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Church Planting Essentials – Measure Causes, Not Results

Thu, 05/29/2008 - 10:25 — David Watson

I just received a graduation announcement from a friend’s daughter who is valedictorian of her class. This tells me the results of her education, but not how she got the results. Making the highest marks in school does not measure how one made the highest marks. I find most statistics related to church planting measure results, not what caused the results. The interesting thing is that our followers will focus on what we measure. In effect, what we measure will determine what we get.

If we measure baptisms and new churches started we will see baptisms and perhaps a few churches started. But baptisms and new churches started do not cause more baptisms or more new churches to be started. If we want to see church planting movements we must understand what gets us to church planting movements and measure the causes. When we measure the causes, our followers will focus on making the causes happen, and we will see the results – more baptisms and new churches started.

Following are the things we need to measure that cause a church planting movement:

1.       Who are you mentoring? Depending on whether the leader is part time or full time, I expect to see a minimum of 2 or 5 people being mentored by the person I am mentoring.
2.       Who are the people your mentorees are mentoring? If the people we are mentoring are not mentoring others, then we are wasting our time and the church planting cycle will end.
3.       How often are you meeting with those you mentor? Less than once in two weeks does not build the relationships or the accountability necessary for good church planting to happen. (I will discuss accountability issues in my next blog post.)
4.       What is the content of your mentoring sessions? This shows whether a person has a plan for developing leaders. If we have a plan, usually our followers will have a plan. Without a plan results are sporadic at best.
5.       What are the prayer concerns or problems being raised by your mentorees? We cannot improve a process if we do not know the problems in the process. We cannot develop leaders if they hide their problems from us. We cannot demonstrate care and build relationships outside of prayer.
6.       How many training sessions/seminars are you conducting for people you are not mentoring? We find the people we will mentor by doing training and seminars for people not related to us at the moment. My primary motivations for doing training events are to influence others and to find new persons to mentor. If we are not training others we will not expand our ministry into new areas or develop new teams. If we are not developing new team members we will not be able to expand into new areas.
7.       How many new communities did you and your teams enter in this reporting cycle? If we are going to new places to plant the Gospel we will start new churches.
8.       How many Persons of Peace were encountered by your teams in this reporting cycle? If we are not looking for and finding Persons of Peace we will not be able to start new Discovery Bible Studies.
9.       How many Discovery Bible Studies did you and your teams start/maintain during the reporting cycle? If we are not starting new Discovery Bible Studies then we will not find new leaders to coach in order to make new disciples.
10.   How many Discovery Bible Study leaders are you and your team coaching? If we are not replicating leaders the church planting cycle will end?
11.   How many Discovery Bible Study groups have become Believers and been baptized into churches? How many were baptized?
12.   How many church leaders are you coaching and leading in Obedience Bible Studies and Leadership Development Bible Studies? If we are doing the teaching instead of coaching local leaders in how to do everything, we are not developing new leaders and church planting will not happen.
13.   How many church leaders have started new Discovery Bible Studies during this reporting cycle? Are they coaching the new leader or leading the group themselves?

Measure what causes results and you will get the results you are looking for. Of course, if you are not doing what you are trying to measure, you will most likely not get the results you want to see. Church Planting is about managing your relationships, not about managing your paperwork. Build relationship systems around mentoring and you will see Church Planting Movements. If you build management systems you will get an office, not church planting.

Blessings!

David Watson
From Cote d’Ivoire

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Comments

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 16:17 — stevejanovec

Newbie needs help

David,
I have read most of your posts and believe that the Lord is moving me in the direction you describe. I see several hurdles that I need help with. The two biggest ones being that I am not now part of nor have I ever led or experienced a Discovery Bible Study turned house church. The second is related in that I have not been mentored in the manner that you describe in these blogs. Would you give me direction? Is there someone that I can communicate with who will be my mentor?

Would you send me or post your outlines for Discovery Bible Studies?

Thanks, Steve

Tue, 06/03/2008 - 10:39 — David Watson

Discovery Bible Studies and Mentoring

Hi, Steve. I will have one of my team leaders contact you regarding mentoring. To do this I need for you to go the the Contiact Me link on this page and send to me your contact information.

You can find the Discovery Bible Studies at www.cpmtrainingresources.org.

Blessings!

David Watson
Irving, TX

Thu, 05/29/2008 - 18:16 — scottlinklater

reporting cycles

You mentioned reporting cycles in the article. How long are these cycles? quarterly? Monthly?

Also, in what time frame to you encourage goal setting...i.e monthly goals, etc..?

Scott L., Las Vegas
http://cells-twelves.blogspot.com/

Tue, 06/03/2008 - 10:32 — David Watson

Reporting Cycles

Hi, Scott. Reporting cycles depend on the situation in which the church plant is happening, the maturity of the church planter, the person to whom the reports are given, and the organization to whom one reports.

I have teams who work in highly restricted situations that do not have good communication, and no secure telephonic, electronic, or paper communications. In these situations the reporting cycle depends on when team leaders can meet face to face in safer environments to give their oral reports.

With immature church planters, the reporting cycle is always monthly, unless there is no movement for six months, then I will shorten the cycle. Since the bulk of the report is about doing the right things that will get to church, shortening the cycle allows the leader to monitor more closely what the church planter is doing, and then give training and support as needed. Most church planters are motivated. New ones just sometimes get stuck not knowing what to do or doing the wrong things, or are working in the wrong place. It is the team leader's responsibility to help the church planter get on track. Training and mentoring, encouragement, and reports that ask for the right information will go a long way in helping a new church planter become successful in doing the things that will lead to church. Remember, God starts churches, so I find it difficult to make the number of churches started a goal. We have a job to put into place the things God will use to start the church. We can set goals for this.

Mature, experienced church planters may only give reports quarterly. But, in any case, new groups started and baptisms are reported as soon as possible by any team member. Also, reports are exchanged when I have face to face meetings. Note, that I report what I am doing to those who report to me. Team members will not understand the team leader's job if the team leader does not give reports to the team.

Every leader has his or her own style. Some require more informaiton that others. Some have a need for lots of paper reports, others are happy with oral reports. Great leaders learn how to manage reporting according to the needs of those they lead. I have teams that will always have a problem giving written reports, so I don't require written reports. I call or visit them and get the reports I need through dialogue.

Why do we give reports or require reports? Jesus received reports from his disciples and followers. Note that Jesus gave reports to His Father. Read the Gospels and observe how many times reports were given. If we ask for the right things in reports, then the reports set expectations, define the job, and help us to measure the right things that will get us to our goals and objectives. Good reporting instruments can lead to better relationships in the team and between team leaders and their teams. Reports demonstrate to others that we know what we are doing, are doing it faithfully, and that others can trust us to spend their money wisely and well. Reports can build trust if they measure the right things.

Reports should be about content, not form. Get the right information any way you can, and don't sweat the form. Relationships are more important than paperwork. Leaders build relationships. Managers worry about paperwork. All of us have some management responsibilities in our organizations. We need to learn how to fulfill these management responsibilities without compromising being good leaders.

Different goals have different time requirements. I may have a daily goal of contacting ten new people. I may have a weekly goal of five Discovery Bible Studies. I may have a team meeting goal of once in two weeks. I may have a mentoring goal of spending two hours per week with a team member. I may have a monthly goal of sending a written report to my supervisor. Goals depend on what helps you or your team get the job done.