At the conclusion of every consulting engagement with The Unstuck Group, we ask for feedback from the churches we’ve served. One of the specific questions we ask is this: “What were the greatest takeaways from your consulting experience?” We’ve been accumulating the responses to the question for the last few years.
Last night, I dumped all those answers into program that generates a word cloud. This was the result:
This was so encouraging to me. When I look at this picture I see the values our team embraces. I see the key conversations we prioritize with leadership teams. I see movement. I see churches identifying where God wants their ministries to be in the future and intentional strategies to get there. We don’t just plan–we put plans into action to deliver results.
As you might guess, we capture a lot of data from the churches we serve as well. That data helps us confirm whether or not a church is healthy and growing. But part of knowing the impact we are having is tied to the stories they tell as well. We need both the numbers and the stories to confirm what we’re doing is getting the results we pray will occur.
I say all this because it’s pretty easy to fall into a routine. That’s particularly true with churches. Sunday is always coming. If we’re not careful, we can go through the motions of doing church and not know if what we’re doing is really impacting people’s lives. The win becomes the service or the event or the ministry program, when in reality the win should be changed lives.
It’s worth asking the question: Is what we’re doing really having an impact? Is all that activity leading to Kingdom-building results?
Photo Credit: MilitaryHealth via Compfight cc
