Growing Edge - Christianity Today

Advanced Strategic Planning by Aubrey Malphurs (Baker, 1999)

One Size Doesn’t Fit All by Gary L. McIntosh (Revell, 1999)

If you want to grow a garden where I live in Arizona, you’re in for a major construction project. Preparing the soil here means creating it. Enter the jackhammer, soil conditioner, and planned plant mortality rates.

Aubrey Malphurs and Gary McIntosh each offer helpful works for those aiming at green ministry in dry and misinformed times.

Many, when asked “So did you think you could just wow ’em with your personality, throw some seed at the ground, and raise a bumper crop?” would have to answer “Yup!” It doesn’t work that way.

Malphurs and McIntosh call us to that aspect of ministry most difficult for lovers of spiritual beauty: planning. Those wanting the “buy-plant-enjoy” church model should give each of these a read, especially if current efforts appear wilted or brown.

The authors share common convictions regarding what’s needed to grow ministry: an indigenous plan and an intimate knowledge of the soil in which you’re digging. They ask, in effect, So what’s your plan? And what’s your soil? Your ability to clearly answer these questions will likely determine your effectiveness in your corner of God’s garden.

In the midst of megachange, Malphurs argues against the current trend toward less strategic planning. Without a good planning process, the average pastor will find it difficult to do anything but drift. For Malphurs, strategic planning is the vital, on-going process of thinking and acting. It is not inflexible, incremental planning that assumes tomorrow is just an extension of today. It recognizes that what grew then may not grow now, and what grows in your yard may not grow in mine. But good things happen if you take the time to understand your unique environment and its opportunities.

McIntosh concurs that no two churches are alike. He shares his insights through a nifty interview scenario in which Pastor Bob mentors a desperately discouraged younger pastor. “One size doesn’t fit all,” he tells the man. In other words, lack of conviction and concern are not the young leader’s problems, as is so often assumed; understanding his soil and responding appropriately are!

So Pastor Bob walks the young man through McIntosh’s Typology of Church Sizes. Used skillfully, it helps a leader know how to relate, plan, and lead in the different soils of small, medium and large churches.

Through Pastor Bob, McIntosh looks at the soils. He offers ten diagnostic tools to help you understand how to cultivate each soil. His idea is similar to Malphurs’: working smarter means in part that we work from a basic plan rather than haphazardly.

McIntosh brims with pithy sayings suitable for pinning on your office door. The destructive Rawhide Rule of Leadership says “Don’t try to understand them; just drive ’em, rope ’em, and brand ’em.” His advice for how quickly one should institute change in a new church is summarized in the Law of the Snake Pit: “Keep moving but don’t make any sudden jerks.”

Getting at the root

Looking under the green leaves toward the roots of leadership, we see how leaders function differently in different soils. Small church leaders must relate, suggest, and invest huge amounts of personal time with individual lay leaders. We’re talking a lot of lunches. It sounds like manipulation, but Pastor Bob assures us it’s not.

In medium-size churches, leaders must communicate with and through all key work groups, thereby influencing the decision-making process. Can you say “politicking”? Wrong again. It’s leadership!

In the large church, leaders must take ownership, giving clear direction, ever raising the standard and quality of leaders. Sounds a bit autocratic, but it’s really leadership. Unfortunately, the transition between stages is largely left untreated.

I have to admit each work generated that nasty feeling, “This isn’t what I entered ministry for—to be an ecclesiastical business student.” Still, both books are loaded with detailed help for an area many of us fear or ignore. I give Malphurs and McIntosh two green thumbs way up!

Plan Without Ceasing

What is strategic planning? It is a process, not something you do one time and then abandon. That means that it has to be a constant in the life of the church and the ministry of its leaders. The constant and fast pace of change in our world means that no leader can afford to withdraw to the status quo. Leaders must constantly think strategically about the church and its ministry.

The process involves thinking. Perhaps that is its greatest value. It forces pastors and leaders to return to the basics, to dig deeply into the Scriptures. It compels them to think theologically and to ask the important fundamental questions such as, What does the Bible say about why we are here? What drives us? What are we supposed to be doing? What does that look like? How will we accomplish what we are supposed to be doing?

Aubrey Malphurs in Advanced Strategic Planning

Do You Know Your Size?

When we met for breakfast, my frustration must have shown on my face. After a few minutes of conversation, Bob asked, “So, being a solo pastor of a small church isn’t as easy as you thought, huh?”

“You can say that again,” I answered. “The church members are friendly enough, but whatever I try to do seems to be ignored.”

When I stopped talking, he suggested that I appeared to be the victim of a fundamental misunderstanding and then said, “One size doesn’t fit all!”

Surprised, I wondered out loud, “What do you mean?”

“It appears to me that you’re trying to lead a small church like you would a larger church.”

—Gary L. McIntosh in One Size Doesn’t Fit All

The Habits of Highly Effective Churches by George Barna (Regal, 2000)

Borrowing from the highly effective Stephen Covey, George Barna presents his own researched spin on how to achieve effective ministry. “When your church is able to consistently facilitate a personal metamorphosis [into Christ’s likeness] among its people, then it is operating in the realm of effectiveness,” Barna says.

Where does your church stand? Likely in the almost 90 percent of churches that Barna says are not highly effective. If that hurts, this may sting, too:

On Habit 4, Facilitate Genuine Worship: research indicates “half of all regular church-going adults admit that they have not experienced God’s presence at anytime during the past year.” And you thought it was unique to your church!

On Habit 5, Engage in Strategic Evangelism: Barna proposes founding evangelism on the Golden Rule. “(Effective churches) are classy in how they approach evangelism. Their passion to be agents of transformation is balanced with a respect for the people whom they wish to reach, the believers whom they are counting on to reach them, and the power of God to fulfill His promise.”

On Habit 6, Facilitate Systematic Theological Growth: We are less than surprised to hear that “fewer than ten percent of all born again Christians possess a biblical world view that informs their thinking and behavior.” Christians don’t know their faith, don’t care about their ignorance, and defy us to do anything about it.

This is classic Barna and worth the read. He makes you think, but offers little new in terms of indigenous strategy.

Buying recommendation: this helps with the big picture. Buy it for the overview of the American church.

Effective Church Growth Strategies by Gene Getz and Joe Wall (Word, 2000)

Welcome to the world of experience. Getz’s thoughts on practical leadership are worth noting. For those who’ve gone through the misfires of ministry, statements such as “one unqualified leader can destroy a local church” illicit painful memories. Other positions, such as seeing deacons as the Acts 6 crisis team that did their assigned work and then got out of business, provoke a new look at familiar territory.

Wall educates all who’ve not heard of Christian Schwarz’s concept of “natural church development,” seasoning it with goodies from his own experience. His nine factors to address when applying church growth strategies are helpful (but known) as are his steps to planting a church. In appendices he offers discussion points on basic church documents, how leadership will work, and how to evaluate vital church experiences.

I found most of this worth the read, but it’s Wall’s half of the book that falls flat. The tools are handy, but I expected more actual strategies for what analysts are calling a new era. What both authors recommend has been around a generation or more and I have tried a lot of it.

Buying recommendation: for ministers in the first quarter of their game, Getz and Wall offer a good, basic playbook.

The Internet Church by Walter P. Wilson (Word, 2000)

“The fundamental difference between a dog and a human is simple: If you point your finger, a dog looks at your finger. A human looks toward the direction in which you point. We need to be alert to the direction that God’s finger is pointing.” For Walter Wilson, the finger of God is on the mouse at your desk pointing toward the Internet.

Wilson asks, Is it accidental we now possess the first universal, borderless, uncontrollable medium to communicate with the entire world? Soon one billion people will be on the World Wide Web, one-sixth of the world’s population. Wilson urges the church to use the Web to proclaim the gospel.

The founder of his own Internet company, Wilson takes readers on a tour of the virtual future. He describes everything from electronic cash to neobiological civilization with countless info-bites and quotes from experts and observers. Wilson paints in broad strokes as he describes the sea change brought on by this technological development.

The foundational idea we all have to “get” is that our economy and culture have already switched from atoms to bits. Atoms are heavy, bits weigh nothing. Atoms must be checked at the border and given permission to cross, bits can’t be stopped. Atoms are the past, bits are the future.

So Wilson calls us to learn. We all must go “back to school” if we’re going to be effective.

Wilson’s a church man, too. He insists “the local church will never be replaced by the Internet.” But he’s convinced the church and Internet go together like pancakes and syrup. While many have a ‘net presence, Wilson urges the average church to raise its sites. The price tag may cause coronary stress, but the rewards are worth it.

For pastors the better chapters describe the online work of local churches, his own in particular, Calvary Church in Los Gatos, California. Since the unchurched are not at church but are logged on, let’s meet them there. Wilson points the way.

Buying recommendation: for those who, though puzzled, are wired and ready, get it.

Anthony Laird is a pastor and writer in Tucson, Arizona. He can be reached at AnthonyLaird@juno.com.

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