Five Issues Worthy of Consideration

Converge Heartland recently held church strengthening workshops in Kearney, Yankton, and Omaha. The name of the workshop was “Triage for the Stuck Church” and it was led by Dr. Bruce Hopler, the National Director of Church Strengthening for Converge Worldwide. Bruce did a fantastic job of addressing issues where churches often get stuck as well as facilitating very meaningful and related questions. All of this led to an enlightening inter-church dialogue and the sharing of great ideas.

The first issue addressed had to do with developing the church’s SPIRITUAL LIFE as discussed through foundational questions such as: Pastors, how is your personal spiritual life outside of sermon or lesson preparation? How is the church board’s spiritual life being developed? How is the congregation being spiritually developed by the pastor and church board?

Secondly, we discussed the issue of a church’s VISION through the following questions: What is your church’s driving desire? How would you define your church’s present reality? How can/will you intentionally work towards your church’s driving desire?

Thirdly, we had meaningful discussion around the area of EVANGELISM, seeking insights on questions such as: What is your most recent experience in personal evangelism? What are the details? How are pastors and church leaders modeling a lifestyle of personal evangelism? How can we best equip our churches for personally sharing their faith?

Fourthly, we discussed the area of CHURCH STRUCTURE through the use of a unique King Cab Chevy Silverado illustration. Some of the most meaningful questions that arose were: What is the mission of your church? What individual or group is really in the driver’s seat of your church and why? On what is your church’s primary focus? The church’s resources or the church’s mission?

Finally, we discussed LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT and had dialogue around the following questions: How are future church leaders being equipped to lead according to Biblical qualification? What is your church’s intentional disciple making process? Can it be reproduced? Who are you training to send out from your church? To where? How is this being done?

Converge Heartland is very thankful to Dr. Bruce Hopler for bringing this workshop to us and also to the over 30 church leaders from 16 different churches who participated in these workshops. Everyone had valuable input and thoughts to share, which was just one more proof that we really are better together!