One of the major ways to begin assessing the reality of your situation is to take a vigorous look at the truth. Most people do not like confrontation. However, confronting is a good term to use, because to reverse decline in your organization, you must be willing to meet head on the things that may be detrimental and causing decline. A vigorous look at all the truth of the reality of your ministry situation will be essential in reversing or avoiding decline.

With the phrase a vigorous face-to-face summit with reality we are speaking of a completely open and honest assessment—a vigorous face-to-face meeting with reality as the result of an intense investigation of who we are and how we arrived where we are today. It is my belief that a church cannot successfully and thoroughly conduct this assessment without the assistance of an objective experienced and qualified person from outside the church.

If you are serious about turning your church around or even avoiding decline, you should seek a church consultant and coach with experience in assisting churches in growth and reversing decline. Appendix 2 in Reaching the Summit is written as a help with choosing a consultant or coach for your church. You want someone on your turnaround team who does not have the biases that you and your church members have but has a passion to see the church thrive in building God’s kingdom.

For more information on conducting a Vigorous Face to Face Summit for your church or organization purchase a copy of Reaching the Summit: Avoiding and Reversing Decline in the Church or contact George Yates at SonC.A.R.E. Ministries.