12 Bedrock Beliefs of IC & Intentional GrowthPlanning

I was recently updating some documentation for Intentional GrowthPlaning and wrote out these foundational ideas that anchor our work with local churches.  I realized we probably have 20 or more of the anchoring ideas, but I’ll spare you all twenty and give you the biggies!

If you ever want to work with us to learn Intentional GrowthPlanning, you need to know where we are coming from and the bedrock on which stand.

Here are twelve:

1. The mission of the local church was given to us by Christ and recorded in Matthew 28:19-20. You may have spent months retooling the language for your expression of Christ’s mission. In the end, we are on His mission to make more and better disciples and there are many ways to express it.

2. The vision of each local church is unique because each is Christ’s unique creation. What will it look like when your church accomplishes His mission where He’s called you to minister? It will look unlike any other churches vision, even the one next door!

3. We will use the ongoing vision of “double impact in five years or less” to stretch us in our planning. This framing of vision will cause innovative thinking and requires courageous decision making. You will have to say “no” as well as “yes” to many things if you dream and think this way. We also it’s realistic to expect in time.

4. The mission is static, but the vision must be held loosely, taken seriously, and refreshed often. You should plan to renew your vision and plan every one to two years because God can do immeasurably more than you imagine. You will be in a different place one to two years from now and your horizon will have shifted.

5. The church was meant to grow and its leaders should be concerned about increasing its kingdom impact.  More and better disciples will create more and better kingdom impact in our world. This impact will take many forms and we should make an effort to measure and monitor our effectiveness. God speaks to us when we are intentional in His name.

6. The power to grow the church’s impact is in the Gospel not in our efforts, and this power to grow is in every Gospel-centered church. However, God works with and through us to grow his church. What is the work to be done in the next season of ministry in order to realize this potential?

7. It is critical that leaders remain unified in mission, vision, and a plan built around what’s most important to reach people for Christ and make disciples. The evil one will use personal agendas and destructive undercurrents to keep us from accomplishing the mission. We must create healthy, objective conversations about the future and our plans.

8. Self-discovery is far more powerful than consulting, so we begin with an honest team-based conversation never with assessments and consultant-based evaluations. Our opinions and insights can sometimes create distraction, division, and discouragement. Once your team is on the same page about today’s reality and tomorrow’s vision, we will resource you deeply from our experience.

9. There are no “silver bullets” that work for every ministry but there are best practices to be learned and used. We should be life-long learners, ready to adapt ministry practices. Intentional GrowhPlanning is a set of tools that simplifies and objectifies the fundamentals of a growing church so you can evaluate progress and learn again and again.

10. We are better together – church leaders collaborating and learning from one another from the trenches of ministry. No single local church can accomplish His mission in the world. Every Gospel-centered church should have a plan to take spiritual ground in the name of His mission. We must link arms to make this happen at a world-changing scale.

11. We will not create dependency on us but rather teach, train, and offer resources to operate without us. During our work together, we are training, coaching, leading, and resourcing your team in a variety of topics including Intentional GrowthPlanning tools and fundamentals.

12. IC Coaches must be experienced church leaders and practitioners of IGP in their ministries. As a matter of integrity, our team will lead their ministries with the above fundamentals in mind and become expert users of Intentional GrowthPlanning. This will be exhibited in their humble success in terms of kingdom impact.