Some Worthy Questions...

Been doing lots of praying and thinking about the Future of Community of Joy Church lately.  The following questions have been on my mind and I think are worthy of consideration by our leaders...

1. Do we have a transferable Mission or Vision?

• Do our participants know why we exist?
• By what standard do we measure our success as a church...really?
• Which of these three drive the majority of our decisions: reaching people, keeping people, or paying the bills?

2. What have we fallen in love with that's not as effective as it used to be?

• What do we love doing that's not really working?
• What's off limits for discussion?
• Do we have an "old couches" that need to be thrown out?

3. Where are we manufacturing energy?

• What are we promoting that we secretly wish we didn't have to attend?
• What would we love to quit doing but continue to do because we fear the consequences of change?
• What dare we doing programmatically that we would never dream of inviting a friend to?

4. What do we measure?

• Is there a natural relationship between what we measure and our mission?
• Are there things we should be measuring that would give us a more accurate read of how well we are accomplishing our mission?
• What are we afraid to measure?

5. What do we celebrate?

• Is there a natural relationship between what we celebrate and our mission?
• Are there things we should be celebrating that would help reinforce our mission?
• Do we celebrate anything that reinforces a behavior that shouldn't be reinforced?

6. If our church suddenly ceased to exist, would our community miss us?

• If so, why?
• What value do we bring to our community?
• How do people outside our church view our church?

I am indebted to Andy Stanley for these questions from his most recent book "Becoming Deep and Wide"