Church Strategy

The mission of the church is the same for every local church. Jesus said that we are to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). We call it the Great Commission. The strategy of a local church is how it goes about accomplishing the mission. While it should always be biblical, the strategy of each church will be at least somewhat unique.

I will be so bold as to say that, whatever the strategy is for your church, you need to know and be able and willing to communicate it to others. At Petal FBC we attempt to keep our strategy as simple as possible. We intentionally have very few programs. We want the path to be very clear. If you will remember just a few key words you will be able to talk about our strategy with ease. We think it's pretty logical.

First, there are two basic aspects of church life. We call these the church gathered and the church scattered. The church is people -- not a building, not an institution, etc. There are times when we gather together as a church and times (most of the time in fact) when we are scattered out going about our lives. We have a strategy for making disciples in both venues.

As a church gathered, we talk about worship, grow, and serve. We want to worship God. We want to grow spiritually. And we want to serve God by serving others. We have worship services on Sunday to worship the Lord together. We connect with others in small groups in order to help one another grow spiritually. (We call it "doing life together.") And we have Strategic Service Teams through which we serve one another and others on a weekly basis. Very simple.

As a church scattered, we want to be salt and light. Jesus said that His followers are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13, 14). Among their many characteristics, salt and light are both huge difference makers. So as Christ-followers, we want to make a HUGE difference for Christ wherever we find ourselves.

So if you can remember five key words (and of course you can), then you can remember what they connect to: worship -> worship services; grow -> small groups; serve -> service teams; salt and light -> difference makers. Very easy. Very simple.

Of course the point of all this is not just to come up with some words that will be easy to remember. The goal is to have increasing numbers of people actively engaged in the process of worshiping, growing, serving, and being salt and light. But the better we know the process and are able to articulate it, the more likely we will be involved.

So let's do a little self-evaluation. Let's each ask, "Am I actively engaged in my church's strategy? Am I growing in each of these areas and doing all I can to influence others to do the same?"

And the next time someone asks you a question like, "What is your church all about?" you'll have a great answer!