Quality Growth Cycle

A simple effective process for working towards sustainable health growth

The purpose of the cycle:

to give you a long term process for continually addressing the key issues impeding the healthy growth of your church
to help you engage in practical ways to partner with God to achieve more abundant life and increasing fruitfulness
to help you maintain health in the daily life of the church

Summary

we experience God at work in the church and in our lives generally
we each perceive these experiences in different ways
We collectively test our perceptions
this increases our understanding of God's work and will
God expects us to act on increased knowledge of Him, so we plan
we act on our planning yielding new experiences...new perceptions...
understand the barriers to growth

Be continually transformed
Rom 12:2, also Phil 1:9ff, Col 1:9ff

Transformation - signs of increasing life and increasing fruitfulness

The cycle is part of a spiral

the purpose is increasing life and fruitfulness through a process of continuous improvement
a cycle is never repeated from exactly the same position
there is no such thing as a plateau
you can access the partnership with God at any time
progress is impacted significantly by your capacity to keep repeating the cycle in a balanced way

Personal Preferences

Knowing your natural bias helps achieve balance in the cycle process
"radical balance" is a key growth strategy
where do you start:
- Option 1: embrace the opposite
- Option 2: move cyclically from your strength

A Starting Point: Perceiving God in Our Lives

(how) do we experience God's presence in our lives and in our church?
what "filters" shape our view of these experiences: family? experience? theology? position in the church?
do these expeiences affect how we partner with God to grow the church?
how do these experiences transform us: abundant life? fruitfulness?

Testing

Purpose:

to assess objectively the spiritual health of God's people to ensure they are accurately perceiving His work, and growing accordingly

Biblical concepts:

Proved and attested worthy
God tests us to prove the "validity, perserverance and fruitfulness" of our faith, so we should test/examine ourselves and our surroundings

Questions:

How do you and your people stop to test the progress of your faith - personally and as a community?
How do you know if your people are growing to greater spiritual maturity?
What are the verifiable signs of increasing fruitfulness?
Do you understand clearly the issues contributing to growth or decline?

Understanding

Purpose:

to have a clear, dependable and growing knowledge of God and His will for your church community, which compels/propels you to act

Biblical Concepts:

the relational God reveals Himself in word and works; to know Him is reflected in right action
true knowledge begins with Christ and leads to practical outcomes; fruitfulness (Col 1:9ff)

Questions:

What do you know about God and His will for your church at this time from the Perceive and Test phases?
What do your NCD survey results reveal about the barriers to growth in church life at present?
What specific things do you feel compelled to do, or not do, as a consequence?

Planning

Purpose:

to develop a clear plan of action to implement your increased understanding of God's will

Biblical concepts:

our plans only work when aligned with God's; "planning" - refining and shaping our will
Prov 21:5 - "diligence" - cut or sharpen; the result is abundant life
decision, choice and intention which results in the plan

Questions:

is your planning a response to understanding God's will or do you plan and pray for God's blessing?
does your planning reflect a "cutting process" - commitment; diligence; doing some things, stopping others?
what increasing fruitfulness are you expecting from executing this plan?

Commit to writing what you will do to address the issues and make yourself/yourselves accountable.

Doing

Purpose:

to achieve increasingly fruitful outcomes for the kingdom in partnership with God (it's about the why not the how)

Biblical concepts:

bear (much) fruit and be increasingly fruitful (John 15)
knowing God's will and living a life pleasing to Him are foundations for bearing fruit (Col 1:9ff; Phil 1:9ff)
fruitlessness is a basis for judgement

Questions:

do you confuse activity with results?
what fruit do you expect to see from addressing the key health issues?
how diligent, focused and persevering are you in the "doing?" If not, why?
what are you going to do about areas of church life bearing no fruit?

As part of "doing," systematically examine all church life for signs of fruitfulness or fruitlessness, and take action.

Experiencing

Purpose:

to increasingly sense the presence of God among His people and give thanks for the abundant life and fruitfulness He brings

Biblical concepts:

God's nature is to give over and above what we deserve or imagine; it's all about grace
In Christ and by His Spirit we should experience abundant life (John 10:10)
abundance does not equal possessions; material wealth

Questions:

what is 'abundant life' in Christ?
how would you and your people expect to experience such life?
do you have a transactional view of partnering to grow the kingdom: "If I do this, God will do that?"
are there signs among your people of God giving "over and above" in grace? Are people seeing those signs?

Consider how you have experienced God's presence and work among His people at your church

Perceiving

Purpose:

to develop a collective picture of how those in your church are experiencing God transforming their lives and the life of the church

Biblical concepts:

discern, reflect, scrutinize
applying the mind to what God is doing; the mind aligns with the will and heart to produce right conduct
a God-given capacity to see what is happening spiritually; "hard hearts" do not see

Questions:

do you stop to perceive what God in doing in people's lives?
How broadly and carefully are you scrutinizing?
who is seeing what? Do you detect any biases in how they view their experiences of God at work?
what transformation is evident: greater abundant life, increasing fruitfulness?

Establish a feedback framework where the church records God's transforming work among His people.