I believe that church leadership is about seeing & recognizing unique moments of opportunity, then seizing them with boldness & courage. This is a very unique time in the life of the American Church and we need to seize the opportunity to teach our church members how to better live out the Gospel where they are.
We know that God rules over every domain under the sun. God’s desire is that we embrace our God-given authority to experience God-given life in every aspect of our lives. Religion is not a domain of live, God does not just exist in our religious sphere, God supersedes every sphere of life; economic, agriculture and water, social and civil society, education, art and media, science and technology, governance and medical. The key to achieving this type of impact for your members and your community lies in 4 key shifts:
1. FROM NEEDS TO ASSETS
This shift is one of mindset and perspective. There is not an organizational or process change, rather a change of how you see your church members and thus, how you see opportunities outside your church.
This shift includes:
- Greater valuing of individual skills, passions and experience
- Building upon strengths and greater intentionality
- Embracing the “whole body of Christ”
This shift raises questions like:
- Do my members know their skills, gifts or calling?
- Do I have proper relationships with my community to identify opportunities?
- How do I interact with the community as a value provider rather than a volunteer provider?
2. FROM PROGRAMS TO DOMAIN ENGAGEMENT
This shift has organizational implications. It changes how you organize for work and what work is undertaken. It is much more self-forming and Spirit led, as your members take ownership and responsibility for action.
This shift includes:
- Seeing your community through the eyes of your members, not an institutional church lens
- Changing how you work with other churches
- Having a clear definition of domains for your church
- Having a clear church strategy or focus to provide boundaries for engagement
- Determining the proper metrics to guide your efforts
This shift raises questions like:
- What if my passions or skills don’t match my domain?
- Can I be in more than one domain group?
- How does this impact the other projects and programs offered by the church?
3. FROM WORKING FOR THE CITY, TO WORKING WITH THE CITY
This shift is one of relationship and expectations. It reshapes how the church interacts with its community or area of service. In this shift, the church becomes more of a partner to help create solutions than just a provider of resources.
This shift includes:
- A change in the church’s value proposition
- Creation of new interactions with different civic and community leaders and organizations
- The opportunity to engage with other faith groups
- Moving from a reactive mode of service to an intentional path of action
This shift raises questions like:
- How do I interact with civic leaders?
- What partnerships are important to our success?
- What do we say no to?
Working WITH the city instead of FOR the city reshapes how the church interacts with its community. In this shift, the church becomes more of a partner to help create solutions than just a provider of resources. Click To Tweet
4. FROM MANAGING PROJECTS TO LEADING YOUR MEMBERS
This shift impacts decision-making, and your church culture. It impacts both the church staff and the members, as it requires a change of attitude and action on both parts. For a church to turn over projects to full member control, members must be willing and ready to assume that control.
This shift includes:
- Establishing clear guidelines consistent with the church strategy and focus
- Establishment of clear roles and responsibilities
- Creating new opportunities for celebration and recognition
- Reframing of expectations
- Retooling of job descriptions, policies and processes
This shift raises questions like:
- How much authority do we give our members?
- How do we budget for this?
- Who has the final say so, and what does that look like?
Are you able to identify which shift you’re in, or which one you’re navigating in this season? These shifts raise questions like:
- What’s wrong with how we have been operating?
- What do we do about our current projects?
- How do we control our members or guard our church “brand”?
NEXT STEP – FREE TRAINING:
To learn more about domain engagement and this Kingdom DNA, you can watch this FREE course from GlocalNet on KingdomDNA at glocal.net/learn.
