George Bullard's Journey

Check Out Indianapolis Center for Congregations Forum

This week George Bullard is actively posting on a new forum on Spiritual Strategic Journeys with the Indianapolis Center for Congregations. If you would like to connect with it, go to http://www.centerforcongregations.org/forums/.

Strategic Planning vs. Spiritual Strategic Journey

To what extent does your congregational leadership understand the essential difference between a business planning model and a spiritual strategic model? To what extent do you? What is the experience of your lay leaders and clergy leaders with business models and with spiritual models? Are they any spiritual discernment practices they need to experience before they are ready to lead the congregation in a spiritual strategic journey?

Business models generally relate to organizations. Spiritual models relate to organizations. Business models push the trends of an organization forward into the future. Spiritual models involve being pulled forward into God's future. Business models make changes and then require their culture to adapt or transition in response to these changes. Spiritual models transition people until they passionately desire to be embraced by change.

Do you get it? Does this connect for you? How have you seen these two approaches work in your congregation? What would be your first steps to modulate from a business model in the church to a spiritual model?

Does Your Congregation Have Financial Readiness?

For congregations to be ready for a successful, empowering Spiritual Strategic Journey, they must have several types of readiness. First, is a sense of urgency or passion to transition and change, and ultimately transform. Second, is spiritual readiness that realizes if transformation is to happen it must be of God. Third, is leadership readiness that indicates the numbers and types of leaders needed for transformation are currently present in the congregation. Fourth, is strategic readiness where they know the strategies and actions they need to take based on an accurate assessment of their situation.

I am now beginning to think about a fifth sign of readiness. That is financial readiness. Does your congregation have the financial commitment by its members and regular attendees, and other sources, to pay for the transition and changes it must engage in to be able to transform? If not, what must it do to develop these before it engages in a Spiritual Strategic Journey?

What do you think? Does this need to be added as a sign of readiness? Is your congregation financially ready? Let me hear from you.

A Key to a Success Spiritual Strategic Journey . . .

. . . is the ability of the Enduring Visionary Leadership to be victorious during the collaboration challenge.

The collaboration challenge is the ability Pastoral Leadership, People of Passion, and the People of Position--known as the Enduring Visionary Leadership Community--to work together as a diverse, yet unified, group of people with unique gifts, skills, and preferences in the direction of the full Kingdom potential of their congregation.

"Congregational collaboration is the art of working together on a spiritual strategic journey in a direction that represents the synergy of the various gifts, skills, and preferences of the congregational members and regular attendees." [110]

As you anticipate the future of your congregation, remember it is more about the people and relationships that transition than it is about the things you change.

How will your congregation face the collaboration challenge? What assistance do you need in identifying the People of Passion and the People of Position in your congregation? What challenges do you see in bringing these people together under common journey? What will be the reaction of the remainder of your congregation to the identification of these two groups? How will you explain this in a way that can be unifying and motivating?

Spiritual Strategic Journey PowerPoint, February 2008

This is the PowerPoint presentation used during the Center for Congregations events in Indianapolis and Evansville, IN the first week of February 2008:

Download Spiritual Strategic Journey/Full Kingdom Potential PowerPoint Presentation

Spiritual Strategic Journey Forum

Would you like to participate in a dialogue/forum on the Spiritual Strategic Journey process? If so, go to http://www.centerforcongregations.org/forums/. This is part of the web site of the Center for Congregations in Indiana. Wednesday and Thursday of this week I led full-day sessions on the Spiritual Strategic Journey process in Evansville and Indianapolis for the Center.

This forum will be live for the remainder of February to allow those who choose to dialogue about the concepts and processes presented, and supplemented by the details in my book Pursuing the Full Kingdom Potential of Your Congregation.