Compassion By Design

Continuation of our discussion (part 2) about why needs assessment is a critical part of the new church pathway to health and growth. Additional reasons are as follows…

Develop missional disciples in your core team. While we often work to “win” team members to the new church effort, we cannot afford to only “disciple” them to church practices. This reality is made clear in the new study by Willow Creek, REVEAL. To many, a real disciple is missional—that is, their life includes an external life focus in which they see themselves as sent people, present in the community not just to set up chairs, or lead singing, but to personally win and disciple others. Needs assessment helps put the entire team on this track, and gives their leaders an effective way to work at “action discipleship” in which they work together in the community, talking and listening to community members intentionally. Without intentionally focused personal discipleship around mission, we may find ourselves have to “re-disciple” people who we truly only won to the work of church, not the work of the mission of God—to be sent in the world.

Make hundreds of new connections, relationships. We know that people come and stay in new churches when they connect with people. An effective church launch requires hundreds of new relationships in a short amount of time. If we are targeting more than just transfer growth, or those who are shopping for a new church, the needs assessment will put us personally in front of as many hundreds as we want.

Look for some more insights about the importance of community needs assessments in the next installment. Check out the community needs assessment kit for new churches
Check out the community needs assessment for existing churches
Join a free conference call to learn more

If you are a church planter, or someone considering starting a new church, an emerging practice in church planting is the use of community needs assessment as an integrated part of the “pre-launch” phase up through the first couple years of the new church. As we explore this idea we must first, answer the question:

“What is a community needs assessment?”

A needs assessment is the process of systematically listening to community members and leaders through surveys, interviews and other methods. This is a period of intentional “listening,” that when approached in the right way, can have dramatic benefits for the growth of the launch team, new church and its impact on the community. To work for churches, the process has to be modified from the traditional social work approach and should engage volunteers as the primary workers, include questions about strengths and needs in the community and help the new church focus its ministry both inside the new church and in its community. It will result a public report that can be issued to coincide with the launch date, and help to establish a clear community focused identity for the new church.

Now that we know “what it is”, we need to answer the why question:

“Why Should I Include Community Needs Assessment in My Church Plant Process?”

WHY #1-It’s the natural prerequisite to the New Testament model of Demonstration and Proclamation. For us to effectively demonstrate through service, we have to first “investigate.” To use the words of Rick Rusaw of Externally Focused, who believes in “show and tell” as a key ministry approach, needs assessment creates a process that is “LISTEN, SHOW AND TELL.” Listening and intentionally networking increases the impact of service and helps to embed our demonstration of love in respect and a relational network.

WHY #2- Maximize your servant “outreach” activity. Many new churches include a series of outreach events that range from free car washes to block parties. The impact of these activities can be improved when they are linked to a needs assessment. The team simply does intentional survey work during the outreach events to help them focus on listening, make better connections with those who attend and to listen to the heart of the community.

next blog…more “Why Needs Assessment?”
Check out the community needs assessment kit for new churches
Check out the community needs assessment for existing churches
Join a free conference call to learn more

For church planters, the horse we intend to ride is a well planned church planting effort complete with a healthy team, budgets, role descriptions, work-plan management (see converge), supporters and church style. So much rides (pardon the pun) on our effective thinking and preparation. We know that this is a faith adventure that we are undertaking, and we know there will be some rough spots, that is why we plan ahead. Proverbs 21:31 tell us that our “horse is made ready for battle, but victory rests with the LORD.”

For some a different proverb should be written, “our horse is malnourished and unshod, and we ride forward like Don Quixote to tilt at windmills” (Mills translation). In other words our preparation is really an important key to our success. Another Proverb (21:5), confirms this reality, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” I think the support offered by converge related to work planning and the coaching that goes with it is a worthwhile way to help new churches stay on track. Also, needs assessment is an initial planning tool that also helps us to find and focus on people that we can serve and reach.

No matter the supports we include, the challenge is always taking the time to plan, and requiring focus along the way. This challenge to plan well and adjust while we trust in the Lord is even more critical when we add missional community service as a part of our new church.

Effective community service is not offered or sustained through unplanned or hasty efforts. Things that we get away with in ministry space (that’s a sad commentary), won’t stand the light of public scrutiny in a broader community space. We can’t move forward without essential charitable documents, budgets, defined roles and careful thinking that lines up our gifts and talents with community needs. If we ever want to move past experimental, occasional outreach to long term missional service, we have to get serious about effective preparation and planning. So, how is your horse? Have you tuned up your plan lately, or are you running a hasty race that will require lots of repair work later? Are you laying a foundation of focus and discipline? Are you doing the essential planning, communication and documenting that lead to later success? Those things are hard for us all, but we know that our trust in the Lord’s grace isn’t permission for sloppy Agape, or loose horseshoes.

According to the research completed by Ed Stetzer about what makes church plants most sustainable, new churches that include outreaches like block parties fare better than those that use door to door evangelism strategies. These outreaches serve several important purposes: 1) they help build team cohesion; 2) they stretch team members outside their comfort zone; 3) they provide another marketing opportunity; and 3) may help us connect with potential visitors to our launch.

Many of our outreaches however, are more marketing than missional. Being missional has to do with organizing our church life AND the personal discipleship of our team around relational connections with people. Being in the community is an important step toward growing a real missional DNA, but the postman is in the community too, and he/she is not necessarily missional. Being “sent” means not only “showing up” in the community, but actually connecting with people in a caring way. Missional DNA shows up as our people become more committed and comfortable in reaching out to new people on their turf.

The number of people in your team that actually make a personal connection with someone new during the outreach is often very limited. Our people get busy during these outreaches, but they don’t always talk to anyone. Could we use our planned outreaches to build a greater relational and incarnational DNA in our plant team? We know that the more that the entire team becomes connectors, the healthier and larger the church launch.

Here are some suggestions about making our outreaches missional growth opportunities.

Structure outreaches relationally. Don’t do ring and run outreach. Plan the outreach to require some kind of conversation—make it comfortable and non-invasive, but conversational. This is the difference between just washing windows for free, or taking a brief survey while you wash windows. Surveys, like those in a needs assessment help those who are not highly skilled talkers to learn to start conversations.

Model relationship building. Talk about this in advance and tell success stories when you are done that amplify the importance and ease of talking with people. Share skills in conversation starting. Don’t only tell the most exciting stories, tell the simple ones where a quiet team member had a positive conversation.

Pair people to stretch their networking skills. Place those who are not easy talkers, with those who make this look easy. Teach the strong relational leaders, to take turns talking with others and to encourage those who are being stretched.

Do Needs Assessment survey work during the outreach, so that lots of conversations are started. By simply adding needs assessment to your existing outreach calendar, you ensure that in every contact a conversation is started. To learn more about needs assessment, join a free conference call, or attend the February 5,6 Needs Assessment Training in the national capital area of Virginia.