Step 7: Make a plan and do it!

Begin a planned journey of growth

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it but God has been making it grow.

St Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 v 6

This step takes the learning from the previous steps, and prayerfully turns it into a realistic plan. The key stages are:

Identify 2 or 3 priority areas
Choose actions to take to grow in these areas
Make a plan that will fit into the church year
Agree regular updates to monitor progress and keep on track
Get Help – who can help us along this journey?

Identify 2 or 3 priority areas

No church can do all seven steps at once – only by focusing on a few 2 or 3 at most are you likely to see these grow.

Give Your Church an approximate score for each step	Score Out of 5
1. Prayer - Create a prayerful culture of growth
2. Begin where you are - Implement an effective startegy
3. Build confidence to tell others about Jesus - Practice fruitful evangelism
4. Review Your Services - Develop Engaging Worship
5. Become An Inviting and Welcoming Church - Grow relationships with children, community and contacts
6. Helping All Ages Along The Journey Of Faith - Make a pathway for seekers to become disciples
7. Make A Plan and Do It! - Begin a planned journey of growth

Which do you think require the most attention?

NB: When choosing priorities ALWAYS pick one which is reaching out to people who do not yet come to church.

Choose actions to take to grow in these areas

This is best done by consultation and discussion.

Thought Shower: (Good for generating ideas)

A goal is stated simply eg To connect with more children.
Then the group each come up with as many ideas as possible no matter how wacky (maybe on post-it notes). Do not rule out any ideas at this stage!
Gather all the ideas so everyone can see them (again no judging)
Do a second round of ideas – reading others often generates a load more!
List all the ideas alongside columns for Pros, Cons, and score.
List the Pros and Cons for each idea
Finally rank the ideas to identify the best.

[How to Rank Ideas as a team: Give everyone 5 ‘ticks’ (or sticky dots). Ask everyone to place their ‘ticks/dots’ against the ideas they favour. They can put all five on one or spread them about as they wish. Finally add up all the ticks.]

Make a plan that will fit into the church year

Draw out a 2 year diary including the major church events eg Easter, Harvest, Holiday club etc.
Plan where the ideas and actions identified could fit into the existing calendar – are there ways they can work together with existing events. Eg Planning an Enquirers Course to run after Christmas so that advertising and invitation can take place when there are lots of visitors.
Are there any existing activities that could be ‘paused’ to release key people and energy?
Be realistic – don’t try to squeeze everything into the first year. Do you have the people to run all these events?

Agree regular updates to monitor progress and keep on track

‘No plan survives contact with the enemy.’

General Carl von Clausewitz

‘Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.’

Isaiah 40 v 30 -31

However brilliant your planning ‘stuff’ happens to throw it off course, and we can easily run out of steam to keep on going.

4 Ways to keep on going:

Review, review, review. Diary in regular meetings to review how things are going, celebrate success, identify challenges and make appropriate course corrections.
Keep on praying for growth (Step one) – don’t stop when the planning ends; this stage underpins everything else!
Find a coach. Having an external coach / facilitator attend your meetings really helps to keep on track and keep on going – especially when things get more difficult. Note Peterborough Diocese Mission Team
Fan the flames of Desire: Remember DNA back in step one? Find ways to remind each other of that deep longing inside.

The Most Powerful Question to Ensure Success:

Give yourself a realistic score out of 10 for each things you have planned. If the score is less than 8 ask: What would make this score a 9 or 10? (ie I’m almost certain we can achieve this)

Get Help – who can help us along this journey?

Help From The Mission Team

If you would like any support in working through the 7 steps or in planning or in reviewing – the Mission Team will help. We will come out to you and help in whatever way we can – just ask.

Rev Canon Charlie Nobbs Charlie.nobbs@peterborough-diocese.org.uk

Rev Roger Woods Roger.woods@peterborough-diocese.org.uk

Rev Helen Bent

Nuala Salter (Administrator) Nuala.salter@peterborough-diocese.org.uk