Today we’ve moved into the next step in our case study of Franklin Christian Church (FCC) in Franklin, Illinois, and as promised yesterday, we will meet the leadership in this episode.  If you haven’t seen the first few posts in this series, we are using FCC as a case study for small rural traditional churches to see if, or how, they can be revitalized, a common need in thousands of churches of all backgrounds.

To begin, the pastor at FCC is a 26-year-old young man who we will call Stewart.  Stewart is working on completing his M Div at nearby Lincoln  Christian University, is married with a newborn baby. His vision for FCC is that it becomes a thriving, mature and growing church community that is focused on the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20)t make disciples who make disciples.  Stewart has been at FCC for roughly 18 months, and has noticed that there is a great deal of community in the congregation of 60 members (45 average attendance) but that the congregation isn’t growing numerically because it hasn’t grown spiritually in recent years.  He observes that many of the members don’t quite understand the concept of Biblical discipleship and focus more on community and tradition than on spiritual growth.  Sometimes Stewart may find this a little bit frustrating, seeing people not quite get it, when they are a wonderful community that really loves Jesus.

There are two Elders on the Leadership Team along with Stewart, both of whom have been members of FCC for a very long time. The first one, we’ll call him Tom, lives and works in the community and has grown children.  When I asked Tom what his vision for FCC is, he told me that it is for the next generation to become capable of carrying the church forward into the next generation after that, and he voiced concerns that the current generation that is getting ready to come to the forefront by and large doesn’t get it.  It struck me that Tom has a point in many ways, for the larger part of the last couple of generations has fallen away from the faith, and this cannot continue too much longer.  It appeared to me that while Tom has this vision, he is hesitant to rock the boat too much for fear that people will resist changes and division within the church will result.  Apparently something like that happened at FCC a number of years back, and Tom wisely hasn’t forgotten it.

The third leader at FCC, we’ll call him Robert, is also a long time member, resident and active guy. When I asked Robert his vision, he said without hesitating that it was for the membership to increase from 60 to 120, hopefully by the end of the year.  Robert appeared to me to have much less hesitation to get moving to bring about his vision than Tom does.

The only problem at this point is that while Stewart has a vision for FCC, Tom and Robert have goals, but not a vision per se.

For any church to bridge the gap between the old and the new, differing priorities and concerns amongst the people and among the leaders themselves, it will be necessary to have a united vision for the church that is based on the Word of God.  So, the next step is to ask if there is common ground between a Biblical vision and the thoughts of the three leaders in this case study, and I think that there is common ground to build a strong Leadership initiative that is entirely in keeping with the teachings of Jesus on this subject.

Stewart wants a church of active and vibrant disciples who make disciples based upon the Great Commission.  Tom wants to be able to hand off the Leadership to the next generation.  That requires making disciples.  Robert wants to grow to the previous size of the church, which requires making disciples.

Hmmm… common ground is everywhere you look!

Now is where you might ask why do they need a vision that is formally written down. Great question!

A church needs a vision statement that is not only written down but announced to its membership, taught in sermons and classes and made to be the standard by which all of its activities are measured because the Leadership can’t lead if they don’t have a destination to lead to, and the people can’t follow until they know where they are going. Yes, this is simple, but few church leaderships have figured it out…

Tomorrow, let’s discuss some leadership basics.  See you in the conference room!