It looks like a number of church teams across the country have or are working through this book together. Here are some quick notes about the general process our senior team followed as we've journeyed through these practices.
- We didn't treat the book as our second Bible. We aren't North Point. We did, however, consider carefully the transferable practices and wrestled with application within our ministry.
- We started with our mission: "Helping people take their next step toward Christ... together." That hasn't changed. Wherever this journey would take us, it would be in line with who we are.
- We didn't try to "layer" any "wins" (The first practice is, "Clarify the win.") on top of our existing mission, vision, values or purposes.
- At our core we are purpose-driven. We pray, plan, envision, structure ministry and teach around five primary, core purposes: worship, reach, connect, grow and serve. Our "wins" couldn't be "add-ons"; our goal was to simplify, to help our leadership teams and our people have clarity on what a "win" looks like - in our church and in our individual lives. Our "wins" would reflect our purposes.
- On day one of our four-day retreat our strategy was simple: on the left of our continuum: our people. On the far right: our proposed "win". The only things that would go between these two points would be those things that helped us move our people from where they are to the ultimate, collective and personal win.
That's it for today. You don't need to know our "wins" to begin to understand what your win will look like. Pray, read, talk, debate through the conflict, pray some more, talk some more, reach absolute clarity together.
Take whatever time that requires. Make your ministry effective.
And, maybe, just maybe, I'll share our wins within the next few weeks.
