In some of our recent posts, we’ve been taking a close look at how to develop a church vision for ministry and why it matters. Here we’ll shift our emphasis from how you develop a church vision to understanding how the specific ministries in your church building flow from this vision.
Ministries = Strategies
In our view at The McKnight Group, we see ministries as similar to strategies in the business world. Ministries are the specific actions taken to reach people based on your church vision, like the activities you offer in your church building and the choices you make about where to focus your time, energy, and resources to bring people closer to God.
Why Every Church Building Can’t Hold the Same Ministries
As you know, there are a lot of churches in just about every community in America today. If every church in each town had exactly the same ministries, a lot of diverse needs would not be met. For example, families with young children have different ministry needs than couples whose children have left the nest and are striking out on their own.
So, once you’ve decided on a church vision, you need to take a look at what other churches in your community are already doing. If you decide to minister to families with young children, is the need in the community being met by an existing good weekday childcare programs at other churches nearby? If so, you don’t want to start one that would put your church in competition with others in the area. Instead, you might choose to focus instead on a MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) program.
Examples of Specific Ministries that Can Fulfill Your Church Vision
Once you know which people you want to reach, begin to brainstorm the types of ministries that will meet their needs. Working parents might welcome an after-school program, but empty-nesters will have no interest in it. Single parents will have different needs from couples, and younger adults will have different interests than older ones.
Your church building is another important element to discerning the specific ministries that you should choose in fulfilling your church vision. Do you have meeting space to help address the social needs of your community? Perhaps your church vision involves addressing issues like homelessness or drug addiction. If God’s leading you to think more broadly about how your church building can become an effective community resource, new ministries like these can help bring new people into your church building, and potentially into your worship as well.
Every church’s situation is unique, but church building projects usually encounter similar challenges. This is why we began sharing our free i3 webinars about how to develop a church vision, and to construct or renovate a church building to help fulfill that vision. To learn more, sign up for our upcoming i3 webinars today.