Process
As I read my new book, Simple Church I have become more and more aware of intentionally plotting out the process through which we will be encouraging people to travel as a church when Horizon launches in September. What we came up with is the diagram on the right, and we have also noted how these levels fit into our mission. What surprised me the most is how new of a concept this was for myself and my team. I mean we talked about a process and in our minds the process was get people to come to church and strengthen their relationship with God, but then we realized that we had to be more specific about our process. So we plotted out this course of action for that will be stressed to every member or regular attender at Horizon.
I have began to think that more and more people walk into churches excited and ready to run the race, but they have no idea what direction to run when they actually get involved. Too often, I believe that we as a church downplay spiritual growth and maturity. We preach that people should grow at their own pace and get to the next level we they are ready, and while I agree with that in some ways I think that we need to constantly have the defined process at the forefront of our church member’s minds so they can concentrate on where they are going and what they need to do to get there.
I’m not saying our process at Horizon is perfect or the standard by any means, and this process may need to be changed or tweaked as we grow and understand more about our church. But, I’m glad we decided to define it for our church members. I would encourage every church leader to ask themselves these questions because I believe it will revolutionize the way that your church develops disciples.
Does your church have a defined process? How does that process fit into the church’s mission? What can we do to make our process more tangible for our members?
