Five Slides for Thinking About Church

Legendary CEO Jack Welch suggests that we should be able to boil a strategy down to a Five Slide presentation that answers the following questions:

• What does the Playing Field Look Like Now?
• What has the Competition Been Up To?
• What have You Been Up To?
• What's Around the Corner?
• What's Your Winning Move?

I like this approach and in fact we teach our students to answer these questions as a way of presenting their strategic analysis in our graduate level Strategic Management classes.

Over the last several months, I have been re-thinking several issues concerning the local church. Specifically, I have been wrestling with what it means to be a “Biblically Functioning Church.”

Now, let me be clear, I am not necessarily talking about issues of doctrine – although there are some doctrinal issues that inform this quest.

As I have been wrestling with this issue, I have developed my own version of the 5 Slides:

Slide 1: What is your governing structure? This is about accountability. Is there a local body of elders who are accountable for the teaching and ministry of the church?

Slide 2: What is your leadership philosophy? Lording Authoritarian or Servant Leadership? Command and Control or Empowering and Releasing? How are staff members treated? How are volunteers treated?

Slide 3: What is your stewardship philosophy? Do you live beneath your means and are you generous? How does your stewardship of resources reflect the priorities of ministry? Is there a transparency in the preparation and reporting of the budget? How do you pay vendors who provide services for the church? Are they paid in full and on-time?

Slide 4: How is your commitment to making disciples manifested in the activities and programs of your church? How is your commitment to reaching lost and unchurched people in your community demonstrated? Is there a balance between evangelism and discipleship?

Slide 5: If someone with the gift of pastor-teacher joined your church, how would you deploy them in serving? This could apply to any gift. How will the spiritual gifts of the people in your church be used to serve God and His people?

The answers to these questions will help you determine if the church is indeed a “Biblically Functioning Church”?