George Bullard's Journey

Can Our Congregation Avoid Aging Past the Prime Stage?

Has it occurred to you how your congregation might avoid aging past the Prime stage of the congregational life cycle? What would it take to hardwire into your congregational culture the need to redevelop itself at least once each decade after the end of its first generation of life? Since redevelopment is not a permanent solution, but a seven-to-nine-year solution, this is a necessary and essential consideration.

Every Congregation Needs a Little Conflict Book Cover

My newest book is due out in June. Its cover has been recently been developed and I want to share it with you. Look for more information on the book as we approach June.

In the mean time, if you want an overview of this subject, see the Amazon Shorts on Every Congregation Needs a Little Conflict by clicking here.

The Stage of Your Congregation's Life Cycle and Its Next Steps

In Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation is the life cycle and stages of congregational development. You can also find it at www.BullardJournal.org. It is extremely important that you understand the stage of congregational development currently being experienced by your congregation. Here is a few of the key questions/statements:

• At which stage of the life cycle is your congregation as a whole today?
• Parts of your congregation may be at various stages, but if you step back and look at the congregation as a whole, where does it appear to be?
• Once you know the answer to that question, then you can determine your next steps.

The next steps to be taken, for example, are very different at Birth vs. Adolescence vs. Maturity vs. Retirement. The type of leadership--clergy and laity--needed at each stage is also very different. Thus, a clear understanding of the dynamics of each stage and the pathways and passages forward is crucial.

Who is Controlling Your Congregation?

Congregations, like many other organizations, are under-led and over-managed. More focus and strength appears to exist in congregations on doing things right than doing the right things. Visionary leadership is rejected in favor of controlling--rather than empowering--management.

In reality, even the people who should be expressing visionary leadership the most--senior pastor, ministerial staff, and key lay leaders--are often controlling what that vision ought to be and how it ought to be expressed. The very people who ought to be empowering are controlling. At times this is justified as them trying to control the congregation to move it in the right direction rather than allowing it to drift in the wrong direction.

Who is controlling your congregation? Are you? If so, what should you do about it? The more we seek to control things around us, the more we end up squeezing vital life out of that which we claim to love the most.

To learn more about this controlling factor in congregations, see chapter six of Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation.

Spiritual Strategic Journey Events in Indiana, February 6 & 7

Link: Spiritual Strategic Journey. Sponsored by the Center for Congregations in Indiana. Events will be held in Evansville on Wednesday, February 6th and Thursday, February 7th in Indianapolis.

Congregational Issues for Generative Dialogue for a Spiritual Strategic Journey

In Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation is an inventory entitled Congregational Issues for Generative Dialogue. This is a collection of ten issues congregations must understand and address to move forward in the direction of their full kingdom potential.  I suggest you read this book, study these issues, and then ponder and dialogue about these questions.

• What are the implications of the average score of your congregational leadership on these issues?
• What do you believe your next positive steps ought to be in response to these scores?
• Out of the dialogue around these ten issues, what are the things that can be affirmed about the life and ministry of your congregation?
• What are the signs of health and strength in the life and ministry of your congregation?
• What are the greatest challenges facing your congregation with which you must deal to engage in a healthy spiritual strategic journey?
• How can these challenges be addressed by the things you can affirm about your congregation so that you focus on affirmation and building on that affirmation?
• What are the three issues that are the strongest among your congregation today? Are they the people issues of Pastoral Leadership, Passion, and Position?
• If not, where are these issues in the life of the congregation, since it is more important that we transition people than it is that we change things?
• Is your congregation driven more by Vision and Relationships than it is by Programs and Management?
• What are the implications for who is driving your journey as a congregation?