Tag Archives: Planning

No goals, no growth!

Posted by Bill on April 14, 2012

If you want your small group to grow, you need to challenge your members to set growth goals.  Setting achievable goals will point your group in the right direction and challenge your members to stretch further, from their present best, to the next level of their growth potential in Christ. Remember: No goals, no growth! – It’s as simple as that.

In the eight years I served as the Small Groups Director at Maadi Community Church, Cairo, October was the annual ‘goal setting’ time for me. It was the time of the year when I had to turn my attention to working on producing budget figures for small groups operation and development in our church for the following financial year. In my first year, this task was quite easy to accomplish because we started with zero groups. However, each following year the Lord blessed our efforts with an amazing increase in the number of groups under our care (413 groups in eight years!). With this amazing growth came a mega challenge of setting a budget that would enable the development and growth of the groups to continue. This challenge involved every member on my senior leadership team.

After several team-discussions and much prayer, each of our ten Zone Directors (leaders of 1,000 small group members) would submit their goals and budget proposal for consideration and approval. After making minor adjustments, the job of calculating the financial budget would begin. In my final year at MCC, it took me seven working days to calculate a combined budget for our networks of small groups.

After submitting our growth goals and budget to the Business Manager I would leave feeling quite relieved, excited, and greatly expectant that our God would do even greater things in and through us the following year.  The following goals is what I submitted:

  • Small Groups: 469 (increase of 169)  
  • Members: 4,518 (increase of 1,518)
  • New Believers: 620 (increase of 320)
  • Daughter Churches: 2 (making 7 in total)

Please don’t misunderstand me; realistic goal setting, alone, does not achieve growth results. We must go further; we must commit all that we have within our stewardship control for the realisation of our goals, we need to walk and work closer with the Lord than ever before, and we need to be as diligent as we can – exercising faith and remaining confident at all times that we can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength.

It saddens me to see groups in churches remaining the ‘same-old-same’, year after year, experiencing little or no apparent growth. The Lord expects us to grow!  He loves growth, and, goal-setting is a responsible step in the process of experiencing growth. Make no mistake, I’m not talking about ‘human’ goals, but about ‘faith’ goals – goals that are inspired and sanctioned by the Lord.

Friends, shouldn’t we desire all that God has intended for us? How disappointing it would be to arrive in Heaven and realise we could have asked the Lord for more.  Do the Scriptures not say to us, “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2), and, “He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope” (Ephesians 3:20)? Eight years running at MCC, by faith, we asked the Lord to increase our talents, and, each following year He did not disappoint us.

Remember: No goals – no growth! It’s as simple as that.

Bill

A new step for Finley, Berrigan & Tocumwal!

Posted by Bill on April 1, 2011

Last week I had an exciting opportunity to fly to NSW (that’s New South Wales for you non-Aussies out there) to visit the Presbyterian churches of Finley, Berrigan and Tocumwal to present our Small Groups Church Plan to their Elders and lay leaders. I’m glad to share this report with you, not just to prove that I’m still up and about :-) but to inspire and encourage churches and church leaders everywhere who may be considering taking on the small-groups challenge!

I met many fantastic people who made my visit a blessed experience.  These three churches are pulsating with healthy hearts and I sensed a clear desire from the people I met to go forward with the Lord.  I was privileged to join with the Elders of these churches on Friday night to brainstorm  thoughts about where their churches desired to go. On Saturday, 29 representatives (Elders and lay leaders) from these churches took part in the Small Groups Development presentation. The session flowed smoothly and the participants were exceptionally warm, open and receptive to what was presented.  I was also blessed with an opportunity to preach the Gospel at Berrigan and Finley Churches on the Sunday – praise the Lord for His presence and power at work in His people!

I am grateful to David and Chris Milburn who hosted me in their home during the four days visit.  Thank you both sincerely for your generous hospitality, and for allowing the Lord to use you as a catalyst in making this great event possible.

To the church families of Finley, Berrigan and Tocumwal I extend a heartfelt bravo for taking these courageous, first steps in looking at biblical ways to (1) grow closer together in fellowship with each other, and with God, (2) develop new generations of leaders in your church, and (3) see how small groups can be effective in impacting unchurched family and friends with the love of the Lord.  May the Lord richly bless you as you continue in this journey with Him, experiencing His will for you.

Every journey needs a first step!  In this case, it came from the willingness of the church leadership to open their hearts to receive an objective assessment and recommendations for new ways of “doing church” that promises fruitful outcomes.  I am privileged and thankful to the Lord for raising-up CCI to serve these churches in this way. It warms my heart to know that God is on the move, equipping and mobilising his people, here in Australia.

Can your church use some assistance to know how to step out in a new and exciting direction?

Sticking to plan

Posted by Bill on February 23, 2011

Early into my season of ministry at Maadi Community Church in 2000, Dave Petrescue (senior pastor) arrived at my apartment building in his car to take me with him to the Palmera Hotel, our Red Sea retreat. Dave thought it would be a good idea to get away from the “busyness” of ministry to get to know each other better. Days leading up to this time, I remember “packing death” from the thought of Dave asking me to share my game-plan with him concerning the development of small groups at MCC. That’s why they hired me!

Dave Petrescue

As we travelled easterly along the desert road, my fear was soon realised when Dave said to me, “Hey Bill … do you have any thoughts as to how we can encourage small groups’ growth in our church?” Immediately, I felt exposed and cornered! What could I say that would give confidence to my new boss that they had not hired a fraud? It was still fresh in my memory that several weeks earlier at a small groups’ presentation forum I road-tested my ministry plan on fifty members of MCC. How did it go? It didn’t! It bombed-out, and I felt that I had crashed and burned, along with my plan.

I confessed to Dave that I had no idea how to tackle this new challenge. I admitted that I didn’t have a plan, and I felt I was way-out of my depth of experience. Dave’s response surprised and comforted me. He said … “Well, that makes two of us. I had no idea how to tackle my challenge when the Lord called me to Egypt … and, I still don’t have an idea as to how to lead the church forward from here.” With a warm smile on his face, he continued … “I guess your feet are made of clay … like mine”.

Dave was a dear friend, and the best leader I had ever partnered with. In the seven years we ministered together we witnessed the Lord’s miracle working power in countless situations. The Lord grew MCC from 400 to 5,000 members and expanded His kingdom through the addition of 1,600 new believers! Early into our partnership, we would often say to each other, “It doesn’t get better than this!” However, it wasn’t long before we had to change that saying to, “It gets better than this!”

Why were we able to experience such amazing happenings? For me, I experienced the Lord’s perfect peace the moment I abandoned my plan for the adoption of His plan. My mistake had come from the wrong belief that it was up to me to develop a small groups plan for God to rubber stamp. Achieving purpose came from a right belief that the Lord is the Master Planner … He has a perfect plan for me to follow. The moment I dispensed with my plan, the Lord began to reveal to me a new and exciting plan that resulted in 413 small groups! My life and walk with Him would never be the same.

“Sticking to His plan” was one of the many amazing lessons I learned in my time at MCC. The Lord worked in and through us beyond our wildest dreams. Sticking to His plan is not a new approach to achieving purpose in our lives (leadership and ministry) – its God’s universal and timeless principle that guarantees our success, according to His perfect will. Through Jeremiah, the Lord says, “For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Are you sticking to plan? Who’s plan?

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