Viability of a Mission Church

Today has been in the fast lane beginning with a breakfast meeting and never letting up.  Among today’s grocery list was the development of a document for use in determining the viability of struggling mission churches.  It’s not exactly a blog post, but there might be info here that is helpful to your ministry context, as follows:

Prologue:  Evangelists and leaders of mission churches in distress are often in denial, thinking that things aren’t as bad as they seem.  They tend to spiritualize the situation, hiding, in a sense, behind a belief or at least the statement that God will turn things around in His timing.  This perspective is a shifting of responsibility from themselves to God, and can be used to handcuff accountability supervisors, essentially accusing them of being shallow spiritually if they don’t hang in there with the mission church and trust God for a favorable outcome.  After all, all things are possible with God, right? Yes, all things are possible with God, but not all things are probable.  There is a point at which you have to come out from behind the spiritual smoke screen, admit responsibility and use some common sense.

One method of evaluating the condition of a mission church is to consider its viability in three crucial areas:  Financial Viability, Core Viability and Evangelist Viability.

 1.         Financial Viability:  How long can the church sustain its ministry financially?  Does the church have the capacity to grow into financial sustainability before the funds run out?  If the evangelist and core say, “Yes,” on what basis is this assessment made.                                                                                               

            a.         How many people are currently in the core?

            b.         What is the current giving level per month?

            c.          How much funding is in reserve?

            d.         Are there funding sources available other than regular giving?  If so, how much can these resources generate and in what time frame?

            e.         What is revealed by measuring items b, c, and d against the current operating budget?

 2.         Core Viability:  How strong, committed and capable of multiplication is the current core?  Is the core growing larger or smaller in number?

            a.         How many were in the core a year ago?

            b.         How many are in the core now?

            c.          Does the core have strong, sacrificial ownership of a Great                                             Commission vision?

            d.         Is the energy level of the core high?  If so, how long can this energy level be sustained?

            e.         Does the core have the gifts, experience and passion to multiply itself through recruiting and mobilizing called believers and through evangelizing non-believers?  How so?

            f.          What is the level of spiritual depth in the core?  How so?

            g.         Are there unresolved issues within the core, e.g. strained                                               relationships, negative talk behind the scenes; “sin in the camp.”

3.         Evangelist Viability:  Is the evangelist skilled in the methods and disciplines of church planting?  Has the evangelist completed a church planter assessment?  If so, what were the findings of the assessment?

             a.         Is the evangelist strong in the area of Vision, i.e. discerning God’s Great Commission vision for the mission church, articulating that vision in a clear and concise manner, recruiting others to own that vision, and mobilizing others to serve that vision?

            b.         What does the history and track record of the evangelist reveal                                               regarding the evangelist’s ability to establish a healthy, growing                                    and multiplying mission church?

            c.          Does the natural “wiring” of the evangelist indicate strong mission church development capability?  How so?

            d.         What training in church planting has the evangelist received?  What coaching options for the evangelist have been or are available?

            e.         In what ways does the evangelist connect with people in the core?     

            f.          In what ways does the evangelist connect with people in the                                        community? 

            g.         Is the energy level of the evangelist high?  If so, how long can this energy level be sustained?

            e.         Does the evangelist have the gifts, experience and passion to            multiply himself/herself through recruiting and mobilizing called believers and through evangelizing non-believers?  How so?

Epilogue:  It’s helpful to note how the evangelist was selected for a mission church.  Were proper protocols for selecting church planters followed or was the selection made through some other method of consideration?