Monday Is for Kingly Administration

For the past two years, I have had the privilege of serving on the pastoral team of Grace Baptist Church.  A major part of my work has been thinking through the nuts and bolts of ministry design and how we can be better stewards of the resources available to us for greater gospel advance.  This means that I have analyzing the systems and structures of our local church, creating those that didn’t exist and seeking to better those that did.  The work of formation, implementation, and assessment is an ongoing process, and I think there is much that I can learn from others invested in these same issues in the local church.

So what I would like to do is to facilitate the opportunity for those interested to share ideas and resources while discussing the development and design of your local church ministry.  I would like to bounce many of my ideas off of you, and I believe we can all benefit from the insights and practical assistance provided by one another.  I love the local church, and I love those who love the local church enough to care deeply about how she is structured and formed to facilitate greater gospel growth and health in the body of Christ while seeking to extend the reach of the gospel throughout the community.

If you’d like to join in, please let me know in the comments.  If you are wondering what specifically I am thinking about, I am considering: assimilation process, discipleship process, initial follow-up of visitors, leadership development, pastoral care, small groups/decentralization, elder roles and responsibilities, church planting process, church website and online presence management, new Christian follow-up and training, missional mobilization, incarnational ministry, attractional/missional paradigms, evangelism practices, etc.

Starting next week, I hope to begin with the assimilation process.  I hope to break it down into 4-5 parts, explaining how I have been trying to develop this at Grace.  If you are responsible or familiar with the assimilation process in your local church, I’d love to hear it!  It is my hope that this series of posts would be a sort of online cohort and collaborative effort for all those working behind the scenes for the sake of the church.