I am Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International, and this is the “Strategic Christian Leadership” Podcast, Episode 70. The simple purpose of this podcast is to help Christian leaders understand how planning and strategizing is important to carrying out the Great Commission.
Our Bible verse for this episode is Proverbs 3:5 which says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
Our quote for this episode is from Peter Drucker, who said, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
In this podcast, we are going through the fine books: “Advanced Strategic Planning: A New Model for Church and Ministry Leaders” by Aubrey Malphurs, “Deliberate Simplicity: How the Church Does More by Doing Less” by Dave Browning, and “Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership” by John Dickson. If you enjoy this podcast, please feel free to purchase a copy of these books from our website podcastpulpit.com.
Our topic today is part 10 of “Chapter 4: Developing a Biblical Mission: What We Are Supposed to be Doing” from “Advanced Strategic Planning: A New Model for Church and Ministry Leaders” by Aubrey Malphurs. He continues as follows:
Various Kinds of Missions
When we cover the ministry’s core values in chapter 6, you will discover that there are various kinds of values: conscious and unconscious, shared and unshared, and so forth. Most of those same categories hold true for the church’s mission. Five of them are given here.
Conscious versus Unconscious
Most churches have a mission whether or not they know or can verbalize it. As I say in the chapter on values, your actual values will drive or take you somewhere. This is also true of the mission. The ministry ship is moving toward some ministry port, and this is the church’s mission. The church, however, may not realize this or be aware of where its mission is taking it. Thus it needs to move the mission from an unconscious to a conscious level so that it can know what its mission is. It must discover and articulate its actual mission.
The way to accomplish this is to look at the church’s values and determine where they are taking the church. When consulting with a church, I list its core values on a whiteboard and ask the SLT where these values have taken them. The answer is the church’s ministry mission. Next, I ask the team to articulate that mission in a written statement so they can hold it and work with it at a conscious level.
Personal versus Organizational
While the church as a whole has a mission, whether they know it or not, most individuals have a mission in mind for the church as well. The first is the organizational or congregational mission, and the second is a personal mission. Most personal missions are formed early in life. Often mission formation takes place in the church when people come to faith. They may have embraced the church’s mission as their own. Or it may have occurred later when the person was involved in a church or ministry that was vibrant for Christ. Regardless of the circumstances, the mission has marked them for life, and they bring this mission with them to their current church and will use it to judge all churches.
The same is true for the pastor of a church and his staff. Most have a personal ministry mission that they bring with them when the church hires them. Some may not be aware of their personal mission.
I encourage every church to address this issue. People must know that their personal missions may be in conflict with the church’s mission and that the latter must prevail, or the church will attempt to move in many different directions at the same time, pulling apart rather than together. I will say more about how to do this in the following section. Concerning a senior pastor and any staff, the church must work with them and attempt to discover what those personal missions are before inviting these people to pastor and minister to the church. And to maximize your ministry placement, those of you who are pastors and staff must consider whether your mission and that of the church agree.
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— PRAYER —
If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, here’s how.
First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”
Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Now this is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.
Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
God bless.
Strategic Christian Leadership 