Southview Completes ReFocusing Process And Approves Vision 2012 Statement
By J. L. Schmidt
February 2008
A church body, not unlike a human body, needs an occasional check-up to make sure it is healthy. Especially when the body is more than 50-years-old as in the case of Lincoln’s Southview Baptist Church.
When Senior Pastor Aaron Householder appointed an eight-member team and asked them to attend an explanation of the process, he chose a longtime acquaintance from the Atlanta area to introduce them to the ReFocusing Process. David Zimmerman, a former senior pastor who watched his last church reach its peak and then decline, vowed to make sure that other churches and other pastors would never suffer the same anguish. In his work with Church Resource Ministries, Zimmerman and a team of church growth experts, studied the reasons why churches grow, peak, and then either go flat or decline.
The key, Zimmerman said – and Southview leaders learned – is to take a three-step process to “find out where we have been, where we want to be, and how we are going to get there.” A rather daunting task for any church and not one to be entered into lightly, as the Southview group discovered nearly 16 months later. The ReFocusing Team worked quickly to get buy-in from church leaders.
The ReFocusing Team spent two-days in an event called a Focused Living Retreat led by Householder and Zimmerman. The retreat walked them through a personal growth timeline. Once they had charted their spiritual walk and understood their strengths and weaknesses, they were ready to lead as many church members as possible through the same process so the entire group, with the team’s leading, could later lead the same type of experience for the church as a body.
The final product was a Vision Statement for Southview Church in 2012. That vision includes a Biblical purpose statement that has become a new motto for the church which has been incorporated in a new logo. Those are the physical evidences of the process. Perhaps a bigger impact was the evidence of changed lives by members who were able to develop their own personal calling statement and how their growth impacted the entire church body.
The introduction to the Vision Statement adopted in August 2007 says it best:
A vision statement is our best understanding to date of where God is leading us. Godly vision is not invented, it is discovered. This process included a survey of church health in May 2006 to indicate our strengths and challenges followed by a series of meetings to focus first on personal renewal and then on corporate revitalization. Participants from the church family looked to our past, examined our present, and sought to discern God’s leading for our future to produce this document. – The ReFocusing Team.
The Vision: “We will be known as a ‘go and love’ church thriving on loving God and building loving relationships with others, transforming individuals through discipleship, and touching communities in outreach.”
The Biblical Purpose Statement which has become the motto and drove the need for a new logo: “Southview Baptist Church, growing in God’s life-changing love.”
Summit participants determined church values and attached at least three Bible verses to each; The Core Values are: Biblical teaching; continual prayer; intentional relationships; missional outreach; inspirational worship and transformational discipleship.
Three strategic initiatives were then identified. Householder says the church will address one a year over the next three years. Each annual emphasis will be bolstered by a Task Force to shepherd the process. The ReFocusing Team will meet at least twice a year to monitor the entire process. The emphases are:
1. Life-changing Discipleship, 2008. This will include: implementation of a simple discipleship process through the Sunday School; a church-wide prayer strategy; a survey and compilation of a database of every members spiritual gifts; total-life stewardship of time, talent and treasures; mentoring and leadership.
2. Building Loving Relationships, 2009. This will include: fostering intentional relationships within and outside the church; make loving others as God does a hallmark of Southview.
3. Focused Deliberate Outreach, 2010. Simply put: Be an Acts 1:8 church: pursue partnerships and projects locally, regionally, nationally and internationally emphasizing outreach through every existing program, ministry, and relationship; Develop relationships to lead others to Christ based on interest-oriented activities such as sports; book clubs; scrap-booking; car clubs.
Finally, the Vision 2012 included a Ministry Evaluation component, to wit:
- Everything we do should reflect our values and relate to our strategic initiatives.
- We will see measurable outcomes through increased participation in worship, all levels of discipleship, ministry service and missions activities.
- The Pastoral Staff, Ministry Leadership Team, and Strategic Initiative Task Forces will affirm, clarify and challenge each of our programs and ministries.
- The Refocusing Team will meet at least bi-annually to review progress throughout Vision 2012.
The task before the church is huge, but it is also well laid out with plans in place for each step along the way. “God is clearly in this and we cannot fail as long as we keep our eyes on Him,” Householder said.
[J.L. Schmidt is a ministry leader at Southview. A retired journalist, Schmidt runs a statewide program of downtown revitalization called Main Street and often helps communities do strategic planning. He serves as Chairman of the Southview ReFocusing Team.]
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