While having lunch with a group of ministers recently I was asked, “What are you seeing around the country – trending in the churches?” My first response was, “Well, there are still a lot of churches in decline.” Immediately, one of the other lunch attendees replied, “But you are seeing a lot of positive results, right?”
“Absolutely,…” I replied. God is alive and well and we are seeing many great and positive events and transformations happening in His churches. Personally, I have just finished walking for one year with six churches who have gone through the Reaching the Summit process. Each one of these churches has recognized areas of needed adjustment and implementation. Two more churches will be completing the process within the next two months. Every one of these churches is better equipped for effective ministry in God’s kingdom.
In the Reaching the Summit process we take a serious look at the reality of how the church is functioning. After this we begin to look at biblical principles and the adjustments needed in the current church practices to align with those principles. Each church undertakes what we call a Vigorous Face to Face Summit with Reality.
As a church walks through the process, of which prayer is a number one factor, practices, issues, and factors surface that have been holding the church back from being the greatest church God created them to be. Often times these factors or issues are underlying and have not been noticeable or uncovered for decades as the church has slipped through the phases of decline.
The Reaching the Summit (RTS) process is carried out in such a way that the Holy Spirit reveals these factors, issues, and practices to the church pastor and the RTS team members and not from the coach (consultant). Through healthy debate, prayer, and research the team and other church members procure a viable solution or adjustment of practices within the church ministries. The solution is always based on biblical principles, not on other church models. We use the mantra, “Do not copy models, Capture principles!”
Each church is unique. Therefore outcomes from the RTS process is differing for each church. Churches can experience an increase in baptisms, conversions, attendance, and membership, organization and structure change, outward focused ministries geared specifically for their community, using unearthed gifts, talents and abilities from within the church. For some churches the greatest outcome is to get all the ministries on the same track: all the wheels on the train of ministry turning in the same direction for the first time in decades. Each church identifies their true core values and a vision that some say is the game changer for their church. The vision retreat we send pastors on has been highly touted as one of the key elements of turning around these RTS churches. (We take a different approach to identifying core values and vision for the church)
A team member from one of the churches who recently completed the RTS process said, “It is truly a transforming experience!”
For more information on how your church can have a Reaching the Summit experience contact George Yates and visit the Reaching the Summit web pages of SonC.A.R.E. Ministries.