“You can tell a lot about someone by where they are headed. Take the trajectory of your life, the trajectory of your character, morals, choices, ideals, dreams, and relationships. Imagine extending an honest assessment of that trajectory by ten, twenty, thirty years. Where are you headed? For better or for worse, the answer to that question says a lot about who you are today. Likewise, you can tell a lot about the essence of a worldview by what it has to say about human destiny. This is why, as Ravi puts it, when you start a train of thought, it’s important to check the ticket to see where it is going to let you off.” (Jesus among Secular Gods by Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale)
Look at your church or Mission organization in light of today’s quote. Review some official or informal stats. Is the average age in your church increasing or decreasing? How about attendance? Are you growing or shrinking? Let’s challenge ourselves further. Is the number of disciple makers in your church increasing, decreasing or staying the same?
Sometime during coaching sessions, with individuals or Boards, I ask each individual how many scripture verses they can quote from memory. No, I don’t ask to hear the verse, just curious how many each knows. We are always surprised at how few verses we really know by heart. Now project that to your congregation and re-do it annually. Then, encourage each Leader to add an additional ten verses to memory during the next year.
Then, the most obvious question, let me paraphrase our first line. ‘You can forecast a lot about your church’s future by looking at some simple trends’. You pick the items to measure, forecast the trend into the future then decide what needs changing today.
Leadership is … knowing the future of your church will be the same as the past unless you change something.
Yours in Service,
Laurie D. Kennedy
Leadership Coach
Jethro Group
ldkjethrogroup@gmail.com