Sometimes my mentor and friend George Bullard comes up with cumbersome names for important topics. For instance, I learned more about how congregations live, thrive, survive, and often die from George’s book Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation than I have from several other training events on congregational development. His book fleshes out the Spiritual Strategic Journey model that marks his long work as a coach, consultant, and judicatory official. The book is tremendous, the process is spirit-filled and leads to proactive movement – we just have to help rename the process.
My prelude is offered to lead you to another one of George’s lists. This list results from a series of posts at his blog Bullard Journal. Depending on your needs, George is making these posts available in a personal edition or presentation edition along with an opportunity to participate in a coaching conversation with him and your peers. Pray through your situation.
Your congregation is likely to exist 10 years from now if:
01: It has High Expectations of its Members
02: It has an Empowering Vision
03: It has a Shared Vision
04: It has Clear Core Values
05: It Is Intentional
06: It Is Kingdom Focused
07: It Is Contextually Relevant
08: Its Attendance Is Growing
09: Four Involvement Factors Are Present
10: It Is Experiencing Conversion, Biological, and Transfer Growth
11: Its Relationships Are About True Friendships
12: Its Worship Is a True Encounter with God
13: Its Worship Attendance Is Over 135
14: Its in the childhood to just retiring stage in the Life Cycle
15: The average age of the active congregation is less than 50
16: The average tenure of the active congregation is less than 15 years
17: At least 20 percent of your active adults members are tithers
18: More than 30 percent of your budget is focused on programs and missions
19: It has sufficient conflict capacity (i.e. it knows how to disagree in healthy ways)
20: It has empowering and shared leadership
21: It has empowering management
22: It has no significant debt
23: It has no dependence on endowments
24: Its facilities are in good shape
25: It is obviously Christ-centered
What else would you add to George’s list, and better yet, what new title would you give it?
Front Porch Reflections 