Explore the shift from focusing on getting people back to services to looking forward in church health. Discussions include assessing ministry health, strategic planning for the future, and aligning structures to achieve vision. Learn about navigating challenges and opportunities post-COVID, setting new baselines for health, renewing vision clarity in church teams, importance of shared vision, and strategies for church health and development.
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Quick takeaways
Shift focus from returning to services to overall church health post-pandemic.
Strategic planning involves spiritual engagement journey tracking and staff alignment for church health.
Deep dives
Focusing on Church Health Post-Pandemic
Many North American churches experienced decline even before the pandemic, and COVID has accelerated this trend. Instead of solely aiming to bring people back to services post-pandemic, the focus needs to shift to overall church health. Leading churches that were healthy before and remain so are actively planning for health. Recent conversations highlighted varying attendance patterns based on church size and location, with some churches nearly back to pre-COVID levels, while larger urban or suburban churches are facing significant attendance declines due to ongoing COVID concerns.
Financial Stability and New Engagement Opportunities
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, many churches have sustained healthy giving levels, indicating financial protection. A positive trend observed is the increasing number of new people attending churches for the first time, leading to life-changing experiences. Disruptions caused by COVID and life changes outside the pandemic have created opportunities for churches to engage in mission, spread the gospel, and connect with individuals seeking support amidst disruptions in their lives.
Assessing Ministry Health and Strategic Planning
Churches are advised to reassess their approach to assessing ministry health, moving beyond traditional metrics like attendance and giving. An emphasis is placed on setting new baselines and tracking spiritual engagement journey indicators to ensure church health across different phases. Strategic planning involves aligning organizational goals, structuring measurement metrics across ministry phases, and ensuring a focus on engaging with new individuals while evaluating the effectiveness of reach strategies and discipleship pathways.
Aligning Staffing and Structure for Success
Churches are encouraged to align top-level staff around the spiritual engagement journey rather than program-specific structures. Reducing span of care, ensuring the lead pastor's focus on core responsibilities that cannot be delegated, and dedicating teams to digital strategies are highlighted best practices. An additional emphasis is placed on hiring individuals with complementary strengths in task-oriented and people-focused areas to achieve a balanced team dynamic.
Most churches are still focused on getting people to return back to their services. And it’s easy to understand why. But are you feeling the call to put your focus forward again?
Last week, Tony Morgan, Amy Anderson, and Sean Bublitz hosted a live webinar on "Finding Church Health Again." Listen in on their conversation as they discuss assessing ministry health, strategic planning for the future, and aligning your structure to accomplish your vision.
For the full episode transcript, links mentioned during the show, and to download the Leader Conversation Guide, visit this episode's Show Notes at theunstuckgroup.com/episode213.
Join the Live Conversation on Social Media
If you're listening on Wednesday, when the episode first releases, join the live conversation The Unstuck Group's team will be having on social media about this week's topic. We use hashtag #unstuckchurch on Twitter. Or you can join in on Facebook.
Ask your questions and add your comments about the topic.
If you're catching this episode later, you can still join in! Just tag us @unstuckgroup or use #unstuckchurch, and include [episode 213] in your post for reference.
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