South London - reality check

Dead churches score an average of 0.

Dying – range from 35 to 0.
35 is minimum survival score.
Churches that score 35 are ALIVE, but not well.
Perfect “health” begins at score of 65.
Our average score is 35.8!

WE’VE MADE IT! WE ARE ALIVE!

What is obvious even from the first glance on the above chart is that we have TWO areas in need of improvement, and they both are interconnected – Holistic Small Groups & Loving Relationships!

North London - reality check

Dead churches score an average of 0.

Dying – range from 35 to 0.
35 is minimum survival score.
Churches that score 35 are ALIVE, but not well.
Perfect “health” begins at score of 65.
Our average score is 32.8!

WE ARE ALIVE! BUT STRUGGLING TO FLOAT…

It is encouraging to see that our strength lays in our Passionate Spirituality, rooted in the blessed hope in the soon return of Our Lord Jesus. Together with the new Empowering Leadership we move boldly toward greater spiritual health of our congregation.

Church Health Team

Whole month has passed since we considered our minimum factor. It is time to put together a team that would be responsible for suggesting a course of action and setting a plan with a timeline to guide the church through the process of improving Church’s spiritual health. Pastor Alex together with the Board of Elders had led through the initial preparation and diagnosis stages. However, as we move toward implementing necessary changes and improvements we need to increase the leadership team.
If you wonder who should serve on this team – we recommend:

• people who are spiritually mature, who have a heart for God and his kingdom. People who exercise personal spiritual disciplines of prayer and reading of scripture regularly.
  
• people who can see the big picture, who are not lost in the details, who can see the purpose of increasing quality.
  
• people who are strategic thinkers. While it is important to keep an eye on the big picture, it should never be done at the expense of planning. We need people who can make dreams become reality, who can bring the idea into practice.
  
• people who are committed to see the church grow. Enthusiasm for the church is contagious and motivates others.
  

Following Roles are important on the Team:

TEAM LEADER. Everything truly does rise and fall on leadership. The leader should be someone who works well with people, yet is decisive and keep the team moving forward. The laity drives the church, the leader should be someone other than the pastor, though he/she should work closely with the pastor.

1. STRATEGIC THINKER. A person who enjoys creating processes to ensure success. The accountability person for the team, putting names, dates, and goals in writing to track progress and keep the team moving forward.
   
2. RESEARCHER. A person who can do a lot of the leg work for the team, including compiling a list of people and their spiritual gifts, bringing ideas from the congregation to the team, phone calls, etc.
   
3. INTERCESSOR. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of prayer. Prayer is vital to the success of your team, and we need the prayer warrior.
   
4. COMMUNICATOR. It is not possible to have the whole church serve on the Church Health Team, it is important to keep Church informed of the team’s progress, for the Church to embrace it. This person will serve as a key link between the team and the leadership of the church.
   

This core group will work with different MEMBERS OF MINISTRY TEAMS in the process. Since many of the changes will directly affect the ministries of the church – people from the front-lines will be invited to participate in the process at different stages.

from Technocratic to Biotic

How do you see your church? A Robot? or a Living Organism?
At first look machines do work, and robots function well – artificially. Yet they fail miserably in a biotic world. The “ROBOT” church takes external energy end has no life in itself. Ministries are sustained by the constant input by leaders.
Jesus taught that the Church is the Body, the Kingdom is a Living Organism, not a robot assembled from pre-made parts. The healthy church lives without a need for technical systems to provide a “life-support”. Healthy church lives and grows by itself, using God-given viability.
Even when the church is presented as the Temple, its members are called “living stones” (1st Peter 2:1-5)
Having learned the 8 essential qualities of a healthy church, and the impact of the “weak link” or a “minimum factor” on the integrity of the whole church body, we must consider how to improve the quality, how to raise the minimums and build up the health of the church, using BIOTIC principles.
Living church cannot follow someone else’s blueprint, or copy another church model. It must use its own growth automatisms. Instead of relying on artificial technology living church simply uses natural principles.
Living Organism is

• Connected interdependently
  
• Reproduces by multiplying
  
• Transforms energy for leverage
  
• Sustains through multi-usage
  
• Cooperates symbiotically
  
• Self-checks through functionality
  

Here I did it again - used whole bunch of technical terms that don’t sound at all like natural biotic principles. Next week we’ll unpack these principles through natural living examples…