This past weekend I just completed the last in a series of visits to a great congregation of the Lord's church in Alabama. They have some very devoted and loving members and a leadership that is committed to spiritual and numeric growthDuring our time together we focused on two important areas in the work and development of any church: 1) Helping members find their talents, 2) Targeting specific outcomes (goals) for the ministry programs in the church.
In our approach to Outcome Based Ministry we walked through a process of determining and allocating resources (people and things), we set clearly defined outcomes, and developed a strategy to achieve those outcomes. It was truly exciting to watch God's people come together for a common purpose and capture a vision for evangelizing their community.
The most exciting part of our time together was watching the ministry teams come together and see the synergy that exists when teams collaborate. The women's ministry partnering with the campus ministry in adopting college students. The college program working with ESL and the Spanish outreach. We have all experienced times when works in the local church seemed to be in competition with one another. How refreshing it was to see them looking for opportunities to collaborate.
It is amazing how much more gets accomplished in a local congregation when there are clear objectives and accountability for the work. I am thankful that God allowed me to be a part of something special these last few weekends.
