Brett Selby, Leadership Development Specialist
CHURCH PRACTICE ASSESSMENT
DIALOGUE GUIDELINES
The Kingdom-focused church can be described as follows:
| · | A church that does what is important to the King. | |
| · | A church that is driven by the Great Commission as the mandate for its mission. | |
| · | A church that adopts evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, ministry, and worship as the functions needed to carry out the mandate. | |
| · | A church that utilizes balanced, connected church practice strategies to implement the functions. | |
| · | A church that experiences the work of God through demonstrated Kingdom results. | |
All churches can be more effective in their focus on Kingdom work. As one tool to improve effectiveness, the Church Practice Assessment helps church leaders evaluate where the church is in light of 32 church practice characteristics, determine common goals related to where the church needs to go, and identify specific actions needed to accomplish those goals.
The characteristics on the assessment are certainly not all inclusive, but they do describe characteristics of churches with a strong Kingdom focus. Many of the statements are subjective and require responses that are personal opinions. However, the goal of using the assessment tool is to help church leaders dialogue about the church as they see it. As a result of the dialogue, common concerns will be identified. These common concerns can be helpful in establishing ministry goals.
Follow these steps to complete the assessment and dialogue with other church leaders about your church:
Step One: Evaluate where your church is.
Each staff person or lay leader completes the assessment. Rank each of the 32 characteristics related to your personal perception of how well the church accomplishes that characteristic. Remember, your evaluation should be based on the level of quality demonstrated for each characteristic and not just its presence in church practice. Using your responses to the assessment, complete the Scoring Evaluation Worksheet.
Step Two: Determine where your church needs to go.
Form small groups of no more than four leaders to discuss the assessment evaluations. After reviewing each individual evaluation, determine as a group two high score characteristics (strengths) and two low score characteristics (concerns) for each response item. [Prepare a chart sheet for each response item. Each sheet should include space to list strengths and concerns (Ex. Response 1 Strengths, Response 1 Concerns).] Each group list the two high score and low score characteristics on the appropriate response sheet. As a large group, identify common strengths and concerns for each group. Pray together praising God for the strengths identified and seeking His wisdom for ways to address the concerns.
Step Three: Identify actions needed to get to where the church needs to go.
Agree on at least one concern for each response item that can become a ministry goal for the next year. Be open to including concerns that develop from the dialogue that are not listed as characteristics on the assessment. The objective of this exercise is to build a unified ministry plan that helps strengthen the church practice strategies. Though the assessment characteristics are excellent guidelines, they are not all inclusive. Write a goal statement for each concern. Determine specific actions needed to accomplish the goal. Establish leadership accountability for each goal and calendar dates for evaluation of the progress made toward goal achievement.
Brett Selby, Leadership Development Specialist
bselby@bgco.org
(405) 942-3000, X-4400