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Contents:
Introduction:
Executive Summary
Section 1:
Leaders Direct the Church
Section 2:
Structuring the Church for Impact
A family of believers,
Section 3:
Building Lasting Significant Relationships
Section 4:
Facilitating Systematic Theological Growth
Section 5:
Equipping the Family
Serving our community,
Section 6:
Serving the Community
Section 7:
Engaging in Strategic Evangelism
Through biblical living,
Section 8:
Holistic Stewardship
Section 9:
Facilitating Genuine Worship
Section 10:
Strategic, Spirit Empowered, Consistent; Prayer
Introduction
Executive Summary
A Family of Believers, serving our community, through Biblical Living.
This Highly effective Vision for SonCoast Community Church is not a business plan. ... Our vision is clear, we are a family of believers, we are serving our community, and we are doing it through biblical living…
What I hope it does, is… give structure and purpose to the things we are already doing, and give a sense of organization and steering to the path God has put us on through His calling of Pastor Chris and the elders and staff at SonCoast Community Church.
This “highly effective vision” is our mission with purpose. I trust the integration of this highly effective vision will give strengthening and definition to the mission of SonCoast, both as a blueprint for today’s ministry and as a model to grow into. ...
Our mission; Is to provide clear and gifted leadership as we structure SonCoast Community Church for Kingdom impact. ...
This report is divided into 10 Sections beginning with a discussion on Leaders Direct the Church (Section 1), followed by Structuring the Church for Impact (Section 2). ...
We begin Serving our Community with; Serving Our Community (Section 6) and Engaging in Strategic Evangelism (Section 7). ...
Section 1
Leaders Direct the Church
“To be an effective leader, one must be called by God to lead, possess the character of a person of God, and demonstrate a group of competencies that result in leadership. ... He is the one uniquely called and gifted by God to lead our church, and he does it in a way that sees every individual as a distinctively gifted piece of a God’s puzzle (the body) called SonCoast Community Church. ... She is an effective leader in designing the routines needed, and to maximize what resources we have to work with. ... Although not with the Vision for SonCoast Community Church as a Body, but rather SonCoast Youth as a “body with-in a body”. ...
My highly effective vision for SonCoast would be to utilize our staff to facilitate a cohesive leadership team that directs our church. ... Among these factors the review process should include the following:
► positive growth in the evangelistic impact of the church
► a superior and consistent quality of worship experienced by the congregation
► good financial management
► an expanded and increasingly capable team of lay leaders
► sub-ministries within the church that can identify how lives are being transformed
► a broader influence within the life of the broader community
► diminished or minimal participant turnover
► an emphasis on strategic thinking and development for the future
► absence of significant conflict within the congregation
► clarity of vision expressed to staff and congregation
► widespread ownership of the vision
► ministry activity that reflects adherence to the core values of the church (the 5 G’s)
► participation in significant alliances with other ministries
The “Senior or Staff Leadership-team” sets the example for sub-ministries within SonCoast. ...
It goes without saying that one of the most impressive – and important – elements of a Highly Effective Vision for SonCoast is that most of the leadership comes from laity. ... When a church has strong leadership at the helm, people who have a similar gift gravitate to that church. ... Our Highly Effective Vision is to constantly recruit and train leaders because you can never have too many. ...
For a Highly Effective Ministry at SonCoast, I believe Leaders Direct the Church.
Section 2
Structuring the Church for Impact
The least favorite activity for most ministries is creating form and structure with-in the organization. ... First I will identify a few important traits to consider when developing structure that are critical to Highly effective Churches. And then I will outline a proposed structure that is specific and unique to SonCoast Community Church.
Participation Matters
Highly effective churches agree that ministry is not the domain of spectators; it must be populated by activists. ... We must make it clear that you cannot be part of the real church unless you get involved in ministry. ... home church, men’s/women’s groups, relationships, worship, etc. ...
Our common strategy is to identify people visiting the church for the first time and to inform them the church will only prove to be beneficial only if they are willing to get involved right away. ... But the message needs to be clear: get involved of find another church! ... )
The leader/pastors of highly effective churches possess an entirely different perspective. ... For example one church studied by the Barna Organization had eight full-time people serving a church with more than 6,000 adults attending on a weekly basis. ... The norms for “highly effective churches” average one staff person for each 300 weekly attendees, compared to the average church in America with one full-time paid staff person for every 75-100 adults attending the church regularly. ...
“To be part of this church, you have to be involved in ministry”
► Opportunities for laziness and dependence are removed.
The church hires comparatively few full-time staff and their roles are very carefully defined. ... We know the person’s strengths and weaknesses; they understand and have accepted the church’s vision for ministry; they know the terrain, the people, the structure, the history, the community, the church. ...
Structure Ministries to meet changing needs
SonCoast Community Church should adopt the belief that every program and policy has a life cycle and that eventually every program and policy must be updated to reflect environmental changes. ... It is the ability to adapt to circumstances without fear of reprisal or without anxiety about policy limitations that enables a church to remain responsive to the opportunities God provides.
Planned Growth that is reasonable
Highly effective churches restrict their growth to approximately 15% annually. ... Attracting large numbers of people to a church is not hard to do. ... Growing faster than 15% per year puts untenable stress on a church. ... Limit program involvement to the maximum level at which the church can provide excellence. ... Work Cooperatively with other churches to introduce newcomers to other congregations that might be more effective at meeting their needs. ... Continued self-examination is a hallmark of highly effective ministries. ... Highly effective churches do not rest on their past or present performance because they are driven by God’s vision for the ministry’s future. ... Highly effective churches did not use the typical standards (attendance, membership, budget, number of events etc) Instead they created unique ways of measuring change. In order to determine effectiveness they developed honest relationships and determined the change in individual’s lives to arrive at a judgment about the state of the church. ... Highly Effective ministries constantly look at the progress. This becomes an ingrained part of the corporate culture-ministry habits.
4 When deficiencies or short comings are discovered, everyone is committed to making changes that will facilitate effective ministry. ... As the church grows Spiritually and Numerically, I would recommend hiring in the following order. ... As outlined in this section, I believe this structure will effectively serve SonCoast Community Church to triple the growth or 2,400 weekly attendees. ... Para Church Involvement
(NAB director, Boca Fire Chaplaincy, others…)
f. CEO and Chairman of the Elders
(overall administration of the church organization)
g. ... Home Church
(leader supervision, support, accountability)
f. ... Church Planning Calendar(s)
5. ... Senior High Outreach Ministries & Events
(supervise, organize, direct, teach, develop one/one relationships, par church activities, counseling, etc…)
3. ... The following proposal is designed to give efficient and effective structure and accountability to our existing ministries while utilizing our current resources and personal to their maximum efficient extent, and impact. ... A brief summary of roles is as follows:
Pastor Chris:
Title: Senior Pastor
Role: Pulpit Ministries, and Chief Executive Officer/Director of Church
Pastor Dave:
Title: Pastor of Family ministries
Role: Director of Children, Adult, Men’s & Women’s Ministries
Pastor Charles:
Title: Pastor of Youth & Young adults
Role: Director of Youth & College age young Adults
Addie Bruening
Title: Church Administrator
Role: Church office operations
Elder 1: Missions Coordinator
Elder 2: Facilities Coordinator
Elder 3: Home Church Coordinator
Elder 4: Church Financial Overseer
Elder 5: Celebrate Recovery Coordinator
Elder 6: Visitation Coordinator
Section 3
Building Lasting Significant Relationships
SonCoast Community Church is a Family of Believers! Throughout the history of the church, a recurrent theme is that it is a loving, caring community. ... This is one of our strengths that set SonCoast ahead of the average Christian Church where members are filled with “head and bible knowledge” but lack living in intimate relationships with Him and Other Christians. ... Our church is the people who are emotionally connected by our mutual and stated love for Christ and by our commitment to each other because of Christ. ... The services are in some ways just an excuse for the real church to get together. ... Our priorities should be clear:
Christ is first in all matters
Family is second
Relationships with other believers, in particular our church family is third
And then those outside the community of faith – non believers with whom we work and live next to.
I am convinced that this relational priorities principle is a vital distinctive of highly effective churches. ... Because when the church focuses their energy on priority relationships, they become strategic. ... If the un-churched want a great event there are thousands of organizations that can put on a better show than SonCoast Community Church. ... I think the reason why SonCoast does so well in this area, is because Pastor Chris and Pastor Dave model this by hosting a home church, and because Charles and Addie, live this lifestyle as well. ...
A Core Benefit of Relationships
Highly effective churches do not have to invest oodles of resources in trying to familiarize an endless stream of new comers with the mission, vision, and values of the church because the people who come and visit, stay. Those people stay in the church because of the emotional connections that develop with the congregation. Leaving the church would cut themselves off form the “family”. ... Highly effective churches have tapped into this inclination by intentionally addressing every person’s need to belong to something special. ...
Section 4:
Facilitating Systematic Theological Growth
Section 5:
Equipping the Family
Building up Christian families is on of the most desperately needed – and most daunting – challenges facing the Church today. ...
SonCoast Community Church should consider a new paradigm of family ministry. ...
7. ... For a large percentage of people, their church is the only source of such a safety net. ... greater emotional closeness among family members,
7. ...
The Role of the Church
SonCoast Community Church has always been seen as “family friendly,” but whether or not we are seen a place that provides practical and valuable help to families is another question to ask. ... I believe we can do better at facilitating meaningful relationships within families as well as among the family units in the church, regularly checking up on families to ensure that they are getting the attention and resources necessary to be effective and healthy, providing family development resources and role models. ... They are simple, biblical, and transferable and when strategically and purposefully implemented will build strong godly families at SonCoast, and more importantly, define our church as a place where families can receive practical and valuable help. ... Equipping the Family for Self-Development
This is the single most important principle if we are to embrace a highly effective family ministries program. ... (The prevailing model in church is to attract families by offering as many family-oriented programs as possible and have “specialists” employed by the church who will solve family problems through these programs. I believe that such an approach actually cripples families because it creates a dependency upon the church. Instead of giving families responsibility for there own issues, it places the responsibility on the church which then prevents the family from being independent, self-sustaining and healthy. ... Church leaders keep an eye open for individuals who have the ability to mentor families.
7. ... Pastor Chris sets the tone for the church in regard to family ministries. The signal sent out by him will largely determine the way in which church resources are allocated to helping families grow. ... Such prayer occurs both in public services and outside of church-wide events. ... This speaks volumes about the importance attached to families in our church. As go our families, so goes our church. We should understand and regularly take the pulse of the church – the solidarity of marriages, the communication levels within homes, the financial solvency of households, the spiritual activity among family members and so forth – to determine how to best support our families. ... It is necessary to remind our people that both groups – those in the church and those outside – are of equal importance, but that the needs we address will not necessarily receive equal emphasis. ... ” In their eyes, a church that allows itself to become too self-absorbed is simply unhealthy. ... In order for SonCoast to become continually effective in community service, we will all have to accept the constant expansion concept. ... Here is one pastor’s comments on how his church is serving…
“We try to help the homeless, the abused, single moms and also immigrants who don’t speak English. ... So I asked the brother, “We’d love to be more effective. ... That’s what the church is supposed to be. ...
Modeling by Leaders
We already practice the best way to improve the quality of performance and long-term impact of our community service by having the leaders of the church accompany the laity in service ministries. ... But when we see them, an elder, or other staff person taking a bold risk, falling flat, getting up, growing and eventually succeeding – with the encouragement and uninterrupted support of the church – verbal exhortations to take risks become more than just the expected words. ... The conclusion to community service activity is to begin promoting what we are already doing, in a way to encourage those who are serving, and to get others involved in existing service as well as begin and continue beginning new community service opportunities, as a compulsory part of SonCoast Community Church.
Section 7:
Engaging in Strategic Evangelism
Like all of efforts at SonCoast, Evangelism must be studied, the action options must be analyzed and compared, direction from God must be earnestly sought, choices must be made, people must be informed and prepared, and then the plans must be put into practice.
Approximate Word count = 12284
Approximate Pages = 49.1
(250 words per page double spaced)
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