There are 4 essential dimensions to a truly effective church. They include 1. Engaged Disciples, 2. a Culture of True Stewardship, 3. Consensus Vision and Strategic Plan and 4. an Effective Worship Experience. The Stewardship Calling ministry is devoted to the best practices in all 4 of these dimensions
The October 30th Stewardship Calling 5th Sunday series program on Ancient Faith Radio will begin with a brief introduction of the Effective Church model. The rest of the program will engage in a deeper dialogue on how churches are using an Orthodox strategic planning “4-P” approach based on Holy Scripture and best practices to build a consensus vision and successful strategic plan that is transformational.
My co-host Father Barnabas Powell (of Faith Encouraged Ministries) and I will welcome the immensely talented and dedicated Dr Gayle Woloschak a leader of the strategic plan for the national Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA. Tune in at 8:00 p.m. Eastern at: http://www.ancientfaith.com/radio/live, or better yet call in at 1-855-237-2346 and let us answer your questions as we explore how to better live our stewardship callings in our lives and churches. God bless
I am in the process of following your format to Stewardship. I have a question concerning the strategic planning. What is the purpose of doing SWOT, core values as it relates to stewardship? Our parish council had previously developed a vision and mission statement.
Andrew, Thanks for your inquiry and service to Christ’s church. If you look at my effective church model what you will see is that you need all four dimensions to be optimized in order to have an effective church. Having a consensus vision and strategic plan to achieve it helps align your parish and parishioners in common work. When this happens, and you have a process to have engaged disciples, a true culture of stewardship can become effective.
Most people mistakenly limit stewardship to soliciting of money. That approach will not change behavior or sustainable move your needle. To create a culture of true stewardship, with your parishioners willingly giving of all their blessings, requires a lot more than simple brochures, emails and annual campaigns. Because that’s all most parishes do, we see widespread ineffectiveness on all aspects of their stewardship, including their financial contributions. The lack of financial contributions is merely a symptom of the underlying problem and until you address those systemic issues, you will never be truly successful in a meaningful way.
Indeed a SWOT analysis properly done helps a parish better understand its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that the allows the Parish leadership to better understand and address its issues. And clarity of Core Values helps drive decision making and allocation of resources rather than everyone just focusing on their particular area of focus.
if you look at the Stewardship Calling nine step stewardship process you need to have clarity of vision and values as a critical second step in order to be successful. I would be happy to speak with you on the phone and answer your questions and help provide further guidance. Please email me at Bill@stewardshipcalling.com with some dates and times to speak and a contact telephone number. Thanks and God bless