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Turning Vision into Reality
Ministry Advantage Offers WCA Member Churches a Personalized Approach
In our early years at the Willow Creek Association, many people mistakenly believed our conferences and resources were simply tools for creating churches that looked like the ministry of the Willow Creek Community Church. In fact, that idea runs counter to our mission here at the WCA. Our intent is to provide vision, training, and resources to Christian leaders who are working to build biblically functioning, Acts 2 churches that reach increasing numbers of unchurched people. We know God has a unique mission for each and every local church, and each church ministers in a unique setting. Therefore, building a church that reaches its full, God-given potentional necessitates a vision, plan, and approach that are unique for each church. So as a leader, how do you get there?
Over the years, the Willow Creek Association has heard from many pastors who wish we could provide more personalized help to them as they implement new God-given vision and strategies. We recognize that it’s one thing to gain great ideas, inspiration, and even practical how-to strategies from conferences and resources. Turning vision into reality on a day-to-day basis, however, can be quite another matter. As one pastor recently told us, “I’ve got the vision — now what I need is help with implementation!”
In an interview about why it is so hard to build prevailing churches these days, Bill Hybels said, “I went into starting Willow Creek thinking the only thing I had to do was preach great messages. Now, many years later, I say that leadership demands, the vision-casting demands, the hiring/firing lessons that have to be learned, the budgeting, and strategic planning are equally critical factors! I wish I could say, ‘Put great programs together and give great messages, and you’re going to build high-impact churches that are going to prevail and reach your community for Christ.’ But the truth is, if you do put together great messages and you live a consistent Christian life, if the blessing of God falls on your church and you start growing, then double or triple, you could still end up blowing your church out of the water! You could still have a train wreck that can ruin your ministry simply because you don’t have the organizational leadership skills necessary to keep one of these things on track.”
Then Hybels added, “I think most people would sing the Hallelujah Chorus if they had somebody to call who would pick up the phone on the other end and say, ‘I did that once,’ or ‘We tried that last year,’ or ‘You probably don’t want to do that.’” Very few pastors have been fortunate enough to find an experienced leader who is willing to give them this kind of personalized leadership coaching, but that is beginning to change.
Over the past four years, the WCA has seen a growing need among our Member Churches for this kind of personalized coaching. With our worldwide church membership now over 7,200, we are unable to provide the one-on-one “in the trenches” advice and training many churches are asking for. That’s why we’ve been collaborating with a leadership coaching organization called Ministry Advantage. They have created a proven coaching process for pastors, and this work is the core of their ministry. In fact, we believe their Pastors Coaching System is truly a breakthrough ministry that we are eager to make available to all WCA Member Churches. After spending a couple of hours with a group of 20 pastors who participated in a recent two-year pilot program, Hybels commented, “I’ve rarely heard such glowing endorsements from pastors!”
“The Ministry Advantage Coaching System is a Godsend for me,” says Tim Liston, senior pastor of New Hope Church in Pearland, Texas. Liston planted New Hope in 1989, and the congregation quickly plateaued at about 75. In 1992, Liston and a few of his leaders attended a WCA conference and the effect was so powerful that he and his team went home to implement a new vision for a prevailing church that would effectively reach seeking people in Pearland.
The church began reaching seekers. But as the attendance increased, Liston soon realized, “Our infrastructure was cracking under the weight of that growth. I actually reached a point where I thought we were done. Not because I wanted to be, but because our structures couldn’t support any more growth. Ministry Advantage has helped to transform my thinking about my role as strategic leader, and most importantly, they’ve helped me implement the leadership systems my church needed to sustain growth and effectiveness. Now I’m confident there is no end to what God can do here!” New Hope now has over 1,800 people in its four weekend services — with no end in sight for continued growth.
Some pastors hear a story like that and wonder if something is wrong with their spirituality, or if that kind of growth is just for the select few extraordinarily “blessed” churches. Liston says, “I know that we are in a spiritual battle, so please don’t misunderstand me when I say this, however, I think many churches are not as hindered by Satan or a lack of spirituality as they are by a pastor’s simple lack of training in how to create leadership systems and processes to reach and disciple the people that God wants to send us.”
Many pastors have attended WCA conferences for years, and while the conferences create a new vision for seeing their churches reach more people for Christ, they become bogged down in the implementation process. Their progress in making that vision a reality in no way matches their passion.
After leading Cypress Meadows Community Church in Clearwater, Florida for 19 years, Douglas Poole said, “Before engaging in the Pastors Coaching System, I was a frustrated leader. We were hitting our heads on the 200-person attendance barrier and had some of the classic challenges and problems that came with that. For years now we have had a good understanding of the kind of church God has called us to be — we had a vision for the potential of our church — but we lacked a unified system to implement our vision and make it a reality.”
Ministry Advantage helped them unleash that potential. As Poole explained, “My coach gives me an outside voice that I can look to for perspective on our situation and guidance in the implementation process, as well as support and encouragement. I finally feel we are actually moving toward our full redemptive potential. In the last year since we enrolled in Ministry Advantage our attendance is up by over 100, hope is up, giving is up, and involvement is up. Ministry Advantage is a sensible, usable, reproducible coaching system that promotes God-honoring results.”
What is producing such significant results in the ministries of these pastors? When all of the people, resources, and processes of a church are intentionally aligned toward a common vision, a dynamic synergy begins to propel you toward your maximum redemptive potential.
Robert Tarnoviski, Senior Pastor of Bethel Fellowship in Philadelphia, PA, has been able to lead his church through an effective transition from a dying 85-year-old inner-city church into a thriving congregation. He attributes his church’s success to the power of alignment.
“Two years ago, after attending the WCA Leadership Summit, I started praying that God would give me a way to grow my leadership ability. God answered through the WCA and Ministry Advantage. For the first time, we have begun to ‘put teeth’ into our mission by truly aligning everything and everyone behind it. The leaders I work with love my new ‘intentionality’. I had heard enough about ‘what to do’ in church. This is all about the nuts and bolts of ‘how to do’ leadership in my church. I really wonder how is it that I went through seven years of formal religious education and never covered this stuff. How can we expect our churches to prevail if leaders are not competent in this area?”
The world-renowned management guru, Peter Druker, once said, “There is only so much leadership you can learn from a book.” That’s why many cutting-edge church leadership organizations are embracing the kind of organizational leadership coaching provided by Ministry Advantage.
Because of Bethel Seminary’s commitment to practical mentoring, it too has partnered with Ministry Advantage to enable many of its graduates to participate in the Pastors Coaching System. Bethel Seminary Provost, Leland Eliason said, “This is the most effective and practical leadership development available to help pastors in the trenches of day-to-day ministry.”
Bob Buford, Founder and Chairman of Leadership Network, recently said, “I have followed the development of Ministry Advantage for several years. They are doing a great job in helping church leaders develop and implement solid plans for their ministry.”
So how does the Pastors Coaching System work? Over a period of many months, pastors benefit from an experience that combines regular one-on-one coaching sessions from seasoned leaders, quarterly strategy workshop labs with like-minded pastors, and a substantial set of practical training and implementation tools. Through this experience, pastors receive the personalized help they need to design and implement key leadership systems in seven essential areas: Strategic Planning and Implementation; Leading Change; Organizing and Delegating; Maximizing Key Ministry Positions; Outreach and Assimilation; Maturing Your Church Financially; and Developing Leaders and Teams.
Ministry Advantage is a not-for-profit ministry and the Pastors Coaching System is designed to be affordable to churches. In an attempt to make this kind of practical mentoring even more available to our WCA Member Churches, as one of our Preferred Service Providers, Ministry Advantage is now offering this service to WCA Member Churches at a 50 percent discount off the initial enrollment fee (this is a savings of $500!).
For more information or to request a free initial coaching consultation, call (800) 314-9883, or e-mail your request for information to coaching@MinistryAdvantage.org.
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