HEALTHY CHURCH: Evaluating Your Ministry (Part 2) - Refocus
Ministry involves building relationships and continually reflecting on how spiritual health and maturity are progressing. Evaluation and examination of your personal walk with Christ and the church should occur on a regular basis. There are seasons and rhythms that will also enable you to refocus. This means, as a follower of Christ and a body of believers, you reset your minds and hearts to your first priorities. Refocus is defined as adjusting your focus on something again. It means you change your emphasis or direction back to where it was. Hebrews 12:2 tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus. Remember — repent, relate and refocus.
This is a great word from another mission organization, “We all want to see our churches renewed, but renewal begins with us. Church renewal is not about increasing our attendance or becoming a smaller version of a mega church. We cannot overemphasize the importance of spiritual renewal in our pursuit of church renewal.” That is why you must always begin with your personal walk with the Lord and your spiritual disciplines. One author refers to it as putting in the spiritual “sweat” necessary to build intimacy with Christ. In the process of refocusing, the speed of the leader usually determines the speed of the team.
The strategy involves refocusing on prayer, building strong biblical relationships, teaching biblical truth and evangelizing your community. Leslie Newbigin states, “The New Testament assumes a missionary situation in which the church is a small evangelizing movement in a pagan society.” It is the willingness to refocus on Christ’s priorities for you and your church with a hope in God and an optimistic outlook because of who He is. God can change your situation and send revival your way. It can happen! Some churches will, unfortunately, die, but no church should have to die.
In Rom. 1:15, Paul was eager to preach the gospel in Rome. He had an optimistic outlook on the mission God had given him. Why? Because he believed in the power of the gospel so strongly that Caesar could be saved if he repented and believed. If God can save any person, he can save any church. Because of the power of the gospel, it is never hopeless if a body of believers is willing to place themselves under His authority and direction by refocusing. One way to do this is to study Revelation 2-3 and be willing to repent, return and refocus on God’s agenda and join Him there. God has a plan for your church, and He can fulfill that plan.
Romans 15:13 (HCSB) says, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Biblical hope does not move up and down because of difficult circumstances or difficult people. It is steady as a rock. Sam Rainer has defined biblical hope as, “a complete confidence that God has a plan and His plan will prevail!” It is not what will happen, but it is what could happen because He is involved. Also, it is not just a description, but it is a prescription of what God is able to do. Be encouraged that whatever your situation is right now as a church you should be optimistic and hopeful.
In refocusing, you must have some long-range vision to see where God wants you to go in the future. It also requires short-range vision to see the individual steps needed to get there. Bob Logan states that, if you are not careful, “you become so focused on the horizon you could fall into a hole. On the other hand, if you walk with your eyes down on each step you take, you can get completely lost. You need to keep you eyes on both, shifting back and forth periodically. Creating that healthy balance is the goal of the refocus stage.” Determine your present reality, your preferred future and the steps needed to make that journey.
God has placed you exactly where He wants you to be and where He wants you to serve Him faithfully. Be all there by giving 100% to the process of keeping your focus and your church’s focus on the right metrics. The Vision Frame by Church Unique gives us a great process to refocus on God’s agenda:
• First is God’s mandate. This is the mission of God and you must ask, “What are we doing?” Are you living on mission for Him in your community?
• Then, you refocus on your motives. Here you must ask, “Why are we doing this?” You can determine what you really value by what you do and where you invest your finances the most.
• The third piece to refocusing is developing a map. You ask, “How are we doing this or how are we going to accomplish this?” This involves those individual steps and strategies. This process can really bog down and even derail because it requires a lot of time and energy, but the planning stage it is well worth the effort. If you do not know who you are and what you are called to accomplish, your church will not know where it is going.
• Then you determine the marks. What constitutes a bullseye? How will you know if and when you are successful? Those four elements determine your vision proper — your mountain tops and milestones.
Your vision proper helps you to prayerfully discern where God is taking you. Remember, God has a plan for your church, and He is able to fulfill His plan. Biblical optimism is not wishful thinking but instead a solid trust in a God who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that you could ask or even think. Joshua 1:9 tells us to be strong and courageous, and that almost sounds redundant. The word courageous there means to be daring and that is required to get ourselves and our churches from what they are doing to what God has called them to do and be.
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Larry Barker
Director of Church Planting and Church Health Larry Barker submits a weekly column titled, Healthy Church Solutions, designed to strengthen and encourage the local church.
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