If you are new to this blog....

Welcome! The primary purpose of this blog is to explore and encourage around what it means to be winsome and sent into the world for God's glory. If you are new here, the definition of "lighthouse-searchlight" or our missional journey is a good place to start. Come peruse the blog and add me to your RSS feed!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

searchlight (missional) presbytery: focusing in

In 2006, after the officer/staff retreat at Good Shepherd that marked the beginning of our lighthouse-searchlight vision, our leadership evaluated all of our ministry and missions through the very tight focus question.

For Good Shepherd, the focused question was: “How can EVERY ministry and mission of Good Shepherd “shine” as a LIGHTHOUSE and SEARCHLIGHT for Jesus Christ?” We then evaluated every program and ministry in light of that question, from missionary support to the church website to the use of buildings and rooms.  We even created a rating system such that every activity and resource got a lighthouse rating and a searchlight rating of 0-3, for a total of up to six points.

The Council of the Presbytery of Charlotte is using a similar process right now to evaluate the effectiveness of the presbytery through a similar focal question. We are asking the council and committees of the presbytery to do a similar ministry audit of every ministry, mission, and resource around the focusing question:

How does each ministry, program, and resource strengthen the health, vitality and effectiveness of local Presbyterian congregations?

  • How does the presbytery quarterly publication...
  • How does the camp and conference ministry...
  • How does the Presbytery resource center...
  • How does our choice of office space....
  • Of staffing...
  • Of mission and justice programs...
  • And so on...
We are trying to take a fresh look at the work of our presbytery, through a missional lens defined by the ministries of local congregations.  It is our hope that this will help us reprioritize, refocus, come together, and increase a sense of community calling to shared mission.

The Council has a level of energy and engagement I haven't seen in 8 years here.  I'm encouraged and prayerful that we might be drawn together around this shared mission and focused calling.

July 2011 Update:

Each member of the council and staff has moved forward on the "ministry audit" and has evaluated (0-10, with comments) every ministry and activity of the presbytery according to the following three criteria.  I'm compiling the results now to bring back to the council the first week of August.
  • Missional Effectiveness: how well does this program/resource strengthen a congregation’s local ministry?
  • Congregational Connectivity: how well does this program push resources down/out to local congregations?
  • Disciple-making: how well does this program make disciples (missional followers) for Jesus Christ?



See also the previous post on "missional presbytery"


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