
family – any more than we can leave the family we’re born into. God chose both families for us
– and for a reason. Our church family is one body now – the body of Christ.

Chicken or the Egg

Why do we look for something better?

…Did our advertising-driven culture turn us into consumers of churches too?

• and force churches to adapt, catering to rather than challenging members
…Did churches turn us into church consumers?
• using the latest church growth strategies to drive up attendance

In other words, did churchgoers become finicky on their own or did churches make them that
way? For example, do most church ads today entice non-Christians to try out any church or

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Christians to switch over to a new church? Advertising a “casual environment” or “fun for kids”
isn’t going to attract someone who isn’t interested in church. People can find more relaxing
places to go and more fun things for the kids to do elsewhere. Those kinds of ads would only
pull in someone who isn’t happy with those aspects of their current church.

If we’re not careful, church membership can look a little like a country club or health club
membership. At church, paying dues doesn’t entitle you to any benefits. Yet that sort of
thinking causes folks to ”shop” churches when their current one doesn’t meet their needs.

Or as the story goes, let’s not be the life-saving station that turned into a social club with a life-
saving motif. Once church becomes too comfortable, we may have a little less interest in saving
lives. Once the life-saving station replaces the cots with beds and rescue training with social
gatherings, that ship may have already sailed.

Instead, church should feel a lot more like a training center. That means getting people out of
their comfort zones and discipling them until they’re ready to disciple others.

It’s All about Reaching the Lost

We do need first-rate facilities, engaging worship services, attractive signage and friendly
greeters to attract the lost. What we don’t need is to use those as tightly choreographed
retention strategies for members and regular attenders. We could possibly risk not leaving
room for the Holy Spirit in our pursuit of perfection.

Clearly we can challenge members/attenders more than our non-Christian visitors. However, if
we coddled them less, they’d actually be more likely to come back next Sunday. They’re hungry
for truth and personal growth. They’re looking for redemption more than life lessons. Most
walk in ready for 1-on-1 mentorship, which could evolve into discipleship.

A True Story

A 3,000 member church hired consultants from one of the country’s largest mega-churches to
rejuvenate its aging membership. The prescription:

• shut down local missions – young families don’t have time to serve the community
• upgrade the band and raise the decibel level – give it a concert feel
• gear the sermons toward counseling rather than discipleship
• more candy and games for the kids – no more boring memory verses
• get everyone involved in something inside the church
• change the “ask” message from Matthew 5:16 to Malachi 3:10
• fun banners and bulletins

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The scary part – it worked! Smaller churches in the area simply couldn’t provide the same
“customer” experience. The church grew – in numbers, although not in disciples or
impact. New visitors came, but nearly all were from other churches. Larger didn’t mean
healthier.

We’re Not Just Talking about “Seeker” Churches

Many Christians believe “seeker” churches are the problem. Some accuse “seeker” churches of
“watering down” the gospel and never bringing new believers very far past a faith decision. Yet
“seekers” are still “customers”, not yet saved and therefore worth pursing by any means
necessary, “seeker” churches have a role in the Kingdom.

However, to illustrate where “seeker” churches do become an issue, let’s use the analogy of the
American educational system:

• Elementary School – Builds a foundation, comparable to the “milk” spoken of by Paul in

Hebrews 5:13.
• High School – Taking believers a bit deeper, maturing in understanding – beginning to
eat “solid foods” according to Paul. The majority of churches today fall in this category,
offering only discipleship “lite” in the form of small groups.
• College – These churches provide more in-depth Bible studies and challenge
congregation members with a steady stream of opportunities for on-the-job training in
the community and around the world.
• Grad School – Members and frequent attenders of “grad school” churches are all
expected to earn advanced degrees as disciples of Jesus Christ through 1-on-1 and triad
discipleship and to live out the Great Commission daily.

Which one of these is your church?

“Seeker” churches rarely take members past high school, and many stop at elementary
school. And that’s ok as long as they encourage them to move up to a high school or college
when they’re ready to graduate…

Graduation Day?

That question applies to all churches. I’ve never come across a church that confesses they
don’t provide all 4 levels of education and refers members/attenders to another church once
they’ve exhausted all the depth their church can supply.

Instead every church tries to hang on to every person. That’s a disservice to the Christian and
the Kingdom. As we’ve mentioned previously in this workbook, if clinging to members in any
way inhibits pastors from coming clean with them about the costs of discipleship or challenging
them boldly with the Great Commission, then that constitutes sin. Calling members to be all

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they should be in Christ does involve the risk that they’ll leave for a less demanding church, but
it’s the right thing to do.

Few churches offer all 4 levels today. I believe the early Church did provide all 4 – it had the
“milk”, the “solid food”, the on-the-job community engagement and the Great Commission
mandate. However, it seems now churches select one or two of those to do well, whichever
one(s) match up best with their mission, who they’re trying to reach and the community where
they’re planted.

Why do pastors have such a difficult time admitting that? Why do few have the humility to
send people on their way if they don’t do it all? A church who simply doesn’t have enough
senior, discipled, mature leaders to start a grad school program either should commit to fix that
problem, or congratulate and bid farewell to those ready for a “masters” or “doctorate” level
church. Some may argue that those senior, mature leaders should stick around to disciple
others, but their skills are likely underutilized by elementary and high school level churches
where serious discipleship isn’t a priority.

Repeating a Grade

What are the pitfalls of clinging to those who are ready to graduate from your church? Why
should more elementary and high school churches develop college and graduate programs?:

1. The high costs involved in programs, facilities, staff and amenities to cater to “seekers”
and immature believers, diverts valuable resources away from potential investments in
starting college level and graduate programs.
2. Many actual elementary schools and high schools today have to teach “down” to the
level of the lower students to try to bring them along. Unfortunately, the effort to leave
no one behind means schools can’t teach up to the higher level students (so the most
intelligent and ambitious wind up “left behind” instead). In college and grad school,
there’s none of that. But few churches in the U.S. provide college or grad school level
educations in Bible literacy or the Great Commission lifestyle, instead stopping at the
“elementary teachings”. (Hebrews 6:1)
3. Elementary and high school don’t directly lead into careers. They just build a basis for
learning. In this analogy, the occupation of the churchgoer is the Great
Commission. People who have only gone through elementary and high school aren’t yet
ready to “work”. They aren’t disciples yet so how can they “make disciples”? They
haven’t been adequately challenged and therefore aren’t highly motivated to “go” (out
of their comfort zones). However, those going through college and grad school are
preparing for their career, so they’re ready to step immediately into “going” (motivated
for real life change) and “making disciples” (knowledge of how to do so).

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CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Discuss ways in which your church encourages people to stay at your church.

In what ways do you try to make the church services and overall experience convenient for
visitors?

If you measure retention or turnover in attendance/membership, how do you track that and use
that information?

Invitations by members/attenders are sticky because friends want to spend time with one
another. How do you encourage your folks to invite others to your church?

How do you involve and engage attenders and visitors quickly in church activities?

Do you find that getting people to give to the church is a good indicator of their likelihood to
continuing coming? If so, how and when do you encourage them to begin giving?

What else have you found effective in convincing attendees or visitors to return next Sunday?

Where is the point where challenging people to do or give more causes them to become
uncomfortable and not come back? Have you had to pull back on “challenges” in the past?

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How far have you taken challenging members to go out of their way to be discipled, disciple, and
serve inside and outside the church? Give a couple examples or anecdotes.

In the chart below, rank (1-12) the importance the following have in encouraging visitors and
occasional attenders to come back next Sunday.

Rank 1-12
Convenient service times and comfortable accommodations
Caring staff and friendly greeters
Engaging church services, music and sermons
Children’s/youth/student ministry
Other programs and assistance offered to churchgoers
Approach that’s not pushy, judgemental or demanding
Invitation/existing relationships with other member/attendee
Involvement in activities/events (e.g. a small group)
Investment through giving to the church
Engagement through service inside and outside church
Opportunities for growth through discipleship
Church is making a difference in the community

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Very careful not Concerned about Walking fine Staff fully bought Pastors
to inconvenience “revolving door” line between in (i.e. retention courageous in
congregation and taking steps catering and no longer an challenging church
(e.g. 1 hour to make church challenging, objective of to go out of their
service and only more attractive pushing more leaders) but some way to be
light pushes for and engaging for but not too members/attend discipled, disciple,
more members and hard for fear of ers, still leaving as and serve others;
engagement); visitors; tracking losing people to leaders step up members fully on
retention is a attendance churches down call to board, staying and
key metric for the road who discipleship/servi responding
the church still cater ce

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SCORING:
Level 1 – Total of last 3 rows in the chart above is more than 30
Level 2 – Total of last 3 rows in the chart above is between 25 and 29
Level 3 – Total of last 3 rows in the chart above is between 20 and 24
Level 4 – Total of last 3 rows in the chart above is between 15 and 19
Level 5 – Total of last 3 rows in the chart above is less than 15

FUTURE STATE VISION

What if a company told its customers, “If you want to buy our products or use our services,
you’ll need to spend several hours a week…

• studying our corporate manual

• sharing that information with your contacts, and
• helping them get started using our products and services”

Sounds insane, right? Those are customers we’re talking about – the company is supposed to
serve them, not the other way around. How long would that company stay in business?

On the other hand, companies have no reservations challenging employees. Employees take
orders. Managers expect them to perform. Employees are accountable, mostly for helping find
new customers and keeping customers happy.

Are your members and regular attenders more like customers or employees? Our primary
argument for the root cause for the Church’s decline is that members ARE your church – if so,
they are “insiders”. They are much more like employees than “customers”. Yet we treat them
like “outsiders”. Possibly the most convincing evidence that the modern American church no
longer sees members as the Church but treats them as “customers” is our fear of challenging
them.

Challenge…to Do What?

Look back at how we started this section. Let’s rephrase and insert “church” for “company”…
What if a church told its members, “If you want to be a part of this church, you’ll need to spend
several hours a week…

• being discipled
• discipling others, and
• showing those around you what it’s like to live a life on fire for Christ”

Doesn’t sound quite as crazy, does it? Actually, sounds downright reasonable. You could even
argue that churches have a biblical mandate to challenge members to live out those 3

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requirements of all Christians – it’s the Great Commission. Imagine the impact on the world
around us if churches had that kind of courage!

So why don’t they? The simple answer – because most churches have redefined the role of
members. We’re afraid that if we ask “customers” to be and do what God wants them to be
and do we may lose them to the church down the road – the one that will cater to them and
not push them to do much of anything.

Fear Factor

Churches won’t take the risk of challenging until they decide to once again view members as
the church. The church won’t regain the voice it had in society until it once again views the
community as its customer. As long as we have the model flipped, we won’t dare challenge
members to the extent that we should for fear they’ll take their “business” elsewhere.

But at what point is it worth taking a chance? 93% of our churches aren’t growing. Churches
and Christians are widely seen as more judgmental than compassionate. How bad does it have
to get before we risk truly challenging members to keep on being the church after they leave
the building? When does the fear of not fulfilling God’s vision for our church overcome our fear
of losing members?

Unfortunately, many members also are content with the status quo. They wouldn’t want to see
their church get too big. If the church is a nice place to hang out and isn’t rocking my boat, why
would I want it to change? Who “moved my cheese”? Why would I want revitalization if it’s
going to mean:

• Less focus on meeting my needs

• Not having the same seat or parking spot
• Perceived loss of influence and standing in the church
• A shakeup in worship or leadership styles
• New people I don’t know and may not like

We saw the same thing in business – employees were wary of consultants like me roaming the
hallways. Consultants mean change!

We Started by Taking Risks – What Happened?

As long as there’s a church down the street catering to members, the fear of challenging them
will still exist. So who is going to get the ball rolling? Who will start holding members
accountable to a higher standard – to fulfill their intended role as the living, breathing
church? The most successful companies are those that do the best job of training and
incentivizing their employees (“insiders”) to sell to customers (“outsiders”). Think of the

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leverage that will be created for the Kingdom when we train and push all these “insiders”
(members) to minister to “outsiders” (the community).

Think back to when your church first planted in the community. You:

• Studied what was going on and worked hard to reach people

• Got involved locally to put your church on the map
• Focused on serving that community vs. building an institution
• Stood by your principles and weren’t afraid if someone left as a result
• Had a lot less to lose because you were just getting started
• Needed people to be advocates and play a big role or you’d never make it

Then suddenly one day, there was more at stake…more bills…a reputation and expectations to
maintain. The demands of operating a church became more significant.

That’s around the time that leadership’s demands on members and regular attenders started
diminishing. That’s when the temptation increased to offer “cheaper grace” – no obligations,
just options – belief without material life change. That’s when the focus shifted internally –
toward running something, toward attracting and retaining – in other words, treating members
as “customers”.

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Retention as a Goal is Wrong – If hoping members or regular attenders will come back next
weekend causes you to soft-pedal the gospel or the costs of discipleship that’s a disservice
to them and the Kingdom.
2. Be Willing to Lose a Few – The future trajectory of a church that decides it’s time to
reorient toward the model behind the fastest growth in the Church’s history and the most
successful companies is not a straight upward-sloping line. Those remaining after you
challenge the congregation with the Great Commission can grow your church exponentially.
3. Retain Through Impact – Few will want to leave a church that’s making a tremendous
difference in the lives of people and in their city. Instead though, most churches
misallocate resources and funds by trying to retain and grow through attraction and
“customer service”.
4. Let Some “Graduate” – If your church can’t offer all of the teaching and discipleship a
person needs to become all they can be in their faith and walk with the Lord, encourage
them to go elsewhere.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

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PART 2: STRATEGIES
MODULE 9: PROGRAMS/MINISTRIES
TOPIC INSIGHTS

How an organization deals with people and where it invests the bulk of its time, resources and
dollars determine who it considers to be its “customers”.

Churches today invest the vast majority of their time, resources and dollars in marketing,
facilities, programs and services to attract and retain members/attenders. Churches are also
careful not to push them to hard to step too far out of their comfort zones, even if it would
mean they finally begin living out the Great Commission.

Therefore, churches tend to treat members/attenders as if they were “customers”.

Organizations invest and serve their customers, making sure they’re happy so they don’t take
their business elsewhere.

Is the Term “Customer” Relevant for the Church?

The word “customer” should have no relevance to the church. But most churches today have
made the term relevant by how they approach members, attenders and people outside the
church.

Let’s compare how companies interact with their customers versus how churches today
typically treat members/attenders. Companies treat everyone (except employees) as a current
or prospective customer:

• Marketing at “arms length” through advertising and word of mouth

• Innovating to keep up with evolving customer needs
• Enhancing and expanding programs, products and services to better meet market
demand
• Providing excellent programs and services to keep customers happy
• Taking whatever other steps are necessary to increase customer loyalty

Are most modern American churches much different? Read the list again. How do churches
market today? Are we innovating more now to provide attractive programs and services? Are
we more bent on retaining people, hoping not to lose them to the church down the
road? There are stark similarities in how companies and churches in America attract and retain
people; and stark contrasts with how churches “marketed” and “innovated” during the
first 1900 years.

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1. Time – Nearly 100% of pastor and staff hours are invested in member/attender-related
activities. Staff assignments cover youth, singles, small groups, music, technology, etc. A
pastor’s week is consumed with message development, touching base with members,
staff meetings, visitations – not to mention funerals, weddings and the occasional crisis.
2. Resources – Programs, ministries and church assets (buildings, equipment) are almost
exclusively dedicated to serving members/attenders. That may seem obvious and
appropriate – but that was not the case for the Church’s first 1900 years when churches
were the center of town and served as the local food bank, shelter, etc.
3. Dollars – Likewise, it’s estimated that 97.5% of the average church’s budget today goes
back to the benefit of those who gave those dollars.

Of course, how churches approach members and attenders also determines whether they feel
and act like “customers”. Evidence abounds that members/attenders are more inclined today
to “shop” churches, expect to be “fed”, and complain or go elsewhere when their expectations
aren’t met.

You Can’t Have It Both Ways

Yet if as we’ve already established (and few pastors would argue) members/attenders ARE the
Church, then they can’t also be the churches customer!

Those two are mutually exclusive. They are one or the other, not both.

The disconnect is that few churches today live out their stated belief that members ARE the
church. Churches inadvertently define the church as the pastors, staff and buildings and treat
members/attenders as “customers” when they invest the vast majority of their time, energy
and money in attracting and retaining them – using similar methods and means as businesses.

As a result, nearly all churches have it backwards:

Accountability and expectations OF members are way too low

Programs and amenities FOR members are way too high

Instead of: We:

Challenging them Cater to them

Leveraging them (as the hands and feet of Christ) Are careful not to inconvenience them

Training/discipling them Make discipling optional

Sending them out into ministry Focus them on serving internally

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Designing programs around maximizing Design programs around maximizing

community impact member satisfaction

Holding them accountable (for impacting the world Require little or no accountability
around them)

It’s no wonder that American churchgoers feel like consumers today – “shopping” churches to
see who best meets their expectations – and not as the living, breathing Church called and
equipped to light the world on fire for Christ.

Quite simply…the Church has Defined the Wrong “Customer”

It stands to reason that the Church in America today is not “succeeding” – it has defined the
wrong “customer”! Members ARE the Church, not the “customer”.

A key lesson I learned in over a decade consulting Fortune 1000 companies is that any
organization not focused on its customers or investing too heavily in the wrong customers will
not succeed.

We believe that Jesus, his disciples and the early church clearly viewed the lost in the
community as their target “customer”. Members were the church personified, more like
internal employees than customers (who are always external to an organization). Therefore,
programs and ministries in the early church and for the better part of the next 1900 years were
geared toward preparing those “insiders” to be effective in pursuing and serving the real
“customer”. Programs that weren’t effectively equipping and training church members to live
out the Great Commission and reach the lost in Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth were
tossed out.

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Review the types of programs and ministries you offer to attenders/non-attenders

How do you define the word “ministry”? In your mind, has the definition of that word changed
in church circles over the past few decades?

How many programs/ministries do you offer to members? Give some examples and describe
what issue(s) you’re trying to address through each of them?

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How many programs/ministries do you offer that are externally focused? Give some examples
and describe what issue(s) you’re trying to address through each of them?

For programs/ministries you offer to the public (non-attenders), how are you building awareness
of them in the community? Are you confident that they are fairly visible outside the “4 walls”?

Which of those programs/ministries are ongoing (year round) or seasonal (annual)?

Rank the following 12 programs/ministries, if offered at your church that have been most
responsible for your growth to date:

Rank 1-12
Youth/Student
Children’s/Nursery
Women’s
Men’s
Singles
Senior Adult
Benevolence/Member Assistance
Outreach
Evangelism
Community-oriented (e.g. Celebrate Recovery, VBS, Sports)
Local and International Miissions
Discipleship (e.g. Small Group, 1-on-1 or Sunday School)

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Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Offers no Has 1-2 seasonal Defines the Designed and Structured and
ministries or ministries word “ministry” implemented 5- actively marketing
programs for available to the to mean 10 externally 10 or more year-
those who do public but invests ministering to focused round ministries
not go to the very little in the programs/ministr specifically
church; the word building unchurched; ies (some addressing issues
“ministry” is awareness of identified key ongoing and in the community
defined to mean them in the local issues to some annual)
internal only community address

SCORING:
Level 1 – Total of last 4 rows in the chart above is more than 40
Level 2 – Total of last 4 rows in the chart above is between 35 and 39
Level 3 – Total of last 4 rows in the chart above is between 30 and 34
Level 4 – Total of last 4 rows in the chart above is between 25 and 29
Level 5 – Total of last 4 rows in the chart above is less than 25

FUTURE STATE VISION

Set members up for success in living up to their new standing as key parts of the church “body”,
charged with exceeding expectations of the real “customer”, not their own. Empower
members to BE the church by developing and investing only in programs and ministries that
advance 4 key objectives:

• Preparing for ministry

• Equipping for ministry
• Connecting to ministry opportunities
• Deploying into ministry

These programs and ministries should all be geared around tapping into and releasing the
latent leverage lying dormant in the pews, likely disrupting the comfort and complacency of lay
leaders and members.

Redefining the church’s “customer” will require a radical shift in the mindsets of everyone
about their intended roles in the church and the importance of winning over the community for
Christ. Programs and ministries not intended to please them but to equip them to be a brighter
light to those around them.

To ease the transition, you’ll need:

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• A phased roll-out approach for the changes in the orientation of programs and
ministries
• Buy-in of all leadership to ensure commitment to change
• Prayer and courage to continue down this new path despite certain resistance
• Understanding of the implications of adopting this new definition of your “customer” on
your church’s strategic plan, organizational structure, budgets, activities and
responsibilities. All of those are necessary to make members effective in carrying out
their “jobs” as the church personified.
• A communication strategy around these changes.
• To rally members around common cause(s). Identify pressing social issue(s) to redirect
attention away from internal focus (i.e. building the institution) and uniting the entire
church around the goal of alleviating the issue(s). The health and vitality of any
organization depends on focusing on something outside of itself.
• Tools to empower and equip leaders to run their ministries make members aware of
vast array of opportunities to make a difference in the community and engage members
year-round
• Strong discipleship program - otherwise churchgoers will likely lack the courage and
commitment to actively share their faith – only 2% today do so by some estimates

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Serve the Community – Evaluate how many of your church’s programs are geared toward
attracting and engaging members. Compare that to how many are truly preparing them to
pursue the true “customer” (the community where the church is planted) and how many
programs directly serve those “customers”.
2. Empower Leaders – To motivate members to become the “hands and feet” of Christ in the
community, make them responsible for running and promoting your church’s externally-
facing programs. Pastors and staff alone can’t manage the number of community-oriented
programs your church should have. Consider how you’re using EACH of your internal
ministries to equip and mobilize ALL to live out the Great Commission.
3. Measure Success – To see what ministries and programs are effective in reaching the lost,
first develop goals for each one. Then determine whether they’re accomplishing those
objectives and hold leaders accountable. Little gets done without setting and tracking
goals.
4. Publicize – Invest in building awareness of your community programs and ministries. How
visible are they? Make sure they’re promoted and run year-round to avoid the appearance
that your love and compassion are transactional rather than truly relational.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

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PART 2: STRATEGIES
MODULE 10: LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS
TOPIC INSIGHTS

Members/attenders can’t be both the CHURCH and the CUSTOMER. They are one or the
other. Customers are always outside of, not internal to, an organization. Members ARE the
church so they are “insiders”, not “outsiders”. However, a church that treats
members/attenders as those they need to attract and retain views them as “outsiders”.
When an organization invests the vast majority of its time, energy and money into “insiders”,
and thereby largely ignores “outsiders” (its real “customers”), it is by definition internally
focused.

Because the Church in America today generally treats “insiders” (members, who ARE the
church) as the “customer”, the Church is by definition internally focused.
Internally focused organizations of any kind rarely succeed.

When the Church redefined its “customer”, it ensured its demise. It violated the most critical
mistake any organization can make – not focusing on “customers” (i.e. “outsiders”) or investing
too heavily in the wrong “customers”.

Why Internally Focused Organizations Nearly Always Fail

Organizations that retrench into their own confines atrophy until they decide to reconnect with
the outside world. A club closes its doors to new members, enjoying the comforts of exclusivity,
while its members age. A business restructures into functional silos and the accompanying
politics and posturing ensue, causing it to lose sight of evolving customer needs. A charity gets
short on funds, diverting more dollars to fundraising and cost cutting, and begins to
compromise its original mission. A church wants to grow and tries new ideas to attract and
retain members/attenders, believing the best route is to invest in more exciting church services
and children’s ministries rather than engaging and serving the community where it planted.
All of those scenarios involve an inordinate degree of focus on “insiders”. None of them lead to
long term success because they redirect attention away from “customers” (i.e. “outsiders”).

The Temptation to Become Internally Focused is Powerful

Entrepreneurial Life Cycle

• A company begins with a solid understanding of customer needs
• Founder sees an opportunity to provide better products and services
• Those ideals take the company to the top
• But it struggles to manage growth
• Spurring process improvement and restructurings, turning the focus inward

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• Becomes more out of touch with customer needs and competitors step in
• Must refocus outside at some point or go bankrupt

Church Life Cycle

• A church plants intentionally in an area to reach that community
• Evaluates the needs of the community and ways to serve
• Starts to grow because of efforts to engage and reach out
• Gets caught up in how to run and grow the church
• Interactions with “outsiders” become more arms-length (e.g. mailers)
• Loses sight of the needs and issues in the community
• Must refocus outside at some point or growth and impact diminishes

The “Rallying Cry” of the Internally Focused Church

The most common church growth model in America is Invite-Involve-Invest. It’s been a key
catalyst in the shift toward the “member is the customer” mentality:

1. INVITE – Encourage direct referrals. Get members and attenders to invite their friends
because invited people “stick”. Friends want to spend time with friends.
2. INVOLVE – Engage people in deep relationships within the church or entrenched in
serving at the church.
3. INVEST – Where their money goes, their hearts will go also.

Nearly every aspect of the Invite-Involve-Invest model perpetuates an internally focused

church. For example, Invite relegates members to “customer” status, asking them to extend
invitations and leave conversions to the “professionals” rather than entrusting members with
the responsibility to BE the Church.

Paying the Price for Internal Focus

Numerous studies show that society clearly sees the Church as internally focused. The
consensus view is that churches tend to “take care of their own”. They frequently hear the
Church speak out on moral issues, but rarely see it engaging with those outside the “4
walls”. With more talk and less action, no wonder most now view Christians and churches as
more judgmental than caring, condemning than compassionate.

When the Church redefined its “customer” and turned to a member-centric, internally-focused
model, it:

1. Broke a Sacred Trust – Made society (“outsiders”) think the Church stopped caring
2. Ignored a Time-Tested Adage – “People don’t care what you know unless they know
that you care”

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As a result, the number of church goers is on the decline in America. The Church is on the
losing end of the key social and moral issues of our day. Clearly, the Church’s impact, influence
and perception today are diminishing. Internal focus never works.

The True, Intended “Customer” of the Church

So since members ARE the church, not the “customer” of the church, who is “customer” that all
hands should be on deck pursuing and serving. Where should churches be investing the
majority of their time, energy and money? Answering that question correctly is the key to the
Church’s future. The church is in decline today because it incorrectly redefined its “customer”.
To find the right answer, we’ll look to the Bible and the early church.

First, it’s important to note that customers are always outside of an organization, whereas
members (as the Church) are clearly insiders. Because churches have turned their focus to
serving and retaining “insiders”, the real “customers” (“outsiders”) have been ignored. Imagine
a company that never spent any time reaching out personally to its target prospects. Imagine if
you were a customer of a company that never answered your calls or emails when you had a
problem. Would you want to continue “buying” what they’re “selling”? Of course not. You
typically become aware of a company because they market to you. You become interested
because they reach out to you. You stick around because they show they care about you.

What Did Jesus and His Disciples Model?

Jesus, the Lord incarnate, spoke the perfect words. Yet He knew the words were not
enough. So Jesus almost always served, healed and fed, demonstrating His compassion and
love, before telling people who He was. He spent time in the temple, but the bulk of his
preaching was done out in the community. He engaged “outsiders” who didn’t know much
about Him. He reached out constantly to those in need – not just in word, but in deed. He met
them exactly where they were. He didn’t wait for them to darken the doors of a church
building. He went to them. He didn’t just preach. He served.

Likewise, Jesus sent the disciples out into the world around them, giving them the power to
perform miracles and instructing them to follow His lead, preceding words with action. When
Paul was called to go to the gentiles, the one thing the disciples told him not to forget was to
serve the poor. Paul said it was the one thing he was most eager to do (Galations 2:8-10).
Clearly, Jesus and His disciples invested the majority of their time and energy
in “outsiders”. They considered the community to be the “customer”.

However, few churches today follow Jesus’ model. No pastor can “outpreach” Jesus, yet most
churches have separated words from action. They’ve replaced community service and
evangelism with attracting and retaining members.

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Who Was the “Customer” of the Church until the Last Century?

The early Church replicated Jesus’ model and as a result exploded in growth. It demonstrated
God’s love and compassion so remarkably that people took notice. Society saw a group of folks
with so much love for one another that it spilled out into the streets.

For centuries the Church continued to serve first and then tell people who Jesus is. Churches
were the food bank and homeless shelter. Churches started the hospitals and schools. The
local church was the center of town – integral and integrated. The Church allocated a much
larger percentage of its time, resources and dollars to serving the community than it does today.
The early Church never outsourced community service, as it does now. Churches refer non-
members who need help to a government agency or a local ministry (many of which the Church
started but then severed ties). Historically, you didn’t have to belong to a church to get help –
you could go to ANY church to get help.

Whether the Church abdicated its role on the front lines of compassion or whether the
government and charities usurped that role isn’t important…

What matters is that the community was intended to be the Church’s “customer” and yet the
community is largely ignored by the Church today. Of course society feels disenfranchised and
neglected. It’s no wonder the unchurched view churches as uncaring. We turn away families
in need and most only do occasional service events. Yet surveys show that people still expect
the Church to be a first responder, to play a lead role in compassion. You know what happens
when expectations aren’t met!

Where Did We Go Wrong?

Jesus, His disciples and the early Church saw a church’s “customer” as the community where it
was planted. Yet nearly all churches in America instead treat members as the “customer”,
placating and paying attention to those who darken their doors. In an attempt to appeal to a
consumer-driven culture, churches began roughly 100 years ago:

Building Churches vs. Building Disciples

Measuring Growth vs. Measuring Impact

Lowering Expectations (of Members) vs. Holding Them Accountable (to BE the Church)

Catering to vs. Challenging Members

Transactional vs. Relational Community Engagement

Advertising vs. Service-Based Outreach

By the way, advertising does not mean we’re treating the community as a
“customer”. Advertising is not “outreach”, although many churches now consider those words
synonymous. Mailers and billboards tout our preaching, service formats, and children’s
ministries – which only appeals to Christians – attracting them from other churches. Arms-

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length attraction is not what Jesus or the early church modeled. They would define “outreach”
as interacting in love and service, opening the door to sharing the gospel.

Ignore the “customer” or serve the wrong “customer” and you’re doomed to struggle. Here
organizational behavior and business principles align perfectly with Biblical mandates.

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Determine the degree and nature of the church’s commitment to Jesus’ model for
serving before/while sharing the gospel

How do you define the word “outreach”? In your mind, has the definition of that word changed
in church circles over the past few decades?

Do you intentionally structure certain community events to be purely service rather than
marketing (your church)? Please give a couple examples.

How do you avoid the perception in the community or among members that events are not an
effort to “check the box” but a sincere, ongoing concern for people in the community?

Do you follow up with organizations and individuals who were touched during service events to
build ongoing relationships? How do you segue events into ongoing engagement?

Do your local and international missions efforts generally tend to be “relational” versus
“transactional”? How do you structure your missions activities to make sure that is the case?

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Do you consider care and love for the lost and the community to be baked into the fabric of the
culture? Is there a sufficient amount of focus/activity on local missions in the church?

Are you satisfied with the degree of involvement by members in international and local
missions? Do you have plans to try to increase the level and frequency of engagement?

Complete the chart below (refer to the legend under the table), then using the scoring to plot
your church’s spot on the Proficiency Model.

Ongoing % % Em- % Part-

or #/Year Dollars phasis icipation
International mission trips
Mission families serving in the field
Community service events (not marketing)
Multi-church events
Planting local ministries
Funding local ministries
Internal teams assigned to local ministries
Members assisting on a partnership your
church has with a local school
Volunteers working year-round with local
charities with whom your church partners
Ministries located on your church’s
campus
Benevolence for your members or local
families
Drives (e.g. food, clothes, backpacks) for
local families

Key: Ongoing or #/Year = Enter “Ongoing” for year-round activity; if not, enter #/year
% Dollars = % spent on items in that column should equal 100% of annual budget
% Emphasis = Level of focus on each item in that column should total 100%
% Participation = Average % of members engaged in each activity

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Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

No budget, only Frequent activity Defines the 10%-30% of Level 4 but where
2-3 service but limited word budget care and love for
events per year, participation and “outreach” to committed; the lost and
typically around transactional; mean reaching relational year- hopeless in the
the holidays, coming more out to the round with follow community baked
where church’s from desire to unchurched; 5- up; tracking into the fabric of
name is “check the box” 10% of budget activity and the church’s
referenced to than a sincere and rate of impact; multiple culture; 30%+
act as marketing concern for participation in local ministry budget and
people in the internally-run partners; 1-2 on- participation rate
community and external campus ministries
ministries

SCORING:
Level 1 – Total % in column 2 is 0
Level 2 – Total % in column 2 is between 1 and 4
Level 3 – Total % in column 2 between 5 and 9
Level 4 – Total % in column 2 is between 10 and 30
Level 5 – Total % in column 2 is more than 30

FUTURE STATE VISION

Read the following two short eBooks:

1) The 5 Steps to Revitalize Your Church

2) Transform Your Community Forever in 6 Months

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Who You Are, Not What You Do – Bake care and love for the lost and the community into
the fabric of your church’s culture. If it’s not on the hearts and minds of pastors and lay
leaders, then it won’t be near and dear for your congregation either.
2. It’s all About Them – Motives for community events must be pure - not about marketing.
The definition of the word “outreach” in America today has come to mean advertising your
church (to anyone) rather than engaging and serving (the lost in the community).
3. Don’t “Check the Box – Occasional service events can actually damage the perception
others have of your church. People won’t believe your church genuinely cares unless you
follow up with organizations and individuals touched during events to form ongoing
relationships.

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4. See What’s Working – Monitor and track the success of your local missions efforts in terms
of outcomes versus outputs. Are enough members involved? How many lives are being
touched? Is the gospel being shared? Are initiatives being run efficiently?
5. Start Using Meet The Need – Free solutions to equip churches to mobilize their members to
serve their communities much more effectively and efficiently

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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PART 3: FRUIT/RESULTS
MODULE 11: MEMBER ENGAGEMENT/SERVICE
TOPIC INSIGHTS

Jesus, His disciples, and the church throughout history viewed the community as its target
audience – its “customer”. The church is the living, breathing body of Christ. The members
make up that body. Each of us is an important body part. If each of those members hadn’t
fulfilled their roles as the body, commissioned by Jesus – to GO and make disciples – would the
church have seen such explosive growth during its first 1900 years? What if the early church
members had stayed among themselves – not venturing out into Jerusalem, Judea and
Samaria? Would Christianity have spread as quickly if the early church hadn’t followed Jesus’
model of demonstrating His love and compassion before telling them who He was?
How many fewer would be in heaven today if those members had seen church as a place to
fellowship with other believers and to worship on Sunday mornings? Yet my fear is that’s how
most members and attenders view church today.

Church is not a what – a place. It’s a who – us. The church’s power is in the vast number and
diverse giftings in the body – fueled by the Holy Spirit. For centuries those countless parts of
the body of Christ – each recognizing their individual roles in expanding the Kingdom – created
an unstoppable, irresistible movement.

So why isn’t Christianity still growing in America today? The explanation we’ve put forward is
that most members/attenders no longer see:

• themselves as a critical body part

• how they weaken the overall body if they don’t carry out their intended functions
• the need to carefully evaluate their giftings and apply them adequately to ministry
inside and outside of the church
• the Great Commission as an obligation, but as an option
• the same sense of urgency around their role in bringing the lost to Christ
• their position in the church as important as the pastor’s
• church or themselves as servants to the community, as Jesus did
•
3 Steps to Revitalize Your Church

In this workbook we discuss the first two steps:

Step #1: A change of heart and mind

Confess we’ve largely ignored the community – our intended “customer” – and been too
careful and cautious with members/attenders, concerned that they may not come back

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Step #2: Take ground

Occupy a larger footprint by empowering members to BE the church to those around them,
putting less emphasis on keeping them in and more on equipping and sending them out

In this chapter we take a closer look at…

Step #3: The entire church working together to pursue the real “customer”

All Hands on Deck

In my years in management consulting, we saw countless examples of departments not working

in a company’s best interests:

• Sales – not aggressive in converting new customers

• Marketing – targeting the wrong (i.e. unprofitable) customers
• Operations – processes designed around needs of internal departments
• R&D – product innovation not keeping up with evolving customer needs
• Finance – not investing adequately in the optimal customers or products

No company can succeed unless all the departments are adequately staffed, aligned around the
interests of the target customers and perform their distinct functions well. What the Bible says
about the church is no different. The entire church – pastors, staff, members, elders, deacons,
facilities, etc. – should work together seamlessly to prepare and equip themselves to reach the
lost. In this analogy, members are essentially employees, insiders being trained and sent to
bring help and hope to a community (outsiders) desperately in need of both.

How should each part of the church body be utilized in this “members are the church, not the
customer” framework?

• Members/Regular Attenders – Like Sales, evangelize and serve the church’s true target
“customers”, not simply by inviting them to Sunday morning services but by living out
the Great Commission
• Deacons/Elders – Like Marketing, lead everyone in the church into a deeper relationship
with Christ so they can have a greater impact in the community
• Staff/Administration – Like Operations, yet geared toward equipping and sending, not
just keeping the machine running
• Pastors – Like R&D, cast vision for how to leverage the body to reach more people for
Christ
• Finance/Facilities – Like Finance in a company, allocate limited resources to the uses
that maximize the return on investment – in terms of the number of people who come
to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior

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Have Some Body Parts Atrophied?

1 Corinthians 12:27-28 (TLB); “All of you together are the one body of Christ, and each one of
you is a separate and necessary part of it. Here is a list of some of the parts He has placed in his
Church, which is His body:

• Apostles,
• Prophets—those who preach God’s Word,
• Teachers,
• Those who do miracles,
• Those who have the gift of healing,
• Those who can help others,
• Those who can get others to work together,
• Those who speak in languages they have never learned.”

As for those first three, it’s clear that pastors occupy the lead role within the church. However,
the remaining parts of the body listed could be any one of us – inside or outside the
building. We are the hands and feet of Christ, yet far too few people are stretching and
working out our muscles – so they’ve atrophied. Unless we exercise the body part we
represent, both in how we serve others at church and in the community, the overall body
becomes weaker. Unless pastors are willing to risk rocking the boat by challenging members to
be stronger body parts, the church body will continue to atrophy in size, impact and influence.

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Church’s success in getting members involved in internal and external ministry

Which of the following best describes the attitude of members toward serving?

# Attitude of Members Toward Serving Choose One

1 Members expect to be fed, provided for and entertained
2 Church reluctant to ask members to serve too frequently
3 Members getting sense they ARE the church, meaning service is not
optional
4 Members fully see their role as to serve, not to be served
5 Staff and members fully bought into the need to work together to reach
the real “customer” (the lost outside the “4 walls”)

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Which of the following best describes the orientation of your service requests?

# Orientation of Service Requests at Your Church Choose One

1 Only options are internal besides 1-2 community service events, involving
no contact of members with those outside the church (e.g. canned food
drive)
2 Normal “church chores” but 2-3 community service events involving
members going into the community in direct contact with those they’re
helping
3 Church actively assessing gifts and deploying into a mix of internal and
external options with
4 Church publicizing service opportunities inside and outside the church on a
monthly basis around causes and ministries championed by the church
5 Empowering and equipping lay leaders to take ownership of internal and
externally-focused ministries and to recruit others to join them in their
efforts

Which of the following best describes your level of member engagement in church-related
internal and external service opportunities?

# Level of Member Engagement Choose One

1 Less than 5% engagement on average in service opportunities
2 5-10% engagement overall
3 10-20% engagement
4 20-30% engagement
5 30%+ engagement in international and local missions year-round

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Members expect Still reluctant to Members Church publicizing 30%+
to be fed, ask; nearly all getting sense service engagement in
provided for and requests for they are the opportunities international and
entertained; 1-2 “church chores” church, so inside and outside local missions on
events that besides 2-3 service is not church on weekly year-round basis;
involve no service events optional; Church basis; members staff and
outside contact involving direct assesses gifts fully see role as to members bought
(e.g. canned food contact with and deploys into serve, not to be into need to work
drives); less than those being internal and served; together to reach
5% engagement helped; 5-10% external options; 20-30% real “customer”
engagement 10-20% engagement
engagement

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SCORING:
Assign a score of 1 to 5 (from top to bottom, as shown in the left hand column) to each of the
options in each of the 3 tables. Add the scores for your 3 responses in the 3 tables:

Level 1 – Total is less than 5

Level 2 – Total is between 5 and 7
Level 3 – Total is between 8 and 10
Level 4 – Total is between 11 and 13
Level 5 – Total is more than 13

FUTURE STATE VISION

Churches should model the behavior they want members to imitate.

Yet as we’ve discussed the past three weeks, few churches are having a continual, relational
and meaningful impact in their communities. Instead, most:

• rely on occasional events

• measure impact more in terms of outputs than outcomes
• rarely serve non-members families (as Jesus so often did)

It’s not surprising that church members and attenders have followed suit when it comes to
living out the Great Commission, falling into one of four camps:

1. Passive Christians
DON’T SPEAK OR ACT
Bill hardly misses a Sunday. He volunteers as a greeter one weekend a month, gives
regularly and hosted a small group last year. By all accounts, Bill’s an active church
member. Considering how busy he is with career and a young kids, he does his fair
share. There’s not much time left over for charity work, nor is that something Bill thinks
much about – and it’s not a big emphasis at his church. However, his pastor does mention
inviting people to church pretty frequently and Bill loves his church so he’s done that a few
times. When it comes to evangelism, that’s about as far as Bill typically goes – he doesn’t
feel comfortable sharing his faith and rarely broaches “religion” with coworkers or friends.

2. Pensive Christians
SPEAK BUT DON’T ACT
Rusty is concerned about where America is headed. Unlike Bill, he’s not afraid to talk about
religion or politics. As a Christian since the early 1980s he’s watched the country go downhill,
increasingly upset as our moral foundation crumbles under the weight of every secular,
liberal court decision. Rusty’s church recently held a ministry fair inviting members to
express interest in local causes like hunger relief, the homeless or foster care. However,
what caught Rusty’s eye was the Christian conservative radio ministry asking for support to
continue fighting for the values that made our nation great. Rusty signs up and notices that

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over 150 others had done so as well, whereas none of the other compassion ministries had
more than 20 on their lists.

3. Private Christians
ACT BUT DON’T SPEAK
Stephanie is one of the nicest, most compassionate people at her church. She’s always there
for anyone who’s going through a tough time – a family at church, a neighbor, coworker,
friend or even a complete stranger. In fact, Stephanie is so caring that she would never want
to offend anyone. If she knows that person is a Christian, she’ll talk about her faith and offer
to pray for them. Otherwise, she keeps her personal beliefs to herself because they’re just
that – personal. Her husband, Jeff, is just as kind-hearted, frequently donating money to
local charities, but equally reluctant to impose his ideals on others.

4. Powerful Christians
ACT AND THEN SPEAK
Unlike Bill, Rusty, Stephanie and Jeff, Tamara isn’t passive, pensive or private – she’s both
personable and public. She’s a disciple, following Jesus’ model of meeting felt needs to open
the door to sharing who He is. Tamara never misses an opportunity to do both, seeing
wherever she happens to be at the time as her designated mission field. She understands
she IS the church between Sundays. Tamara is deeply concerned not only with each person’s
welfare in this life but also their assurance of eternal life. She knows the Great Commission
doesn’t stop at a single good deed or the planting of a “seed” – it’s about investing in longer-
term relationships.

Which of the 4 are Most Common Today?

Church leaders play a significant role in influencing whether its members are passive, pensive,
private or powerful. Churches today are producing far too many of the first three. Few
churchgoers see themselves as the embodiment of church once they walk out the front
door. They may be active participants in church but they’re not the personification of it
outside. In effect, they’re “customers” of churches who fear most would leave if asked to
endure the level of commitment and discipleship required of those entrusted to BE the church
all week long.

Yes, Powerful Christians are a rare breed these days, not often sighted in churches that:

• cater to members, hesitant to challenge them with the reality of what it truly means to
live out the Great Commission
• emphasize serving inside the church continually but offer few chances to reach out to
the poor and lost in the community
• focus more on build an institution than building disciples that “take ground” outside the
four walls

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Joining a church alone doesn’t make someone a Powerful Christian any more than simply
joining a gym makes someone a powerful weightlifter. Both require hard work and
endurance. Only intensive and extended training will dramatically change their lives. That’s
why a large or growing church isn’t necessarily a healthy church – showing up, serving and
giving doesn’t mean a churchgoer will make a difference for Christ between Sundays. Active
church members are not necessarily disciples. Disciples would never stop at being passive,
pensive or private. Disciples are healthy, impactful, forever changed – in other words, powerful.

Implications for the Future

Why do so many Christians fall into the first 3 categories? Why do most no longer have an
acute sense of urgency to see the lost saved? Jesus didn’t intend for churches and the Christian
walk to be as comfortable as they are in America today. Never did He expect His followers to
be complacent or content – “consuming” church on Sunday and doing little to serve the Lord
Monday through Saturday – while surrounded by the helpless and hopeless. How many
churchgoers realize they’ve stepped into a mission field the second they get back in their cars in
the church parking lot? How many try to win people to Christ and spend time making disciples
each and every week?

Unfortunately, many have come to view church as a “safe” place to worship and fellowship, not
courageous enough to act and speak in the light of day. Yet we’re called to live boldly in a
world that is becoming increasingly hostile to our faith. Ironically, it is likely our lack of impetus
and preparation to be the hands and feet of Christ that have largely precipitated and fueled the
attacks on Christianity that have already occurred.

What will happen if churches remain hesitant to challenge members to adopt the level of
commitment and courage demanded by Jesus? How much longer can we remain satisfied with
most Christians being passive, pensive or private?

The road is about to become much more rocky for followers of Jesus Christ. Only Powerful
Christians will be ready for what’s coming next. We must be willing to take a stand. But will
we?

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Are Members Being Adequately Challenged? – Pastors talk about “fields white for harvest”
and the Great Commission but is your congregation living those out between Sundays. Are
all hands on deck pursuing the real “customer” or should your church push them harder to
BE the church in the community?
2. What are You Challenging Them to Do? – Are your requests for volunteers much more
geared around “church chores” than serving the community and reaching neighbors with

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the gospel? Research needs in the community and train and prepare members to model a
prayer, care, share lifestyle around all those they meet.
3. Attitudes Toward Serving – Do members see serving at your church or in the community as
fulfilling an obligation, a good deed or a favor. If so, they haven’t fully bought into their role
as the living, breathing church but instead still believe church is an institution.
4. Levels of Engagement – How many in your congregation understand their spiritual gifts and
are actively leveraging them for the Kingdom? Empower and equip more lay leaders to take
ownership of internal and externally-focused ministries and to recruit others to join them in
their efforts. Show more needs that fit the giftings of your members using Meet The Need.
5. Start Using Meet The Need – Free solutions to equip churches to mobilize their members to
serve their communities much more effectively and efficiently

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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PART 3: FRUIT/RESULTS
MODULE 12: IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITY AND WORLD
TOPIC INSIGHTS

The last few chapters have made the case that few churches today target the right
“customer”. And no organization chasing the wrong “customer” can possibly succeed.
Now let’s talk about how that “root cause” for the church’s decline leads to a clear
transformation plan that will dramatically increase your church’s impact. Once a church
realizes what it truly means to view and treat members AS the church, the filter and criteria by
which you make every decision instantly self-corrects. Suddenly, you’ll have a better
understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of your leaders and members, as well
as the church’s place in the community.

Change Isn’t Optional…

We MUST change our modern-day model for running churches because the model is:

…not Biblical – Jesus, His disciples and the early church all had a very different view of the
“customer” than most churches do today
…not Working – By any standard of measure, in danger of heading down a similar path as
the Church in Europe where it’s largely relegated to a “corner”

What grounds do churches have for maintaining the status quo? Organizational behavior and
Biblical principles align perfectly here. The model is failing because it always does – inordinate
focus on the institution and not on the target market violates business and Biblical best
practices.

…but Will We?

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But how
does a pastor scrap the status quo when everyone around him is reinforcing it. Lead
better. Build the best facilities. Design the most fun kids program in town. Consultants,
seminaries, authors and conferences perpetuate the same “flawed assumption”. They work
within its confines. Publishers can’t sell books telling pastors they have it backwards. Events
questioning the fundamental model for how we “do” church won’t attract many attendees or
sponsors.
Leading better isn’t going to make a bad model good. Reluctance to challenge members to
truly live out the Great Commission isn’t going to grow the Kingdom any more than a new CEO
in a dying industry is going to ensure the company’s long term success.

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What Does Change Look Like?

HEART CHANGE
The first and most important step for anyone who’s missed the mark is recognition and
repentance. We can’t confess unless we recognize. We won’t repent until we
confess. Someone, somehow has to convince pastors that it is wrong to:

• Worry about losing a member to another church

• Pull away from the community, letting others take care of the helpless and hopeless
• Separate words from action, which Jesus never did
• Focus less energy on serious discipleship
• Make church the “end” (destination) and not the “means” (vehicle)
• Concern ourselves more with building OUR church than THE Church
• Lack the faith to follow our conscience and not conventional wisdom

Likewise, members and regular attenders must recognize and repent if they ever “consumed”
church. Do they see themselves as anything less than the personification of Church, with
mission-critical roles and responsibilities even after they leave the building?

HEAD CHANGE
The route to “fix” the church isn’t more of the same. When times get tough, we’ve seen so
many churches regroup, strategize, and reorganize – often centralizing control and introducing
more structure. It’s a natural reaction. Companies bleeding cash too often turn inward, finding
ways to cut costs, including sales and marketing, thus ensuring their demise. Instead, the
turnaround stories in business are those who decide to reassess and reinvest in meeting the
needs of their target customers. It’s true for all of us. Looking deeper within ourselves for how
to improve, exerting greater control, rather than directing our attention outward, always drives
us deeper in the hole.

In the case of the Church, getting those 9 out of 10 churches back on the road to growth is
about reorienting our focus outside of ourselves:

…to the Lord – in prayer

…to the Community – equipping and challenging members to interact, engage and serve

In other words, the answer lies in:

• More faith to follow the Lord’s plan for His church, whatever the outcome
• Less centralized control, not more
• Maximizing manpower sitting idle in the pews, disrupting the comfort and complacency
of lay leaders and members
• Diminishing the status of pastors and elevating the standing of all others by comparison

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• Measuring growth and impact by how many people our members lead to Christ, even if
they never show up at our building
• Making decisions based on the optimal strategies for bringing as many people to Christ
as possible, whether or not they currently attend our church

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Understand whether your church is making a significant difference in the eyes of the
non-member families and leaders in the city

Which of the following best describes the level of impact your pastors and staff currently has in
your local area?

# Local Impact of Pastors and Staff Choose One

1 Do not demonstrate an interest in playing a role in addressing critical
social issues like hunger or homelessness
2 Church runs small, occasional events but not with the goal or
expectation to make a real dent in the spiritual climate, moral
compass or social issues
3 Beginning to take a stand for justice and mercy issues in the local
area
4 Deploying many members and dollars into the community in hopes
of demonstrating God’s love powerfully to many across all walks of
life
5 Initiates projects and programs, and enlists partners, to address
specific issues of concern to local citizens

Which of the following best describes the level of impact your members currently have in your
local area?

# Level of Impact of Your Church Members Choose One

1 Very few are engaged meaningfully in addressing local social issues
because they aren’t challenged by pastors to do so
2 10-20% show up for occasional service events out of a sense that
they should do something, but lack commitment to causes
3 Being challenged to be the “hands and feet” of Christ to those around
them and are beginning to respond in their words and actions
4 40%+ actively applying their talents and treasures in the community,
seeing their role as evangelists, disciple-makers and servants
5 Making a measurable difference in the community for Christ through
widespread involvement in many local projects and programs

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Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Staff nor Small, occasional Stands up for 40%+ of Level 4 plus
members events but not justice and members actively initiates
recognize with goal or mercy issues, deploying talents projects/programs
church’s role in expectation to even alongside and treasures in , and enlists
addressing issues make a real dent non-Christians the community; partners, to
like hunger or in the spiritual and those of demonstrating address specific
homelessness, in climate, moral other faiths; God’s love issues of concern
part because it compass or social staff and powerfully to to local citizens;
doesn’t believe it issues of the local members sense many across all seen as a trusted
can make a area or world need to play a walks of life in source of hope
difference role in alleviating the city and help
social ills

SCORING:
Assign score of 1 to 5 (from top to bottom) in the options in each of the 2 tables. Add the
scores for your 2 responses:

Level 1 – Total is 0, 1 or 2
Level 2 – Total is either 3 or 4
Level 3 – Total is either 5 or 6
Level 4 – Total is either 7 or 8
Level 5 – Total is either 9 or 10

FUTURE STATE VISION

The “Go” in the Great Commission

Seeing members as the Church and the community as the “customer” fundamentally alters the
level of discipleship required and its emphasis. There’s a clear, compelling linkage between
discipleship and local missions. Why disciple if you’re not going to send them out? Conversely,
how can members be effective when sent out (to “care”) if they weren’t prepared well to
“share”?

As you’d expect, churches who pull away from discipleship typically pull away from local
missions as well. If churches aren’t highly focused on the one, they won’t be focused on the
other. Successful companies train sales reps intensively before sending them out into the
marketplace. However, most churches today don’t train (disciple) members well because they
don’t view…

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1. Members as the Church – and therefore don’t think they have the right to impose on
them
2. Community as the “Customer” – How many pastors interact regularly with local charity
leaders, city council members, mayors, executives, etc. in the “marketplace”? How
many churches conduct weekly “relational” service activities?

This is one area where the Church’s redefinition of its “customer” really stings. Most no longer
sense their latitude or urgency to train members to pursue the real “customer”. Without
adequate discipleship, members lack the inspiration, motivation and preparation to impact
their communities for Christ. So as a result, studies show that churches and Christians come
across to society as distant and judgmental, not engaged and compassionate. Faith without
works is dead. Jesus modeled the power of works in demonstrating faith. Yet society sees a
church that talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. We’ve largely separated words from
actions.

We can’t “outpreach” Jesus. So if you can’t beat Him, join Him.

5 Steps to Maximize Your Church’s Impact

How do you build a discipleship program around Jesus’ model for evangelism?:

1. Convince…members that:

a) They are the Church – there to serve, not to be served

b) As the Church, reaching the lost and poor outside the “4 walls” is in their job description,
not just the pastor’s.

In other words, gear discipleship toward “growing” then “going”.

2. Confess…”break hearts” for those in need of help and hope

One pastor told me recently, “I’d love to have a church full of Nehemiahs who weep for the
lost and poor in our community.” That should be our response too, but is it? You can’t
study Jesus’ life for long without seeing His heart for those hurting and hopeless in the
“marketplace”. However, it’s discipleship that convinces us to take on the attributes of
Jesus. As we become more like Him, our heart melds with His, and compassion begins to
outweigh comfort. Churchgoers will lack the impetus to radically shift their priorities
if churches are afraid to challenge and train them to become disciples.

The equation is simple:

More discipleship = More broken hearts = More compassion = More service =

More opportunities to share Christ = More help and hope for the lost and poor

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3. Coach… to prepare members to succeed in the “marketplace”

Next, teach them how to take advantage of the many additional chances they’ll have to
share their faith once they start living out Jesus’ model for evangelism through
service. Unfortunately, most church members today struggle finding both the courage and
the words – they’re not sure what to say, nor are they bold enough to speak up when the
opportunities present themselves.

If members are treated as “customers”, they’ve done their part when they’ve secured the
“referral” – inviting someone to church. In business, after a customer makes a referral, it’s
the company’s responsibility to close the sale. Today, churches typically don’t push
members for much more than invitations. Frankly, most Christians don’t feel they have the
theological background to do a lot more. If they can just get their friend to come to church,
they can let the “professionals” handle it (evangelism, conversion and discipleship) from
there.

4. Connect…to opportunities for On-the-Job Training (OJT)

People retain 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of
what they see and hear, 70% of what they discuss with others, 80% of what they personally
experience and 95% of what they teach others. In other words, the best way to fully absorb
what it means to be a disciple is to live it out. As we discussed last week, companies
understand that principle well, relying heavily on OJT.

It’s rare that a church, at least one not using Meet The Need, puts local needs in front of its
members on a real-time, year-round basis. How can churches deploy disciples into ministry
if they don’t help them see where their skills and passions can be best utilized? In the
Confess stage, church leaders should share the stories and realities of how difficult life is for
the handicapped, homeless, single moms, and for released prisoners trying to reassimilate –
and then make them aware of what they can do to help. We can’t let lack of awareness be
an excuse for not engaging.

5. Coalesce…identify common causes around which to rally the church body

Once a church identifies those pressing social issues, it has to decide (corporately and each
as individuals) how it’s going to respond. As disciples, signing up for an occasional service
event or mailing out a check is not the full extent of their responsibility to act.

Uniting around a common cause (outside of itself) revitalizes the culture of a church. On
9/11, a nation of seemingly (and increasingly) self-absorbed citizens pulled together to
serve, love and defend one another. And it was hard to find a seat in church, at least for a
couple months until the urgency of that common cause dissipated. Because churches don’t

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recognize the community as its “customer”, they are often guilty of making themselves (the
institution and their members) the cause. Leaders in businesses, politics and all other
venues know that an outside cause unites and motivates much better than an internal
one. Without a compelling outside cause, unity and discipleship in the church will continue
to suffer.

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Implement the Five “C” Model Above – If you do, will most members accept it, be excited
or run to another church?
2. Expand Your “Footprint” – Deconstruct the “skyscraper” mentality and “take ground” by
decentralizing, entrusting more responsibility to neighborhood groups, local ministry teams,
and other structures that fully deploy the leverage sitting idle in your pews across your city.
3. Become a Factory and Not a Warehouse – Produce world-changing disciples who no longer
view the Great Commission as a choice but as a commandment. Disciples realize that Jesus
healed and fed before telling them who He is. They have more encounters with the lost and
maximize the impact of every interaction. They don’t stop at inviting people to church, not
leaving conversions to the “professionals”.
4. Rally Around Cause(s) – Uncover burning issues in the community and make a bigger
difference by honing in on a couple of them. Convince everyone of the importance of the
cause and get as many involved as possible, year round. Reallocate budget to support these
efforts or your congregation and the community won’t believe your church is really
committed to the cause(s).
5. Enlist Partners – No one church can do it all. Link arms with those already working on the
selected cause(s) or think of creative solutions and recruit other organizations to join you in
your efforts.
6. Read the eBook Transform Your Community Forever in 6 Months – If you haven’t already
7. Start Using Meet The Need – Free solutions to equip churches to mobilize their members to
serve their communities much more effectively and efficiently

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

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3.

4.

5.

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PART 3: FRUIT/RESULTS
MODULE 13: INFLUENCE IN THE COMMUNITY
TOPIC INSIGHTS

Caring = Relationship

But Most Churches Don’t Act Relationally (as a Collective Body) with the Community

Relationships with a church have become conditional. They are contingent on you stepping
into the church building. Then they’ll get to know you. Those on the outside only get a brief
glimpse of the church from:

• Occasional outreach or community service events

• Mailers
• Advertisements
• Signs in front of the church building

Each of these is transactional in nature. Few churches have prolonged relational contact with
the community in the form of:

• Year-round programs (on and off campus) for non-members

• Ongoing involvement in local ministries and causes
• Regular presence at community meetings or events
• Working closely with non-member families to help them through tough situations

Unfortunately, there are many people who won’t dare to darken the door of a church. They’ve
tried church, had a bad experience, and wouldn’t step back into one if their lives depended on
it (and they may). Transactional interactions aren’t going to bring them back. Transactions
won’t convince them we care.

We’ve got to go to them. Churches need to build relationships with the community. But most
don’t, because they no longer see the community as their “customer”. Relationship building
takes time – and churches assume they can’t afford to invest all that time, energy and money in
those who don’t go to their church. Most don’t see the community as the “customer” to reach
at all cost. Instead, their attention has turned to members and attenders – attracting, serving
and retaining them at all cost. The dramatic shift over the past century in staff time and dollars
from external to internal is testament to this new definition of the “customer”.

…and on Top of That, Churches often Draw Individuals Away from Relationships with the
Unchurched

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Churches know that getting members to form closer bonds, like joining small groups, will make
them more likely to stay. Small groups create a circle of friends who do life together. They’re
“sticky”. But a new circle of church friends and more involvement in church chores and
activities can also have a “warehousing effect”. That means spending less time with those
outside the church – and fewer chances to influence others in the community for Christ.
Jesus spent plenty of time with his disciples and in the temple, but knew the sick were the ones
who needed a physician.

…and Then They Don’t Equip and Mobilize Members Adequately to “Be the Church”

In hundreds of churches we’ve observed a direct correlation between discipleship and local
missions. When churches pull away from community engagement they ratchet back
discipleship as well. When churches ramp up “care” they realize they’d better prepare folks to
“share”.

The redefinition of the church’s “customer”, handing over the lead role in compassion to
charities and the government, has meant less need (in churches’ minds) for
discipleship. Rigorous Bible study and 1-on-1 discipleship have been replaced by small groups,
often run by untrained members facilitating as best they can. Most small groups evolve into
fellowship gatherings with light teaching and prayer for the issues each person is facing. That’s
all fantastic and necessary, but it’s not discipleship.

In the absence of discipleship, too often churches promote the “lite” version of evangelism –
invite people to church and let the “professionals” handle it from there. That convenient,
comfortable take on evangelism runs in direct conflict with the “members ARE the church”
anthem.

…so How Can We Show the Community (our “Customer”) We Care?

Imagine being a church that…

• would be sorely missed if it closed its doors, leaving a spiritual, compassion and social
gap in the community that could not be easily filled
• is widely recognized as having a sincere, ongoing concern for the hopeless and hurting in
the community – not one that just takes care of its own
• is looked to by local leaders for comfort, advice and support whenever trouble hits the
community

How many more people would want to be part of a church like that? How much more
generous would members be with a church that was having that kind of impact for Christ? How
many more folks would care what we know because they know we care?

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It’s possible to be that kind of church, but not if you enable a “consumer” mentality – not if
you’re hesitant to challenge members to take time to be discipled, to disciple, and to serve
others.

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Determine whether the church has a “voice” in the city

Indicators – “In the city, are your church/pastors/members…” Yes/No

…primarily focused of the affairs and concerns of the church and its
members?
… building disciples that are moving the area’s spiritual needle?
…connected to a solid network of local leaders (pastors, school
superintendents, mayor, city council, local charity directors, etc.)
…visible at many local community/civic organization meetings?
…in influential positions in the community (beyond their jobs, i.e.
boards of local charities, schools, ministries, foundations, etc.)
…seen and heard on local topics of interest (e.g. social issues) in the
local paper, radio or social media?
…respected as a source of information, opinions or recommendations
by local leaders and citizens related to local issues?
…early responders when disasters or emergencies strike the city or
local area?
…looked to by leaders in the city for comfort, advice and support
whenever trouble hits the community?

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Internally No real voice – Pastors/members Pastors/members Church and pastor
focused; more seen but not are well liked and have earned is looked to by
concerned about heard; Few fairly connected “right” to speak local leaders for
building an connections of locally but not on issues of comfort, advice
organization than pastors/staff to viewed as an concern to and support
building disciples other ministry, authority or go-to- citizens in the whenever trouble
that move the business or resource by local community but hits the
area’s spiritual church leaders leaders could be more community; truly
needle outside its “4 actively engaged valued in local
walls” area

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SCORING:
Level 1 – 0 Yes responses
Level 2 – 2 or 3 Yes responses
Level 3 – 4 or 5 Yes responses
Level 4 – 6 or 7 Yes responses
Level 5 – 8 or 9 Yes responses

FUTURE STATE VISION

Let’s be realistic – the impediments to putting a church back on the path to revitalization is
significant. Members, attenders and even lay leaders may head for the exits when the pastor
unveils the new strategy – higher expectations, greater accountability, much more focus on
serving others than being served. So maybe it’s not in the cards. There’s a good chance
most churches will continue largely ignoring their intended “customer”. Few may ever truly
challenge members to BE the church in the community. Churches may not go back to following
Jesus’ model of nearly always demonstrating His love before telling them who He is.

Runway is Getting Short

The view Americans had of churches was much different 20 years ago than it is today, and the
drop in opinion seems to be accelerating. The percentage of Americans who attend church
regularly is also diminishing. Where will we be 20 years into the future?

Even the divide between the Church and Christian leaders in business, charity work, media and
politics is widening. In the past year, I attended two gatherings of Christian conservatives from
across the U.S. to strategize about ways to reverse the current course in America away from
Biblical values. Nearly identical, broad-consensus conclusions were reached at both events –
churches are too busy taking care of their own affairs, whether in survival mode or growth
planning, to play a meaningful part in the turnaround of American culture.

How do we restore the lost confidence and improve the poor perception? We can’t plant
churches fast enough to atone for a model that defines the wrong “customer”. It’s like trying to
sell more widgets when you’re losing money on each one – as they say, you can’t make it up on
volume. If each new church is unwilling to risk upsetting the apple cart – doing all that viewing
members as the church and the community as the “customer” entails – then we can’t make it
up on volume. Each new (internally-focused) church will only perpetuate the prevailing
view that the church cares more for itself and for its own than for those outside the “4 walls”.

Building Skyscrapers

You would think that planting more churches would increase the Church’s
footprint. However, most churches in America today don’t take up much ground. They look
and feel more like skyscrapers – skyscrapers:

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• are tall, but have a small footprint – they go up, not out
• gather a lot of people together into a small space
• house workers whose goal is to help their organizations grow
• provide a nice office environment, far removed from the dirt and poverty just outside
the ground floor
• try to attract tenants and keep them as long as they can
• measure success by the size of the building and number of tenants
• block the view of neighboring buildings and scenery

At the end of the workday, employees go down the elevator, walk briskly past the homeless in
the park downtown, get in their cars and head for home.

See any similarities to churches today?…and the skyscraper metaphor doesn’t apply only
to large churches. No doubt part of a church’s motive for separating from the world and
becoming a “skyscraper” is to provide a protected environment, apart from the moral decline
around it. The church building and relationships with fellow members provide that safe
haven. Most churches only go into the world on their own terms, doing controlled, supervised
events where members stick close to others from their own church and have limited contact
with those they are serving. As Christians, we even formed a subculture where we’re only
exposed to acceptable versions of everything that’s educational or entertaining.

Yet Jesus and His disciples did not shy away from the world, instead going out to serve and
evangelize at every opportunity. It was dirty, hard work with danger around every turn. They
didn’t leave the temple, head home and shut the garage behind them – except of course to
pray.

The attractional church model is also shrinking the church’s footprint:

• Big churches get bigger while small churches scattered all over town shrink – they
simply can’t offer competitive children’s ministries, facilities and programs
• The pie of regular churchgoers is smaller now, yet those remaining are more and more
inclined to go to larger churches, so the trend is vertical and not horizontal
• In other words, more and more people are crowding into a smaller space in a few large
churches versus spread out over a larger area in many smaller churches

Deconstruct the Skyscraper and Tear Down the Warehouse

So the second step to revitalize the church is simply this – TAKE GROUND!

• Decentralize – “A church dispersed is the only church that works”

• Knock down the “4 walls” – They aren’t keeping people in; they’re keeping people out
• Reallocate – Invest more in “building in” and sending out than in building up

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• Unite – Each church acting independently doesn’t form a cohesive footprint

• Serve – Get messy and demonstrate compassion to a hurting and lost community
• Fight a ground “war”, not an “air” war – Only the church can mobilize massive troops,
with love as their chosen weapon not a louder megaphone
• Follow Jesus’ model – We can’t “outpreach” Him so let’s precede words with action

It’s interesting that the church persecuted tends to spread out, forming a maze of underground
churches, yet the church in freedom and peace tends to build skyscrapers. Other religions also
understand the importance of infiltrating all facets of society – getting involved in
neighborhoods, local causes, politics, and service. As other religions continue to take ground,
Christian churches can’t afford to continue pulling inward.

How many more could be reached by the church dispersed? How many would be caught off
guard seeing far more love and hope lived out in front of their eyes? How many more would
want to check out church for the first time in their lives?

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Network – As church leaders build relationships with local leaders like school
superintendents, mayors, city council members, local charity directors, etc. their influence
in the community grows. Pastor presence at community meetings and members serving on
boards of local charities, schools, ministries, foundations, etc. also give the church a voice
and access to share the gospel with non-Christians.
2. Demonstrate a Willingness to Help – When approaching other leaders, don’t tell them
what your church can do but ask how you can help. Follow up with action, not more
meetings. Do homework and become knowledgeable about issues of concern to the
community.
3. Talk about Issues, Not the Church – Become a trusted source of advice, comfort and
assistance for local leaders and citizens regarding key cause(s). Be a voice for justice and
mercy, not just for your church.
4. Be an Early Responder – Show up when disasters or emergencies strike the city or local
area. Be responsive and reliable other leaders call for help or counsel. Ensure many
members are trained to be early responders as those issues provide great opportunities to
share Christ.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

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PART 3: FRUIT/RESULTS
MODULE 14: PERCEPTION BY THE COMMUNITY
TOPIC INSIGHTS

We’ve Established That…

• A church is not its staff and buildings – that’s how we define companies, not houses of
worship
• Instead, a church is the body of believers
• Jesus, his disciples and the early Church proved by their example that the community
was meant to be where the Church should spend the bulk of its time and money – i.e. its
“customer”
• If a church’s mindset is to attract and retain, to cater rather than challenge, it is treating
members/attenders as “customers” – but the body cannot be both the Church and its
“customer”

Churches Today Invest Very Little in their Actual “Customers”

The church was the food bank and homeless shelter for 1900 years. Churches started the
hospitals and schools. They were the cultural, social, spiritual, compassionate “center of
town”. Churches were integral and integrated, actively engaging and serving the
community. Few doubted that the Church cared. Few questioned the Church’s right to speak
up on issues of importance to the community or to society in general – in their eyes, it had
earned the right to do so.

Surveys today show that non-Christians believe churches are more about judgment than justice,
condemnation than compassion, self-righteousness than selflessness, and hypocrisy than
humility. What do you think churches should do to change that perception? Is it possible that
the community realizes it should be the church’s “customer”, getting much more attention, yet
is left to wonder why churches won’t take more time to build relationships with them?

Investing Time
Today, churches spend much less time and energy on community engagement and
service. Pastors and staff are consumed with member/attender-related activities, such as
service prep and programs for youth, singles, and small groups. How many staff meeting
agendas include issues of concern to the community? How many churches have even one
person assigned specifically to engaging and serving the church’s true “customer”? Over the
past few decades, churches have even throttled back on equipping and pushing members to be
the hands and feet of Christ to the community.

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Churches are no longer on the front lines in addressing the social issues in our
communities. Rather than committing substantial time and resources to demonstrating God’s
love to those hurting and lost around us – our intended “customer” – we:

• Market to them, hoping they show up next Sunday

• Organize occasional service events which do little if anything to resolve social issues
• Fail to give the impression we truly care about what’s going on in the world around us
• Perpetuate the perception that we’re more concerned with taking care of our own
• Rarely get our hands dirty in relational, year-round service to the community

For example, churches are visible in the community over the holiday season, but most retrench
back into their “4 walls” in January and February; but those same people the church served are
still hungry and homeless when the holidays are over. From the community’s vantage point,
the church disappeared, maybe still celebrating how generous it was over the holidays.

In those respects, transactional, infrequent interactions with the community do more harm
than good. Wearing church t-shirts and passing our water bottles with the name of the church
on them only add fuel to the fire. Society wonders – was the event about “checking the box”,
making members feel better for having done something, was it advertising, or was it a sincere
loving concern for the welfare of the community?

Investing Money
Some estimate that only 2.5% of the average church’s budget finds its way back into the
community. The rest goes back to provide services and programs for those who donated the
funds. When the church was the food bank and homeless shelter, the percentage of dollars
that was plowed back into the community was far greater – some estimate 40%+. Members
tithed knowing much of it would be used to bring more help and hope to their city – alongside
covering staff salaries and buildings.

History and case studies show that if you want more generous members, you should become a
more generous church. How many churches have ever thought about the church itself being
generous? They want members to be generous in giving to the church; but churches should
first model the behavior they want members to imitate.

Member giving behavior largely reflects the Church’s giving behavior. It’s not coincidence that
the percentage the average church member in America gives is nearly the same as the
percentage the average church commits to the community. We’ll see more giving to churches,
and more people attending churches, when churches reinvest more generously in their true
“customers”.

Most churches also reflect members in their spending habits. Nearly every cent in a church’s
budget is spoken for by salaries, mortgage, facilities, operations, marketing, and other
expenses. These costs are called “fixed” costs for a reason. Once you’re in, it’s hard to get

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out. So churches have little left over for its “customer” – the community it’s there to
reach. Similarly, the pay checks of most church members are already spent by the time they hit
their bank accounts. Although it’s not Biblical, churches often only get a portion of any
remaining pennies after all those expenses are covered.

…As a Result

The implications of the Church’s misdefinition of its “customer” and resulting de-emphasis on
the community are being felt today in terms nearly every significant measure of success – such
as growth, impact, influence and perception.

Even many growing churches who think they’re succeeding are not “healthy”. Growth does not
always imply health. Size does not always equate to success. Church goers today want
excellent programs, facilities, children’s services – larger churches can offer much more on each
of those fronts than smaller churches. However, church health is more about effectiveness in
making and sending disciples than growth. When Jesus’ following would peak, He’d often
preach it down with a challenging message until only a few remained.

Ask yourself whether your church is willing to risk challenging members to be the hands and
feet of Christ in the community – the Church’s true “customer” – to the point where many
would consider leaving?

What would your church leaders and members do differently and how would your community
view your church differently if you all fully committed to the philosophy that members ARE the
Church and the hopeless and lost in the community are their “customer”?

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: See how your church is viewed by leaders and citizens in your area

Which of the following best describes the perception non-attenders have of your church brand?

Choose One
Those who’ve heard of it generally see it as taking care of its own
Feel the church is much more likely to speak out on moral issues than address
any pressing social issues
Surprised to see the church recently begin to get involved in local
partnerships in an effort to improve the lives of local citizens
Recognized by most as having a sincere, ongoing concern for the welfare of
people in the community
If no longer in that community it would be sorely missed, leaving a spiritual,

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compassion and social gap that could not be easily filled

Which of the following best describes the perception community leaders have of your church?

Choose One
Church and/or pastor have little visibility or are not well thought of
If pastors expressed an interest in getting involved, community leaders would
be skeptical of their motives
Have seen church beginning to build relationships with other leaders,
engendering some measure of confidence and trust in its intentions
Not about building an institution but is a partner with others in building a
better community
An integral part of the spiritual, cultural and charitable fabric of the city

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Church and/or Starting to get Building Not seen as being If no longer in that
pastor have little involved in some relationships about serving community would
visibility or are local ministry and partnerships members but be sorely missed,
not well thought work and in an in the city; widely recognized leaving a spiritual,
of; those who’ve effort to show transitioning as having a compassion and
heard of it that the church/ community sincere, ongoing social gap that
generally see it as Christianity is service from concern for could not be easily
taking care of its about love, not transactional to people in the filled
own judgment relational in community
nature

SCORING:
Assign score of 1 to 5 (from top to bottom) in the options in each of the 2 tables. Add the
scores for your 2 responses across those 2 tables:

Level 1 – Total is 0, 1 or 2
Level 2 – Total is either 3 or 4
Level 3 – Total is either 5 or 6
Level 4 – Total is either 7 or 8
Level 5 – Total is either 9 or 10

FUTURE STATE VISION

A ministry working with troubled youth couldn’t find any churches to provide mentors willing to
invest the long, painstaking hours required to lead them into a relationship with the Lord and a
better way of life. Gradually, as the ministry sought Christian mentors through all available

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avenues, a few stepped up. When prodding to learn what each of these mentors had in
common, it turned out they had all been discipled by another individual. Someone had
invested in them the same way they were now pouring into someone else.
Not enough churches are challenging members to step out of their comfort zones and do the
hard work of building intentional relationships and loving people to Christ over the longer
term. Instead, churches fear pushing churchgoers too hard, lest they head to a church down
the road still catering to the congregation, promising “cheap grace” and reducing local missions
to a couple quick compassion events.

What’s Wrong with Events?

The church was the food bank and homeless shelter for 1900 years. It was engaged year round,
helping deal with pressing social issues. Churchgoers were expected – not only by the Lord but
by church leaders and the community – to be salt and light to those around them between
Sundays, following Jesus’ lead, acting as both servant and evangelist continually.

Yet the priorities of church leaders and members have shifted. Assistance programs are
handled by the government and local charities. Only a small fraction of church members
regularly serve outside the “4 walls”, while the rest occasionally write a check or sign up for an
event. Leaders have gotten busy running the church and members are busy with work, paying
bills and raising families. Nearly all churches today merely “dabble” in compassion in the
community, running infrequent events that unfortunately…

• Are transactional, not relational

• Don’t address the real, ongoing issues in the lives of the lost
• Fail to make meaningful or lasting change, providing a handout rather than a hand up
• Fuel negative perception by making society question whether the event was simply
promotion, or meant to make members feel good for having done something (versus
truly caring about others)
• Give the impression to the community that members are back at church patting
themselves on the back for the good they did over the holidays when those in need
are still hungry and hurting in January and February
• Enable the church to “check the box”, giving pastors, staff and members a false sense of
accomplishment

Yet church is the only source of enduring help and hope – found in Christ alone. Government
and secular charities can’t do that. And church is the best place for seekers to land, to
fellowship with other believers and grow in Christ. Churches miss so many opportunities to
reach people by abdicating relational compassion to other organizations and relying on
transactional events. Jesus’ model was to heal and feed and then say who He was, knowing the
words weren’t enough. Why do the vast majority of churches today try to “outpreach” Jesus?

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So Why Do Churches Do Events?

With all that downside, why would churches use events as the primary vehicle for local
missions? As with all other topics we’ve addressed in this workbook, the answer lies in the
Church’s gradual redefinition of its “customer”:

• Reliance on events came with the territory as churches shifted from viewing the
community to seeing members as their “customers”. In other words, long-term
relational engagement is much better for the community, but events are much better
for institution-building and for catering to members:
o As we discussed in our opening story, tasks like mentoring troubled youth are
hard
o Churches are cautious about challenging members to do the hard stuff
o Getting members to do hard stuff requires discipleship, which is hard too
o Because most churches don’t challenge members to develop the right mindset
about their role as the embodiment of church between Sundays, few go out of
their way to take on the tough tasks
• So churches give members the “easy stuff” that keeps them coming back like:
o a food drop-off in the church foyer
o on campus meal packing
o taking up an offering
o a quick 3 hour event run by church staff
• Events have the side benefit in the eyes of church leaders of building the “brand” by
making a big splash (whereas long term engagement is quiet and behind the scenes)
• Ironically, event management is harder on church staff but since most pastors and staff
act as if they are the “church” and members are “customers”, they’re willing to endure
that extra work rather that risk losing members by asking too much of them

What Should Churches Be Doing Instead?

The greatest impact on the lives of individuals, the welfare of the community, the advancement
of the Kingdom and the perception of churches comes from service that is highly:

• Compassionate – e.g. shut-in and hospital visitation (for non-members)

• Enduring – e.g. school partnerships
• Relational – e.g. tutoring
• Loving – e.g. prison ministry
• Challenging – e.g. foster care
• Sacrificial – e.g. inner city
• Interactive – e.g. neighborhood outreach by small groups
• Invitational – e.g. open the church for weekly career coaching, marriage counseling,
recovery ministry, health/wellness classes, etc.

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What other ministries have you seen churches run which fit those criteria and are making a
huge difference in a community, shifting how society feels about churches?

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
Take the following steps if the general perception among local “unchurched” and community
leaders is that your church:

1. Only Takes Care of Its Own – No amount of saying you care will outdo actually showing you
caring. Actions speak louder than words. Get members involved in serving others, not just
through events but year round. Do so with no agenda except to love unconditionally.
2. Is Judgmental – Earn the right to speak out on issues (e.g. moral) by spending a
commensurate amount of time demonstrating love and compassion. A louder megaphone
won’t bring your city around to your beliefs. In the culture war, fight a ground war, not an
air war. As you do your part to reverse the poor perception of churches and Christians,
remember that renewing trust in your intentions will take time.
3. Doesn’t Play Well with Others – Reach out to secular leaders, even those who may not
agree philosophically with you, showing you have an interest in improving the lives of local
citizens (regardless of whether your church stands to benefit or get any credit).
4. Operates Like a Business, Concerned with Filling the Pews and Coffers – Don’t give anyone
occasion to believe that your church is about building an institution, but instead give them
good reason to believe you’re interested in building and sending out caring, loving disciples
– year-round.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

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4.

5.

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PART 3: FRUIT/RESULTS
MODULE 15: SUCCESS METRICS
TOPIC INSIGHTS

Earlier, we described a disturbing phenomenon – how more churchgoers in America today

demand churches live up to their expectations, causing fewer churches to ask churchgoers to
live up to the Lord’s expectations of them.

Bad Metrics Perpetuate the Church’s Decline

Strategies align with vision. Metrics align with strategy. Incenting behaviors consistent with
strategy is the only way to ultimately achieve vision. Bad metrics are symptomatic of bad
strategy. Bad strategy in the church today stems from misdefinition of its intended, Biblical
“customer”. Define the “customer” correctly and you’ll get the metrics right. Try to grow
membership, attendance and giving and you’ll be inclined to cater rather than challenge,
treating members as “customers”. Measure disciple-building, community impact and
engagement in ministry and you’ll become more bold in calling members to BE the church to
the real “customer” – the world around them.

The latter metrics hold church members to a simple yet critical standard for Christian life – the
Great Commission. They reflect Jesus’ model for evangelism – demonstrating his love first,
then telling them who He is. Churches who count heads and dollars will hesitate to challenge
members to live up to those essential, Biblical expectations. What the Lord asks of His church
requires a level of commitment and life change most members don’t think they signed up for
when they joined. For church leaders, it also requires a leap of faith. Redefining the
“customer”, raising expectations of members, and abandoning long-held, institution-building
metrics – regardless of the outcome – isn’t easy, but it’s the right thing to do.

Churches who won’t take that risk enable members to remain “casual” Christians, regular
attenders who never become disciples – or produce other disciples. Those “adolescents” rarely
arrive at the level of spiritual maturity where love and compassion drives them out of their
armchairs to serve and witness to the hurting and lost around them. They show up and give,
but don’t look a whole lot like Jesus. They drive more away from church than they bring to it.

Should Churches Be Measuring Anything?

Hear me right. I’m not advocating more metrics for churches – just different ones. Frankly,
having no measures would be better than using the current ones. Any metrics that incent
church leaders to do the following should be scrapped:

• Hang on to members and givers by catering to their needs

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• Enable members to “consume” church by asking little of them

• Stand by as members/attenders fail to live out the Great Commission
• Avoid challenging them to serve regularly in ministry outside the church
• Not encourage members regularly to give to causes outside the church

Aren’t those exactly what tracking membership, attendance and giving leads pastors to do?

We hear more and more that churches are being run like businesses. The wrong definition of
the “customer” is the reason why. Attract people, meet their needs, exceed their expectations
and the church will grow and revenues will increase. Churches who subscribe to that school of
thought measure success along business lines – member satisfaction, loyalty, engagement and
giving. Those metrics work for companies because their customers are external, but they’re
inappropriate for churches because members are “insiders”, not customers. No wonder
churchgoers “shop” today.

If You’re Going to Track Something, Track This

What if churches turned the tables on church “shoppers”? What types of expectations or
measures would challenge members to become more devoted followers of Jesus Christ? What
metrics would get them to pursue the church’s real “customer” – the lost in the community –
and thereby grow their church?

Counting heads and dollars obviously isn’t working – it’s not convincing churchgoers to attend
and give more – 93% of churches in America aren’t growing. The irony is more people would
show up and be more generous if the churches would redefine its “customer”, which calls for a
new set of performance metrics. Seeing the lost outside the “4 walls” as the prospective
“customer” entails gauging how effective “insiders” are in pursuing “outsiders” after they leave
the building on Sunday. All successful organizations trade in internally-focused objectives that
cause “insiders” to look out for their own interests for customer-oriented measures that
coalesce everyone around assessing and meeting the customer’s needs.

The following new measures would dramatically change how churches make every decision and
steer the congregation’s actions and behaviors in the right direction. Decisions and actions
would be based on the optimal strategies for bringing as many people to Christ as possible,
whether or not they currently attend the church.

Church Health
If the church IS the membership yet members are “consumers” of the church – how can the
church be healthy? Members can’t be both the church and the “customer”. The health of any
organization depends on proper understanding of respective roles and incentives to perform
each well.

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Unfortunately modern American church growth strategies that appeal to “consumers” can
grow a church yet make it unhealthy and ineffective at the same time. Growth does not always
imply health.

Health can be measured by a Balanced Scorecard for churches. In business, a Balanced

Scorecard consists of 4 dimensions, each of which has an application for churches:

1. “Learning” – i.e. Discipleship

Don’t stop at tracking professions and baptisms. Determine whether those baby Christians
become mature Christians:

• # & % of Members Living out the Great Commission (i.e. # of Disciples Made)
• # & % of Congregation Engaged in 1-on-1 or in Triad Discipleship within the Church
• # of People Outside the Church Being Discipled by our Members

2. “Processes” – i.e. Empowerment

Process improvement shouldn’t be geared around providing an exciting or engaging
experience for visitors and attenders. Those position congregations as “customers” and put
undue emphasis on institution-building. Instead processes should be built around strategies
to empower and equip churchgoers, leveraging them to bring as many “outsiders” to Christ
as possible (not to simply invite people to church). Metrics aligned with this decentralized
view include:

• # of Lay Leaders Trained to Run Neighborhood Groups and Local Missions Teams
• # of Local Ministries Launched by Church Leadership and Members
• # of Unchurched Who Have Joined a Neighborhood/Small Group
• # of Members Deployed into Ministry Leadership Positions

3. “Customer” – i.e. Community Impact

Church size and growth are not definitive or accurate proxies for impact. Better measures of
a church’s impact and influence on the world around it relate to the church’s reach, footprint,
and progress in addressing pressing issues in the community (your real “customer”)
regardless of whether those impacted show up at your church:

• # of Lives Touched and Led to Christ by Members Living out Jesus’ Model for Evangelism
(loving and serving, then telling them who He is)
• # & % of Congregation Actively Engaged in Ministry Outside the Church
• # of Families Helped During Church-Sponsored Service Events/Activities
• Cause-Related Metrics (e.g. Decrease in # of Local Homeless, Orphans and Shut-ins, # of
Single Moms Assisted, # of Prisoners Reformed, # of People in Recovery Getting Back on
Track)

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4. “Financial” – i.e. Generosity

Measure your generosity as a church, not member generosity with the church:

• % of Church Budget Allocated to Internal and External Local Missions Efforts

• $s Allocated by the Church to Each Selected Local “Cause”
• Return on those Investments (ROI) – e.g. making neighborhoods safer, stabilizing
families, and improving school systems
• $s Given by Members to Causes and Ministries Outside the Church

Do church leaders have the right to expect anything of members? In other words, is measuring
something better than nothing? If so, are our proposed Balanced Scorecard metrics good
measures for aligning a church with the redefinition of its “customer”?

CURRENT STATE

Self Assessment

Purpose: Use what the church measures to gauge its commitment to seeing members as the
church and the lost as the “customer”

Choose One
Primarily tracking measures like:
• Attendance
• Growth
• Giving
• Faith Professions
• Baptisms
Not as concerned with tracking those internal metrics; but there is some
disagreement among churches leaders on the importance of tracking those
numbers
Beginning to track external metrics focused on preparing and deploying members
into effective ministry like:
• #/% Discipled
• # Discipling Others Inside and Outside the Church
• # Unchurched New Attendees
• # Engaged in Serving (in/out)
• # Community/International Partnerships
• # of Unchurched Who Have Joined a Neighborhood/Small Group
• # Gospel Presentations by Members
Also trying to measure impact via hard-to-quantify Key Indicators like:
• Decrease in # of Local Homeless, Orphans and Shut-ins

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• Moving the local spiritual needle

• # of Members Actively Engaged in Ministry Outside the Church
• # of Lives Touched During Church-Sponsored Service Events
• $s Given by Members to Causes and Ministries Outside the Church
Actively monitoring Church “Health” not based on numbers, but on love for one
another, prayer, engagement, impact, influence and by whether it’s known as
caring across the city

Scoring on Proficiency Model

1 – Consumer 2 – Caterer 3 – Climber 4 – Challenger 5 – Catalyst

Only actively Not as concerned Beginning to Also trying to Actively monitors
tracking internal with #s; realizing track external measure impact Church “Health”
“customer- that too much metrics like: via hard-to- not based on
centric” metrics, focus on internal
#/% Discipled quantify Key numbers, but on
e.g.: metrics is not
# Discipling Indicators like: love for one

Attendance Biblical or
# Unchurched
Progress on another, prayer,

Growth healthy; but still New causes engagement,

Retention some dissention Attendees (hunger and impact, influence

Giving per among leaders on
# Engaged in the homeless) and by whether
member importance of Serving
Moving the it’s known as

Faith tracking those #s (in/out) local spiritual caring across the
Professions
# of Service needle city
Partnerships

SCORING:
Level 1 – Checked box #1
Level 2 – Checked box #2
Level 3 – Checked box #3
Level 4 – Checked box #4
Level 5 – Checked box #5

FUTURE STATE VISION

A large church in California decided it was time to stop relying on the county to represent the
“front line” of compassion – while churches stood idly by. Government can’t deliver hope –
only help. The church approached county leadership, offering to be an outpost for job training
and placement services. Not only did the county accept their offer, the church experienced a
higher success rate than the agency was having!

Stepping forward to do something to help struggling families is commendable. Delivering in

such a way that those within ear-shot sit up and take notice changes lives – and transforms
communities.

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Churches shouldn’t simply provide assistance and be satisfied with any level of
achievement. Businesses seek to maximize customer satisfaction and loyalty because that
drives profits. Churches should seek to maximize their effectiveness in making a difference in
the lives of its “customers” – the lost in the community – because that’s what Jesus did.

What are Outcomes Versus Outputs?

Outputs are what an organization does. In business, outputs may be making a sales call or
responding to a customer complaint. In local missions, outputs may be serving a meal or
handing out a toy. Missions directors prepare ministry reports, primarily holding them
accountable for outputs, judging their productivity based on those numbers.

Churches who look through the lens of how much it does, and not the long-term impact of what
it does, are giving members an easy out – treating members as “customers”. In other words,
it’s much more difficult to persist in doing good to the point of changing lives than to “check the
box”, satisfied with having done something good. However, as we discussed last week,
churches are hesitant to challenge members to do the “hard stuff” because there are always
churches down the road willing to pat members on the back for merely doing the “easy stuff”.

Outputs are about US – the church.

On the other hand, outcomes are what happens as a result of what we do. Outcomes don’t
focus on how much activity but how much impact. For churches, community engagement
should be about seeing lives changed. Yet how do we know if lives changed if we don’t
maintain long-term relationships?

Only churches who see the community as the “customer” will be so genuinely concerned with
outcomes that it will invest materially and spiritually in the lives of those who don’t (and may
never) attend their church. Only churches who see members as the church personified will
adequately disciple them to endure in serving others over the long haul, and taking personal
responsibility for making disciples – not stopping at extending invitations to church next Sunday.

Outcomes are about THEM – those hurting and hopeless.

Is Your Church about Outputs?

1. What do you measure? – It’s much more difficult to track qualitative outcomes than
quantitative outputs. Measuring the true effectiveness of a compassion ministry
requires understanding where people are now – are they better off today, with food on
the table in Christ in their hearts? If “how many…” is the first question asked, then
chances are your local missions activities are more about outputs than outcomes.

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2. If you do events, how do you follow up? – When the dust settles, is the church catching
its collective breath, celebrating the successful event, or racing to follow up with all
those it encountered? When a conference ends, businesses immediately start chasing
down every person they met and entering every business card in their database. Yet
churches run events and crusades come through town, leaving behind a trail of new
seekers or believers with little to no further contact. Even those making professions of
faith are largely left to their own devices unless they decide to show up at a church. It’s
staggering to see the statistics of how few people who accept Christ at concerts or
revivals are still walking with the Lord, living out their faith, just a few years later. Event
leaders are quick to cite attendance and professions, but not how many actually got
plugged into a local church.

3. How does your church invest its time in members? – Maybe event leaders were
counting on whoever invited each person to answer their questions and disciple them.
However, as we’ve discussed sermons and small groups haven’t proved adequate for
building disciples – or disciple makers. Most churchgoers don’t view themselves as the
embodiment of church, instead seeing their task as inviting people to church, leaving
the rest to pastors and staff. However, someone who comes to faith after hearing the
gospel at a Christian event (because the gospel is powerful) may have preconceived
notions and wariness about stepping into church (because in their minds churches
haven’t reflected that gospel well). We have to go to them, meeting them where they
are – not wait for them to come to us.

4. Do you have long term service programs? – Are your church’s local missions activities
designed to be transactional or relational? Are there a few sporadic campaigns or
sustained compassion initiatives? Has your church adopted any causes that it feels
strongly about addressing? If so, is a significant percentage of the congregation
involved? All of this to say, how sincere is the church’s concern with the welfare of its
intended “customer”?

How Can Your Church Become about Outcomes?

Success in any venture hinges on following a proven process for generating desired
outcomes. There is no greater venture for a church than following Jesus’ model of
demonstrating His love and sharing His message, bringing help and hope to a world desperately
in need of both. If more churches evaluated the success of their local missions work based on
the actual difference made over the long term (outcomes) versus what they did (outputs), we
would see a reversal of the Church’s declining growth, impact, influence and perception.
Let’s look at the outcome-driven process utilized by successful organizations of any kind:

1. Focus – on target “customers” (i.e. the lost in the community) and their felt needs. No
venture is successful if it pursues the wrong “customer”, or ignores their most pressing
issues. Determine where your church can make the biggest difference in your

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community for Christ. For more insights on this step, read our eBook Transform Your
Community Forever in 6 Months.
2. Align – leaders within the church around the need to shift greater focus outward
despite certain resistance by “institution builders”
3. Set Goals – or expectations for desired outcomes as more members engage in cause(s)
and live out the Great Commission
4. Rally – the entire congregation around the need to apply their skills and interests in
some way toward the critical cause and goal of being a light to an ever darkening world
5. Train – members to each do their parts through discipleship emphasizing that they
should be the living, breathing church to those around them between Sundays
6. Organize – the troops, putting staff and lay leaders in positions of authority and holding
them accountable for outcomes, not outputs
7. Challenge – even infrequent attenders and visitors to get involved. Many are millenials
who left church because churches didn’t share their concern for justice and
compassion. Life transformation occurs as seekers turn their attention to the needs of
others and witness God’s love in action.
8. Invest – dollars strategically in creating relational outcomes rather than tactically in
transactional outputs
9. Track – whether the church is actually making a dent, in alleviating homelessness,
hunger, illiteracy, etc. and in bringing the community to Christ
10. Maintain – the emphasis on outcomes, evaluating and repeating steps 1 through 9 as
necessary

Churches take internal aspects of their ministry that seriously – following that entire process –
because most treat those in attendance as “customers”. Have you seen churches take their
engagement with the community – their intended “customer” – just as seriously?
We have to ask again, if your church closed its doors tomorrow, would it be missed badly by
your community?

BRIDGING THE CURRENT STATE / FUTURE STATE GAP

Quick Tips
1. Redefine Your “Customer” – A wrong definition of your “customer” leads to bad metrics.
Define the “customer” correctly and you’ll get the metrics right. What a church tracks and
monitors will help reorient expectations of “shoppers”, encouraging them to BE the church
to those around them.
2. Discard “Customer” Metrics – Try to grow membership, attendance and giving and you’ll be
inclined to cater rather than challenge, treating members as “customers”. Instead, focus on
metrics that coalesce everyone around reaching the real “customer” of your church – the
community where your church is planted
3. Monitor the Health of Your Church Instead – As described earlier in this chapter, Church
Health can be measured by a Balanced Scorecard for churches consisting of 4 dimensions
around Discipleship, Empowerment, Community Impact and Generosity.

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4. Find Our Whether You’re Really Making a Difference – To measure this, consider surveying
community leaders and citizens, seeing if they would miss your church if it was no longer
there.

Your Next Steps

Fill in the blanks:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Success in revitalizing and growing a healthier church hinges on:

• Ongoing Sponsorship – Building initial excitement about becoming a church where the
members truly are the personification of “church” and the helpless and hopeless in the
community is treated and the ”customer” will not lead to permanent change. The senior
pastor in particular must continually drive home the new definition of the “customer”.
• Monitoring Buy-in – Leaders must bake the concept that members ARE the church and the
lost is the “customer” into the fabric of the church culture, including teaching through
messages and small groups as well as by example by modeling compassionate service to the
community
• Taking Action – Strategic plans that sit on the desk of the senior pastor won’t transform a
church. Planning has to transition into action, with responsibilities assigned to key leaders
and holding them accountable for carrying out those actions
• Continuous Learning – Leaders must track results and debrief to refine the strategy, shifting
metrics from those that emphasize size and giving to measures of health like life change and
community impact
• Expectations Management – Calling members to act as the church year-round entails
raising your expectations of them. Some may balk at being asked to do more than serving
on the weekends because they have busy schedules and are ready to make the
commitment required of disciples. However, making disciples is their responsibility as
Christians and yours as a church.
• Member Engagement – There is tremendous untapped leverage in church pews across
America, capable of becoming a powerful service and evangelistic force for Jesus.
Mobilizing them is the key to increasing your church’s growth, impact, influence, and
perception
• Rallying around Common Causes – Groups and individuals remain fragmented and
unmotivated without a common cause to unite and excite them. Seeking and saving the
lost around them should be the cause of any church, but specific causes like ending hunger
and mentoring troubled youth will make a community understand that your church cares.
• Partnerships – Join the Lord where He’s already moving and make a much bigger dent in
local social issues but working together with secular and Christian organizations. Show the
community that you’re not interested in taking credit but in making a difference.
• Following Up – It’s tempting to do good and move on, yet one time interactions and
unfulfilled promises will do more harm than good. Churches and churchgoers must form
relationships to lead people to Jesus. That means segueing events into sustained outreach
by following up with those served and running ongoing local mission programs.
• Patience – None of these changes will happen overnight but they are all necessary to
revitalize your church and transform your community. The race is a marathon not a sprint
so do not try to implement all of this immediately, but slowly build momentum by working
first on hearts and minds, then launching initiatives to mobilize members into action.
• Resolve – There will certainly be resistance from leaders and members alike as well as a
tendency to slip back into old ways of doing things to avoid losing key members. However,
redefining the churches “customer” is the right and best path for each and every church.

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 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND SUPPORT

Meet The Need providing a number of tools to help churches achieve the objectives outlined in
this workbook:

• Blog ([Link] – Weekly postings about topics related to this

workbook with live examples and case studies of churches who have implemented these
concepts successfully
• eBooks:
1) The 5 Steps to Revitalize Your Church:
[Link]
[Link]
2) Transform Your Community Forever in 6 Months:
[Link]
[Link]
• Online Assessment ([Link] – Quick online
review of where your church stands today in terms of each module in this workbook
and recommendations for how to move to higher levels of proficiency in each
• Personalized Consulting – Contact Jim Morgan directly at (813) 230-0189 or
jmorgan@[Link] to ask him to work personally with you to determine how
best to put these ideas in place at your church
• Coaching Webinars – A small number of pastors gather monthly for presentations, Q&A
sessions, group discussions and new relationships to share ideas and advice as they each
work through these changes
• Meet The Need – A complete suite of tools that will alleviate the bottlenecks that
prevent so many churches today from engaging and mobilizing their congregations
effectively in the community. If the information listed above encourages your church to
get more members involved in praying, caring and sharing then our software will enable
you do much more with much less effort. As a Christ-centered ministry, Meet The Need
offers all of its software to your church at no charge.

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 ABOUT US

About Meet The Need

Meet The Need ([Link]) is the first organization to provide a comprehensive
solution to a critical issue - the enormous communication gap in cities between those in need
and those who can help. Because it is not commercially viable to develop technologies to
connect cities to serve those in need, no for-profit software vendors have brought a solution to
that fundamental problem. However, Meet The Need is a non-profit, ministry whose mission is
to unite and mobilize the body of Christ to bring far more help and hope to those in need.

Charities have tried to share needs with local churches and businesses via email, phone calls
and newsletters for far too long. And churches can't possibly communicate those needs and
engage members to meet them via the pulpit and bulletin. Some have tried to solve these
"bottleneck" problems through clearinghouses, but those haven't worked. Driving all traffic to
one central site creates more work and gives too little control to each organization. Instead,
Meet The Need’s approach is to empower charities, churches and businesses with ALL of the
state-of-the-art platforms they will EVER need to manage and communicate ALL of their
charitable activities.

• Running and Broadcasting Events

• Managing and Recruiting Volunteers
• Connecting with Partner Organizations
• Accepting and Tracking In-Kind Donations
• Sharing Family Needs and Tracking Services Provided
• Running Collaborate Charity Drives

These systems are all private-labeled, access-controlled, and FREE. Despite over 10 years and
millions developing them, Meet The Need believes the only way to ensure all organizations in a
city say "yes" and wind up connected on the same underlying platform is to give away valuable,
best-practice tools that churches and charities could not afford to buy or build themselves.

Since Meet The Need’s national launch in 2012, the response has been truly amazing. Meet
The Need now works with many of the largest churches and charities in the nation. In addition,
the longstanding need Meet The Need filled for a solution to finally bring modern tools to local
missions has also garnered attention from major players working on key social issues such as
hunger relief, homelessness and church/school partnerships. Meet The Need has partnered
with those organizations to design and build leading technology systems to alleviate the
disconnects that were preventing collaboration among partners in those respective spaces.

To learn more, watch this brief overview video - [Link]

[Link]
Questions? – info@[Link]
Customer Service – admin@[Link]
(813) 527-0222

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 ABOUT US

About Jim Morgan

For years I was on the “fast track” – management consulting for Fortune 500 companies,
investment banking on Wall Street, legislative aid on Capitol Hill, and MBA from the nation’s
top business school. But all along I knew something was off. As a Christian, I wasn’t doing
anything to serve God and others. My prayers for a mission and purpose grew more and more
frequent.

Then, in 2000, it came – and be careful what you pray for. The Lord showed me that the same
solutions I was bringing to large corporations were badly needed by the body of Christ. There
were significant communication gaps in cities across the country between those in need and
those who could help. So our team invested over a decade and millions designing and building
Meet The Need, the first comprehensive solution brought from the business world to local
missions – empowering churches to reach out to families desperately in need of help and hope.

Throughout that process, I wondered why the Church in America seemed to be struggling – in
growth, impact and perception. Being a consultant, I couldn’t help but look closer – and what I
discovered was shocking. The modern American church model doesn’t align with the most
fundamental principle of successful organizations – nor Biblical mandates. There is a flawed
assumption underlying nearly every decision churches make today and we believe it’s the root
cause for the Church’s decline.

That discovery prompted the blog, eBooks, assessments, workbook and consulting that Meet
The Need now offers. Technology does not change hearts and minds, so we have developed
materials and best practices to encourage churches to do more to engage the lost in their
communities. Now Meet The Need has a complete set of solutions, strategic roadmaps as well
as state-of-the-art software, to revitalize and mobilize churches to impact their communities for
Christ.

jmorgan@[Link]
(813) 230-0189

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