Strategy - Measures

That video either meant something to you or it did not. But since it’s election Sunday why not a little presidential humor? I will now attempt to preach about strategy without saying strategery.

Vision mission and values proceed strategy because they inform our culture. And it’s been said that culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Organizational culture encompasses shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that define how people interact and make decisions within an organization. It's a powerful force that can either support or undermine strategic goals.

Strategy without culture is bound to fail! It begs the question why are we are doing what we do? How can we keep sustaining it? And why would people want to be a part of it. Because we have tried to develop and cultivate a healthy culture here at Cap City through the articulation of our vision, mission, and values, today we want to talk a little strategy. In other words what’s in the playbook? Let’s start with scripture this week in the 14th chapter of Luke. Jesus is talking a little bit about the cost of discipleship in this passage, and knowing the cost is not enough, but we have to be willing to understand the expectations before us and then be intentional about carrying out those expectations. President Saunders reminded us a few weeks ago that God doesn’t offer cheap deals or bargains and vision never on sale, we always pay full price. Let’s read the Bible then we will jump in a little bit further.

Luke 14:25-33

Luke 14:25–29 “Now large crowds were going along with Him, and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who are watching it will begin to ridicule him,” Luke 14:30–33 “saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish!’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to face the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Otherwise, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and requests terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”

Buildings and Battles

In the passage we see Jesus talking a little bit about buildings and battles.

There is tension that exists between faith and planning. If we said last week that we cannot use Holiness as an excuse for a lack of excellence then this week we say Faith is not an excuse for poor planning. I believe the tension between faith and strategy exists to keep us constantly considering which one we might need to beef up a little bit. I’ve told people that I’ve been slow to roll out vision here at Cap City because i do believe there is big faith here, and I didn’t want to give arbitrary instructions to individuals and leaders that might truly be ready to storm the gates of hell.

Anyhow, buildings and battles. Quit simply before we start a new ministry, do we have the resources to see it through? Before we start a new ministry do we have enough people to perform the ministry we’ve envisioned in our head or our hearts? Far too often I’ve seen people start great things, with meager resources, or a reluctant army, and then a good idea yields a discouraging failure. Strategy reflects intentionality. And any move of faith that we feel called to, needs to be done on purpose and with purpose.

Let’s talk cap city strategy.

Strategy - Engage, Equip, Multiply and Mobilize

There are 4 particular steps of strategy that we want to consider this morning. Engage, Equip, Multiply, and Mobilize. I’ve been intentional about the order of these as I truly believe that each one builds on the other and requires the previous ideas in order to be most successful. Let’s jump into the first one which is Engagement.

ENGAGE - LOVE LEARN LEAD

We engage others when we give and receive through loving , learning, and leading. Our strategy starts here because people are not going to move towards anything else in this church until they feel some sense of connection to some one or something that exists here at Cap City. Whether people realize it or not, they long to be engaged. They can say they are here for a myriad of reasons, they may value types of teaching, preaching, worship, or ministries, but until they know they are loved, believe they can learn, and know they will be lead it will be very challenging for them to ever feel like they are part of the family.

Talk First impressions here, what else? TIFF STAND UP be super inclusive of all opportunities - Parking, (give parking team a hand) Greetings, Information, Hospitality, and Goodbyes are all ways you can get involved in engaging people so they can begin to feel connected to cap city.

Transition… Step 2 in our strategy is the word…

EQUIP - Energy, Qualify, Unique, Influence, and Produce

Back in February we preached through this series. Energy meant I have to create space and time to show that I value the church above other ideas in my life. Qualify meant we start with private faithfulness by diligently nurturing our relationship with God, and last week we said God has called us first to intimacy before ministry. Private faithfulness leads to public usefulness, and ultimately a particular calling. When we got to the word unique we talked about how our divine and particular design meant that we can be confident in our unique characteristics and that much of what God wants to do through you, may not be able to accomplished by anyone else. Your location, history, and personality are unique to you and your family in ways that you can make defining difference in the place where you are. Influence means that you have engaged with others enough so that as you make strategic moves, you can have a significant impact. And of course the step of producing means that we aren’t just trying to stay busy, but we want to be doing things that produce results. This is where we measure our outcomes more than boasting in our input. More on this later.

So with that EQUIP summary in mind how does equipping take place here at Cap City?

When an individual shows an interest in joining to the church and have given their life to Jesus, we invite them into our 6 six week class called foundations. Most of you have been through this and we consider this an entry point for getting to know us better. Pastor Tom and I are currently working on the Foundations module so that it covers all the basis for understanding membership and ministry here at the church. Once you’ve completed that our G1, 2, and 3 classes invite you into a deeper walk that teaches you to live out your faith and a tangible way. Our goal from there is that you join thrive and community groups to be in fellowship with other believers because we believe that all purpose is accomplished with one another and for one another.

This could be followed by additional informal/formal training by ministry department heads, or even through our denomination if a person feels compelled to pursue a call to ministry.

So we work to help people feel engaged, we offer avenues for being equipped this is all with the goal to…

MULTIPLY AND MOBILIZE

I’m going to put these two together today for our teaching because in principle so much of what they represent overlaps with the other.

Ministry and Purpose is always…ALWAYS about other people.

If you’re not growing, you’re dying. This is true of the individual and the church. People are going to die physically, people are going to move away, try another church, people are going to college, and get married. Overall, for various reasons statistics show us that one year from now, 15% of the individuals attending our church and every church won’t be in that same church a year from now. So if we aren’t growing, our church will diminish. Pastors and church staff are switching vocations and there is a high leadership deficit. So whatever your doing the question should be, who can replace me or who can I bring alongside me?

Jesus told us to spread the gospel, and to make disciples who make disciples. Ultimately if we do a good job at multiplying from within our ministry our focus would be then to mobilize to go out.

God blesses sending ministries. We are not trying to build Jonathan Barker’s army, or Capital City’s kingdom. In the physical realm, healthy things reproduce, and in a moment we are going to talk about numbers a little bit, which I know seems to turn some people off, but multiplication is a great representation of both spiritual and organizational health.

When it comes to strategic planning I don’t think there is anything more fun to think about than the multiplication and mobilization steps.. I believe that a holy imagination is where the groundwork takes place for God dreams to come true. Imagine with me if you will…

Imagine

If Cap City became a training ground to cultivate leadership for students from Ohio Christian University. Imagine if Cap City became the hub for raising up leaders and pastors so that we could see our church not as a building in Lockbourne but a ministry for the greater Columbus area. Imagine if we helped rebuild or revitalize other churches by coming along side them to restore their properties or their ministry cultures. Imagine Capital City reproducing churches on the West, North, and East sides so that we could effectively reach people in every area of Columbus. The biggest church in our denomination is now in New Jersey because a church from outside our denomination joined us because of our stance on the authority of Biblical principles. Imagine if another church needs our help to continue ministry. Imagine if another church wants to be a part of what we are doing. Imagine if WE are supposed to be part of another church. A focus on multiplication and mobilization brings imaginary things into reality. It moves us from scarcity to prosperity, it moves us from a mindset of surviving into a environment of thriving.

So how will we know once we start moving on so many of these things, where things should stay the same, and where things should change? I’m glad you asked. We are going to measure things.

Measures: Salvation (Baptisms) Surrender (Discipleship) Community (Thrive) Service (City Team)

Over the years the church has been given a bad rap for what some call counting nickels and noses. And I’ve seen where the tracking and boasting of attendance and offerings is just exactly that… boasting. But we want to intentionally measure things so that in areas we are not growing we can adapt and re-direct, and in areas where we ARE growing we are slower to deviate.

So for example

Salvation - baptisms, not just a raised hand with no follow up, greater emphasis on sharing faith.

Surrender - discipleship (foundations and finances, training and generosity) More surrendered Christians means a greater army of leadership, and more money means we get to invest in more ministries, or invest more in great ministries that we are already doing.

Community - How many people are engaged in thrive groups and community groups. Quickly, what each one is…

Service - City Team. What’s the city team. In the very near future, service covenants for each department, optional box that you mark that will say that you will want to join the city team. This will get you a cool new t-shirt, in exchange for you committing to working outside of your ministry department once a quarter to help with a larger project at cap city. This could be mission work, ministry to our neighbors, an outreach or fellowship event, or just supporting a department that might need some help from time to time. Then once a quarter on a Sunday night we will come together to worship, celebrate, and acknowledge the hard work everyone is doing. And there will probably, maybe, definitely be dessert.

Each year we will look at how we are doing in these areas and refuse to be satisfied with backwards movement in a given area. I’ll never forget an interview with NFL Quarterback Cam Newton after he lost a game where someone commented that he didn’t look very happy, to which he replied, “being ok with losing would make me a loser, winners should always be upset with losing.” And by the way church the last time I checked we are on the winning side. God is not ok with churches who are dying and losing numbers continually excusing themselves instead of accepting their spiritual condition and doing something to change it. Not being concerned about the loss in spiritual growth or saved souls is be poor stewardship. God cares about numbers because numbers represents souls and can represent spiritual growth.

If we aren’t concerned about results we will find ourselves excusing ourselves with an “I did my part” mentality. One more for Jesus isn’t about just doing “our part” but doing whatever it takes to make the next move, and reach the next person for Him.

I think if I were you, and I was listening to me I would say “So what happens if we do all of this?” What if we engage and help others engage, what if we get equipped and help others get equipped. What if we multiply? How will we mobilize?

Let’s start with attendance - I personally believe and have found much support for the fact that attendance in the 400 range has a very great potential for being the ideal attendance for a church. If 400 people are attending, growing, serving, and giving in a way that reflects scripture, we can be big enough to have the resources to do ministry effectively, but small enough to still be connected to one another. With that in mind you can know that this building is built for us to be able to accommodate 500 on a Sunday morning. We had 489 people on Easter, and on a weekly basis are averaging about 300 people. Because a building this size doesn’t know how many people are attending or giving, it doesn’t give us a discount on the carpet cleaning, electric bill, or roof maintenance. So being a church of less than 400 in this building means that we will be challenged to do ministry, to a degree, as the demands of the building could often be greater than the resources that come from less than 400 people contributing to the cause. So what happens when we hit 400? We will look to mobilize. While God ultimately owns the vision, one more for Jesus isn’t limited to just the next soul, but instead we believe that at 400 people we could begin the journey of targeting a new place for us to do ministry by sending out people from Cap City who want to carry the vision to other parts of the city. In summary, at 400 we could be big enough to have the resources, small enough to stay relevant, and then we could reproduce.

(SLOWLY AND CONSIDERATELY ) What would we do with more finances - The number one reason that people don’t give to an idea is because they are unsure of how the money will be spent. So let me tell you exactly how it would be used. For starters, you can know that the way that we are currently running Capital City Church costs us $600,000 a year, and our current income is slightly less than $500,000 a year. If you are currently not giving you can know that to continue standard operations in the upcoming years we need to see an increase of $100,000 in giving. So if you believe in everything that is happening here and appreciate and partake in the ministry, when you choose not to tithe, you are choosing to limit the possibilities of what God wants to accomplish in and through our church. Based on statistics and studies within the church, if everyone that attends Cap City would give a Biblical tithe of 10% or more, our giving would be somewhere around $1.5 million a year.

So if everyone here begins to tithe we would… secure the operating budget, we would expand the parking lot, we would further staff our booming next gen ministries, we would fund ways to minister to our increasing special needs population, we would invest heavily into ministering to our neighboring communities, we would begin a fund to plant another church, and we would seek out avenues to plant or partner with a church on the mission field. Anything in there sound like it’s not worth giving to?

At the end of our text we read this morning Jesus said if you don’t give up ALL your possessions you can’t be His disciple. If that sounds overwhelming maybe just start with a Biblical tithe of 10%.

What would we do with more volunteers? Invite ministry leaders here. Colton, Tiffany, Allison, Josh, Nicole, Jeff, Dimmerlings, ask how many more you would take? Keep count in my head and give total number of openings.

We would have departments that were fully staffed, healthier less burnt out volunteers, and then we could imagine and start new ministries to reach new people, and more specifically one more for Jesus. Just by a round of applause can you let me know if you feel this vision, mission, values, and strategy are something you feel like you can get behind moving forward?

RESPONSE/SUMMARY

Awesome, so where do we go from here?

Talk to one of these ministry leaders we had on stage and tell them you want to help engage, equip, multiply, and mobilize.

Pray for your leaders and support them. We cannot do this without you holding us up in prayer. Prayer is not the only thing we do, but it is the most important. We desire your prayer support greatly.

Begin to tithe. That’s giving back 10% of the income that you receive, which is expressing to God that you know it all comes from Him. Remember we said vision is never on sale. God has great plans for this church and I believe there are people in this room that could fund the mission. Here’s your personal request from the lead Pastor. Pray about how God might want you to make a radical move to keep His kingdom work moving here at cap city.

Keep on asking God about One more for Jesus. Because we believe the next step of obedience is the most important one.

Let’s pray.

POST RESPONSE

Elections, take a ballot to stage, people on stage, special recognition to Joyce Brewer. invite Mike and Erica

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