As you begin to clarify your ministry action steps and quantify what will define a successful ministry, you will begin to see clearly. This will quickly lead you to begin identifying ministries that are out of alignment with your ministries vision.

What should you do with these outliers? They are good ministries right? 

A good strategies understands that there are often two or more good things they could be doing at any given time. The strategy also knows they must always take choose to support ministries that are not only good options in the short run, but also that suppor the vision in the long run. 

It would poor stewardship of ministry resources to support a ministry that will ultimately derail the long term progress toward the vision. You must see the long game. 

If the ministry in question can be brought into focus, that it may remain so long as it also meets the KPI’s we set earlier. 

For Example: Why is your ministry hosting and funding a couples conference if you ministry vision is to be meeting the needs of your community through missions? If it’s truly unrelated to the vision of your church then it’s time to prune. However, in this case it’s possible to tie this event directly into the discipleship process of your churchgoers by explaining that you are supporting healthy relationships in your ministry because heatlhy realtionships are exactly what are needed when you are undergoing the stresses of the mission field. You are a missionary.

When Abraham was called away from his father’s land, God called him to a specific place. 

With each decision, Abraham was either getting one step closer or one step further away from the land God promised him.

There are three reasons ministries don’t reach the promised land that God is calling them to.          

Reason 1: Churches don’t have a clear understanding of where they are going.

To address this lack of a vision, prayerfully consider with your church leaders the direction that God is calling your church. 

Create a clear and concise vision statement that explains what the world will look like when your church has reached its destination.

Example: Have church plants ministering to people in 5 third-world countries by [year].

Example: See 1,000 people come to Christ by [date].

Example: To create a self-sustained church presence in Zambia.

Just having a vision statement is not enough to get results in your ministry.

Everything you do has to embody the vision of your church. 

This attracts like-minded Christians to your cause and encourages them to take ownership of the church’s vision in their own life. 

If your vision is unclear, or your programs don’t support your vision, your audience will not take ownership of the actions required to move your church forward. 

This is not because they don’t want to support your efforts, but because they lack the clarity to take appropriate action. 

When your leadership is 100% clear on the church’s vision and your church focuses all the programs around its vision, your audience will be 100% clear on what they should do to participate.

Vision Clarity + Vision Centric Programs = 

Passionate and Engaged Audience

Reason 2: The second way churches deviate from fulfilling their vision is by entertaining growth strategies that produce no results or negative results. 

Even well-intentioned strategies can result in backward motion. 

Backward motion is enabled due to undefined results and a lack of measurement on the part of church leadership. 

Example: We recently worked with a client who had been advertising their church services in Google to get more people in the front door.

By itself, this would seem to be an effective growth strategy. However, the ministry staff member managing the account was targeting search terms that did not bring people to the church. 

The staff member had not identified any specific results that would determine success or failure. 

When we began managing the account the church had spent over $3,000 on advertisements that brought no one into their church. 

By identifying the desired result and measuring progress to it we were able to reduce the church’s advertising budget and increase their results at the same time!

By clarifying the results you want to see and measuring the progress toward the result your church growth strategies will become more effective (and will often reduce resource drain).

Reason 3: Churches deviate from the path toward their vision by pursuing growth strategies that produce good results that do not lead them toward the vision. 

Many churches have identified their desired result and measured it successfully.

These churches may produce reliable growth – but the growth is not leading toward the vision God has given the church.

This would be like Abraham successfully reaching a good land – but not the land God called him to.

Example: Suppose the vision of a church is to focus on funding international missions so they can reach X amount of people by __/__/____  but instead they put resources toward an alcohol rehabilitation center in their community. 

The rehabilitation center may be wildly successful, which is obviously a good thing, but it’s still not the right thing if God called the church elsewhere.

RECAP: To create growth and reach the vision God has called you to, you must:

1. Clearly identify your vision

2. Focus all programs around your vision

3. Identify your desired results and measure your progress toward those results.