During the COVID-19 crisis, the team at Intentional Churches gathers weekly to discuss the latest From the Front Lines of Ministry. See how other church leaders around the country are using ChurchOS as they navigate the new normal.

NOTES FROM THE CALL:

Church Planning Approach for the Next 6 Months

  • Use the disruption to pursue innovation

  • Sequentially build your plans this way:

    • Base assumption – we must deliver the fundamentals of Great Commission activity (The Great Commission Engine) digitally for the next six months

    • Brainstorm and collaborate on 6 months of delivering the GC Engine and 6 Domains of ChurchOS in a digital and less resourced environment

    • Run 4 Helpful Lists against this framework and base assumption

    • Brainstorm on ideas to deliver with new assumptions (If you are running ChurchOS, use Tomorrow’s Harvest tool)

    • Vision – Ask “Where do we want our people to be in June” (personally, family, work, church, community)

    • Organize your action – If you are running ChurchOS use the VIP Action template or Get ‘Er Done with owners and due dates

    • Build levels of staffing for the new plan *

    • Build levels of budget for the new plan *

      * We would recommend having models thought through with 25% and 50% decrease in giving and therefore expenses

    • If everything does become normal again, you already know what to do!

Front Lines Advice for Church Leaders This Week

  • Be more human. Everyone in your community, believer or not, is in a similar spot. Minister to them there, not as an institutional church leader, but as a human being. Example: Ask them, “How did you adjust to working at home with your kids?”

  • Turn down the volume. So much help is inbound. Listen to less of it right now. We must lead from a place of strength in our relationship with God.

  • Get all strategic conversations back to the fundamentals (GC Engine if running ChurchOS).

  • Pray about what your church should do to minister to people and accomplish the Great Commission.

  • Simplify and minimize. Meet people where they are at. Minimize and simplify steps and offerings. And especially the number of emails you are sending from the church!

This article originally appeared on Intentional Churches and is reposted here by permission.