Issue 12 – Rick Warren’s Church Health Check

 

Dear Bill

You asked me to comment on Rick Warren’s Church Health Check—from his Ministry Toolbox a few months ago.

I loved it! I think it’s the sharpest assessment tool we’ve had so far because he tests the big things that determine whether we grow or close our churches.

So I’ll start with the big picture; then make brief comments on his health characteristics—setting them in their NZ context, but developing some points more than others.

Rick’s Health Check — The Big Picture

Rick says that over many years he’s seen Purpose Driven principles transform congregations—like those honoured with the Church Health Awards he mentions.

Naturally, his check focuses on his famous five purposes of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and missions—and he emphasises balance, health, and strength over size or shape.

He also notes there’s huge variety among the award-winning churches. Some are post-modern; others are charismatic, multi-sensory, ethnic, language-based, liturgical, traditional, contemporary, or country, etc. And they’re found in rural areas, small towns, suburbs, urban areas, and inner cities. The variety is huge!

Finally, some of these churches don’t have a seeker service, doing evangelism in other ways—because being Purpose Driven is about seeking the lost and helping them grow into balanced believers in Christ.

The good news is there’s no one particular formula or one particular way of doing church—it’s the Purpose Driven focus and intention that’s important, not the method. Provided they’re Purpose Driven, contemporary and traditional churches can both grow!

Rick’s Health Check — The 11 Characteristics

After many years, Rick’s come up with these characteristics of Purpose Driven churches—there may be more, but these are certainly critical.

1. Purpose Driven churches have a purpose statement that describes (in their own words) their commitment to building their church around the five NT purposes of worship, evangelism, fellowship, discipleship, and ministry. Note several things here.

The ‘words’ have to be yours. Just copying Rick’s words may not do you or your church any good. The words must grow out of your own wrestling to discover who you really are. They must capture your own church dream.

Rick gives a brilliant exposition of the role of a purpose statement in pages 80-109 of his book, The Purpose Driven Church. He teaches that a clear purpose builds morale, reduces frustration, helps concentration, attracts co-operation, and assists evaluation. And he warns that becoming a Purpose Driven church takes time, and may even take several years. So when you make the transition, don’t expect quick attendance gains. Put the foundations of your re-configured church down well – and the growth will follow as night follows day.

2. Purpose Driven churches use a Purpose Driven strategy to fulfil their purpose statement. Again, they may use different terms, but they all focus on bringing people to Christ and on into membership in His family, building them to maturity, equipping them for ministry, and sending them out into the world to serve (Rick develops this in pages 102-109 in his book).

Then he adds this comment: The Purpose Driven strategy rests on two key principles—People grow best when we allow them to make gradual commitments, and we should ask for commitment in specific ways, such as using covenants.

Finding and following Jesus is therefore a journey. Many decide to follow Jesus in a particular moment—but back behind their decision may be months of going to places where He’s talked about, like church—just as deciding on membership and all its responsibilities may also take time after they’ve started following Him.

3. Purpose Driven churches organise around a Purpose Driven structure, which ensures balance and gives equal emphasis to all five NT purposes. That is, Purpose Driven churches are team-based, rather than hierarchical in structure, with a team for each purpose and target group (such as the community, the crowd, the congregation, the committed, and the core).

Again, it’s not the words used here that are important but the focus. We may give different names to these groups, and that’s fine. But the focus must be there—the community are the pre-Christian people who live within easy driving distance of our church, the crowd are the Christians and pre-Christians who already attend our services, the congregation are those who’ve made a commitment to Jesus and our church family, the committed are disciples who aren’t yet involved in ministry, and the core are our dedicated stalwarts who’re committed to ministering to others.

Many NZ churches may be too small to have teams focusing on each of the purposes—but they should see that their small leadership team covers the five purposes (however named). And many smaller churches may not have many involved in ‘ministry’ at the moment, but they can put their limited resources into the key areas that will turn their churches around. To use Kiwi terms, it means winning in our Sunday services, championing spiritual growth, developing our family ministries, and getting increasing traffic flow from our weekday community ministries into the services and faith in Jesus—developed further in Rick’s next point.

Putting Rick’s comments in a NZ context, the words and terms don’t matter—razor sharp focus does!

4. Purpose Driven churches ‘program’ by purpose — and have at least one ‘program’ for each purpose—evangelising the community, gathering the crowd for worship, promoting fellowship in the congregation, discipling the committed, and equipping the core for ministry and mission. That is, they are totally focused on what they do, when they do it, why they do it, how they do it, and through whom they do it. They programme by purpose; if a programme doesn’t advance their purpose, they drop it.

Even our smallest churches on a Purpose Driven journey can do this—although they may use few, if any, of the words Rick uses; and may not have fully developed programmes in some areas while they’re still small.

5. Purpose Driven churches staff by purpose — with every purpose having its own champion who, in larger churches, may be a paid person.

When our churches are very small, with few leaders (all voluntary), we’ll just see that our emerging leadership team covers as many of the purposes as we can—for example, winning on Sunday mornings (opening the front door) and promoting spiritual growth (closing the back door). Then, as we grow, we’ll progressively cover the other crucial areas.

At the start, these small churches may have a paid minister/pastor, but a volunteer will lead each ministry. Then, as they grow, part-time salaried people (who may initially have been volunteers) may start to lead the bigger emerging ministries—till those leaders themselves later become full-time.

But however it’s done, Purpose Driven churches of every size try to find the best people to lead their ministries —because they staff (whether paid or voluntary) for growth so their church reaches its potential of helping people find and follow Jesus.

6. Purpose Driven pastors preach by purpose — messages and series are planned to ensure the congregation gets a balanced emphasis on each of the purposes.

This principle is as important in smaller churches as it is in larger ones, because whether smaller or larger, congregations need a balanced diet from ‘the whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20.27 RSV).

This principle is also particularly important for congregations that reach significant numbers of newer people who haven’t have any background in Christian things—because like very young growing children, they need a balanced diet from day one.

And the best way to ensure the teaching is balanced is to get several people involved in developing a teaching plan for the church—something even small churches can do.

7. Purpose Driven churches form small groups on purpose — to implant the Purpose Driven DNA in every small group of the congregation so each group helps its members fulfil each of the five purposes in their lives. Our small group goal is to help every believer live a Purpose Driven life.

Many, if not most, NZ churches struggle with small groups so I may write a Leadership Letter soon on ‘Doing Small Groups Well’. But a friend, whose large church does small groups exceptionally well, has prepared notes for me which I can pass on to interested leaders to help them in the meantime.

Suffice to say, if our Sunday morning services open the front door of our church so newer people can flow in from our various weekday activities, small groups close the back door of the church (as they’ve done in my friend’s church), so people coming to faith go on to become lifelong followers (disciples) of Jesus—along with those who’re already following Him. Without good small groups, we cannot grow our church over the long haul.

8. Purpose Driven churches calendar by purpose — because the five purposes (however named) determine what goes on the calendar! If an event doesn’t fulfil at least one of the five purposes it doesn’t get approved—no matter how great the idea may be or how many years we’ve been holding the event.

I’ve worked with NZ churches for 20 years and knew Rick’s other 10 principles well; but I’d never grasped this principle as clearly as Rick has. But it’s the clarity and focus he commends that could change the way we do church and set us on a new growth path.

To illustrate, I’ve noticed that towards the end of each year we’re tempted to fill in the wall planner at church with all the traditional things we do from year to year—plus a few specials. But when we calendar by purpose, we stop, assess every intended event, and only put on the planner things that flow from the five purposes of our purpose statement (along with our denominational responsibilities). Nothing else makes it onto the planner—because time, and energy and resources are all limited.

Taking this one crucial step could revolutionise the way we do church overnight and pay handsome dividends for the Kingdom—because now we’re doing church with the focus Jesus intended.

9. Purpose Driven churches budget by purpose — so they only spend money on things that fit the five purposes.

Like ‘calendaring by purpose’, this stops us in our tracks and says, ‘Wait a minute; we’ve always spent money on that in the past; but it doesn’t actually connect with any of our purposes. We’ll stop doing it from now on, and put the money saved towards the purposes that help us carry out our purpose statement’.

Now, perhaps for the first time, we’re budgeting by purpose as good stewards of God’s grace—and we can expect a harvest to follow. We’re now focused on what we do and how we spend our money.

10. Purpose Driven churches build by purpose — because they now see buildings as ministry tools, not monuments. We build or renovate our buildings so we can carry out our purposes, and the buildings must never be more important than the purposes.

Purpose Driven churches calendar, budget, and build by purpose. No wonder they grow—and in some countries, win Church Health Awards!

11. Finally, Purpose Driven churches evaluate by purpose — with leaders and congregations regularly asking themselves, ‘Are we balancing all five purposes (however named)? And is there a better way to fulfil each purpose—now that we’re a Purpose Driven congregation?’

Razor sharp focus on helping people find and follow Jesus—along with careful and regular evaluation are always marks of high performing congregations. When it comes to growing churches, we reap what we sow!

Rick Warren’s Church Health Check

Churches on a Purpose Driven journey therefore look increasingly like this:

They have a purpose (or perhaps in NZ at the moment, a sharp ‘mission’) statement – and we may look at the larger purpose/mission/vision statement question later in the year. They use a Purpose Driven strategy to fulfil their purpose statement – and organise around a Purpose Driven structure. They program and staff by purpose.  The senior pastors preach by purpose – and the churches form small groups on purpose. They calendar by purpose, budget by purpose, and build by purpose. And to make absolutely sure they’re doing their best for Jesus, they evaluate by purpose – doing everything with history’s last Great Day constantly in view!

These purpose driven churches are becoming amazing churches!

Starting The Purpose Driven Journey

Bill, like most of us, you probably feel overwhelmed by Rick’s brief picture of what a Purpose Driven church looks like – and wonder where to start.

If I led an average NZ church, I’d start roughly like this – varying the details to suit the particular church.

I’d start with the big picture of what we’ll now focus on – helping people find and follow Jesus (ie, evangelism and discipleship). And I’d start next Sunday – and at the next leaders meeting.

Sharp purpose and mission statements take time to develop, so putting them to the side for the moment, I’d pick out several things we could do right away – as we begin to focus sharply on helping people find and follow Jesus.

Obviously, starting this week, I’d now prepare all messages with this new focus in mind – remembering that the average NZ church has only one Sunday morning service (have a quick read through the final sections of Leadership Letter 10 to remind you how to do this). So from this Sunday on, I’d preach by purpose (probably amazing everyone present!). Even doing this would profoundly change our church by the end of the year.

I’d also start calendaring by purpose. Sometime in the next fortnight, I’d run a critical eye over our church wall planner – asking how the various scheduled activities will help people find and follow Jesus. For example, I’d ask if our brilliant weekday community ministries actually help us connect with those who don’t yet know Jesus – and whether they get them started on their journey to Him, and through the kind of services we run on Sunday, actually bring them to faith and on into the discipleship journey? If those scheduled activities don’t do these things, I’d ask what we could do to make them more effective this year – and consider dropping them next year if they still don’t fit our focus on helping people find and follow Jesus.

So as well as preaching by purpose, and calendaring by purpose, I’m now also evaluating by purpose – three of Rick’s critical characteristics! And so on.

So Bill, I hope these brief comments are helpful to you as you and your church start your own Purpose Driven journey. And it will of course take time; but every step you take will help you reach more and more people for Jesus, which I know is your greatest desire – and later in the year I’d love to hear how the journey is going.

Goodbye – and may God bless you.

Gordon Miller
Church Growth & Development Consultant

To discuss at leaders meetings (before doing your planning)

• Is our present mission/purpose statement really having a major impact on our church—and if not, what do we need to do to make it ‘mission’ potent?
• Do our present services actually help people find and follow Jesus—and if they don’t, what changes do we need to make so they do?
• Running your eye over Rick’s 11 characteristics, choose three that you can start with right away—and jot down how you’ll start each one. Then schedule when you’ll address the others—where possible tying them in to your present/next strategic plan.
• What could we expect our church to look like this time next year if it’s becoming a Purpose Driven church? List some obvious features—then see how closely you match the picture in March 2007.

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