Gaining Perspective

I return to 'normal' work today...whatever that means. I take a time-out every summer from my normal responsibilities so that I can stand outside of PCC and look in from a distance. To do this, I visit other churches, read, etc. (see my blog post from June 12 for more on the purpose of my study break). My study break (which I followed with a week of vacation - pure playing and no work) ended yesterday. Today, I'm back to my normal responsibilities.

So, I started my study break on June 9. For three weeks I read books, studied the Bible, visited churches, met with pastors, toured facilities, and thought a lot about PCC...a lot. Today, I want to begin to unpack for you some of what I saw, heard, learned, and experienced.

Because of a generous and unexpected grant outside of our church, I was able to travel to Arizona and California this year (normally I travel within driving distance of Powhatan), and I was able to take my family with me.

One of the churches we visited is called Christ's Church of the Valley - CCV.
Located in the Phoenix area, CCV has grown dramatically, has weekend attendance of over 13,000 and a budget of something like

$12 million. Now, you may think, "they're in a different league altogether" and you'd be right. But you learn from those who have gone before you. If you want to be a better golfer, you play with someone who is better than you or more experienced than you. We don't want to be another church, but we certainly want to learn from those who have journeyed through levels of growth that we have not yet seen. Then we can adapt the principles that are working elsewhere to our own setting when we find that they would be helpful to us.

One of the things that thought was brilliant was the simplicity of their action plan - their strategy. 'Win. Train. Send.' "At CCV, it is our mission to WIN people to Jesus Christ, TRAIN believers to become disciples, and SEND disciples out to impact the world." It's simple, catchy, easy to remember, and is easily understood. These three words were plastered everywhere - on signs and in tastefully placed positions on walls, etc. No one could go there and not know what they were trying to do.

At another church we visited, Central Christian Church of the East Valley, they used three different words, "Discover. Develop. Deploy." Different words, same idea. Again, easy to remember and appropriately and tastefully placed in strategic places on their literature and signage. And it effectively communicates what they are about.

I started playing around with this, hoping to come up with a similar way of communicating what we are trying to accomplish. We may simply borrow another church's idea (with their permission, of course) or perhaps we'll come up with our own.

We're not changing our mission - in fact, I'm as passionate about it as ever. But I do see the wisdom in a concise, non-churchy, easy to remember, and clear communication that sums up what we believe God wants us to do.

Can you think of 3 words that do it? Do you like either of these church's ideas? I value your input as I work on this.

By the way, I'll have more to say about CCV and CCCEV and the other churches I saw and interviews I did and services I attended in the days to come.