Is Your Church Developmental?

Bill, do you think we are we developmental? It’s a question I have faced often at churches I have counseled and in those I have served over the years. There is clearly a difference in a group, church or other organization between those that equip and develop, and those who simply gather people and move them around.

Here is a comparison.

Non-equipping                   vs.                        Equipping

Event-driven                          vs.                        Community-Driven

Fills Slots                                vs.                        Forms Servants

Throws Tasks at People         vs.                        Tasks Emerge from People

People Serve Organization    vs.                        Organization Serves People

Begins w/ a Program              vs.                        Begins w/a Relationship

So, an event-driven, slot filling approach uses the platform to drive people toward accomplishing the program. A community-driven, servant-mobilizing group starts with a relationship and re-strucutres the organization to support people on a mission.

What is the litmus test?

Does your staff spend more energy competing for announcement slots on Sundays to mobilize volunteers for service than on training them for ministry? (“Our infants will grow up to be little Hitlers if you don’t serve in the nursery!”)

How much money in the budget is spent on training people for specific ministry based on their gifts and ministry opportunities, and how much is spent on “gathering” people to fulfill organizational roles and tasks? What is the ratio in dollars, hours, staffing? Sounds a bit idealistic, but is entirely biblical.

Did Jesus say, “Go you therefore and organize events?” Did Paul write in Ephesians 4 that each part of the body does church work or that churches should work to help each part of the body do its own work?

In reality these are never either-or propositions – but what is the primary focus of your community? That is a fair question. Equipping is harder to do and measure, at least initially. Reggie McNeal gets this in his book Missional Renaissance, about changing the scorecard of the church.

What if we measured how many apprentice leaders we had, how many couples in restorative therapy, how many people trained for serving the poor, how many people are equipped to actually study the bible and engage life’s challenges with the truth? What if we measured not only how much money we collected each week (most church bulletins do this) but posted how much we gave away each week?

What would it take to get there?

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Tagged as: development, equipping, missional, Reggie McNeal