As a church consultant, whenever we meet a pastor, we hope to find out how their church is doing.
Our simple question is …
“Do you want your next two years of ministry to be like your last two?”
This question cuts to the heart of their call to ministry.
Are they feeling unsatisfied with how their ministry is progressing?
Is there something that’s been lost from their original call to ministry?
Our question takes us right to any holy discontent they are experiencing. We hope leads us to a deeper conversation about the state of their (church) ministry.
If we do get invited to journey with a church to help improve their church health, here are the steps we follow to diagnose the current state of their church:
- Review the numbers.
We assess your ministry health metrics and provide you with a comprehensive report you can use as benchmarks for progress going forward. - Pull out the leadership’s honest opinions.
You and your leadership team provide detailed, anonymous feedback on how healthy you think your church is — which helps us figure out where the team is unified and where there is division or confusion. - Send a “Mystery Guest” to your Sunday services.
We’ll visit your church on a Sunday morning as a “secret shopper” to report observations on various ministry environments through the eyes of an outsider. - Connect with the senior pastor.
Quality time meeting with the senior pastor to hear his story and talk about the ministry history, future objectives, strategy and staff leadership.
After we spend time together, we will produce an executive summary outlining observations, data benchmarks and specific next steps we recommend that you take. We’ll schedule a meeting with the senior pastor to review this report and collaborate on how to best position your church to move forward.
We promise you will gain:
- A fresh perspective on your strategies, systems and structure
- A better understanding of how people see your church when they visit for the first time
- A current snapshot of your ministry’s health so you can make educated decisions about future plans
For those of you who have never invited an “outsider” into the depths of your organization, I understand. It takes tremendous courage to open up and let yourself be scrutinized in this way, but an objective perspective of someone who deeply cares about the Church can be a powerful experience for the entire the leadership team.
Contact us to find out more about our Church Health Services here.
