No More Dusty Notebooks
No More Dusty Notebooks
Pathway Church is located in Wichita, KS. Intentional Churches began working with Pathway in the first half of 2014. The church has a main campus and one additional venue with plans for more. While attendance had been fairly flat for several years, the senior leaders, Todd Carter and Larry Wren, are very stable and trusted.In the past, strategic planning had been attempted but not implemented. The planning unfortunately sat on a shelf in a notebook without having a significant impact on the ministry – an all too common challenge.During our initial planning experience with the team we established clarity through discovering there was a lack of “energy” during the weekend services. Ironically, the video venue had plenty of “energy” but the services at the main campus did not.The church courageously tackled this by strategically addressing the improvement of their weekend experience both at the main campus and the video venue. Through late summer and early fall 2014, the team developed plans to make significant changes to the facility, worship style, and more. The team also ran a communications campaign focused on meeting with groups, leaders, and ministries within the church to explain the reasoning behind the upcoming changes.By patiently communicating with the church, the leaders gave the church family time to buy-in to the plan and give input. With our help, the leaders concluded that church wide buy-in was important because they were considering significant change in a relatively stagnant ministry environment.In November 2014, the leaders publicly painted a clear picture for the future of Pathway. They communicated about the changes in a weekend teaching series called, “What If…” The underground work of casting vision with classes and groups was now aligning to the public communication. In just a few months a new momentum was established without the common turmoil associated with these kinds of changes.Today, Pathway has grown by 10% in weekend attendance. IC is facilitating round two of their Intentional Growth Plan and the Executive Pastor has plans to be trained to better learn how to establish ongoing Growth Planning as best practice. The church is well on the way to owning Growth Planning tools as a way to grow the ministry. Above all, they again have momentum in creating more and better disciples. They are a courageous and wise success!!
What did Pathway do to gain momentum and create a culture of growth?
- Trusted the Intentional Growth Planning process and coaching
- Held their WINs (What’s Important Now) teams accountable for execution in midst of tough circumstances and competing voices
- Communicated clearly, patiently, and strategically about the coming changes while listening to the church family and seeking input
- Cast a vision about an incredible future with the “What If” sermon series
- Called for a commitment to the future on the final weekend of the series
We’re excited to see where God leads Pathway in the future as they continue to increase their Kingdom impact. How can you apply these lessons? What is your key take away from the success of this ministry?