On Saturday, March 14, 2015, ten (10) church members gathered to begin planning for a deliberate church growth process. Through evangelism, member outreach and identifying growth groups, we have committed to growing our Christ Church family by 100 members over the next five years.

As a first step, we quizzed ourselves on the following 10 questions. The more "Yes" answers, the more likely the church's position to grow. How many times did you answer YES?

• Is there a group of people inside the congregation committed to making membership growth happen?

• Do enough rank and file members understand that coffee hour is the time to interrupt conversations with old friends so that they can start conversations with visitors?

• Does your congregation have an effective system for greeting Sunday visitors? Does the congregation follow up with first-time visitors – by phone and/or email – by Monday night?

• Is your congregation's public face – especially its website – inviting and up-to-date?

• Are worship services engaging?

• Is the path to membership laid out clearly to visitors, without them having to have any insider knowledge of who to talk to or where to go? Does your congregation celebrate, during worship, when new members join? Are prospective members presented a bold vision of the congregation, its mission, and the importance of contributing financially?

• Does your congregation help new members find their place and put down roots in the congregation?

• Does your minister use the pulpit to laud the importance of membership growth? Do other key leaders also support membership growth, in their official and unofficial capacities? Is there appropriate staff and budget support for growth?

• Is governance flexible and accessible, so that it doesn't strangle new initiatives? Do leaders have the authority to lead? Do people leave leadership posts refreshed and grateful for the experience?

• Are interpersonal relations within the congregation generally healthy and are people who display toxic behavior held accountable?

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic planning is an important part of the creation, development and growth of any organization. Ministries that are interested in growth are not exempt from planning. Church planning helps the organization map out strategic steps to achieve its mission. Churches can experience a level of success without a plan, but those who invest the time and resources into developing a specific strategy and plan can achieve success at a much quicker pace.

A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is a great exercise to go through because it identifies the key areas of the church that need targeted resources as well as opportunities or opposing environmental factors that could affect church strategy.

The SWOT analysis process can discover many great ideas to help target development, growth and improvements. The results of our core group's analysis are as follows:

SWOT

Objective: to grow Christ Church by 100 new members over the next five years

STAY TUNED

As work continues on this mission, we will try to keep you updated on current progress through this section on our website, so add it to your favorites or bookmarks.

Of course, the best way to keep in touch is to . . .

GET INVOLVED AND PARTICIPATE!

To join this effort, just give Pastor Jeff a call and let him know you are interested.