Rev. Jack Lynn June 11, 2009
Clear Vision Ministries
916 Pioneer Ave
Holland, MI 49423
Dear Jack,
On behalf of the leadership and strategic planning team at Greenville Community Church, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the first-rate work you did leading us to a new strategic plan for the church. We will look back on this as a “watershed phase” that launched us down the path of a clear and compelling mission, vision, values, and strategy. This undoubtedly will guide us for years to come, and give us an overall vector for the rest of our ministry life, until our Lord returns!
The specific services you provided that proved to be most effective were these:
- Comprehensive and non-threatening staff assessments that helped us to ensure we had the “right people on the right seats on the bus” to take us to the next level of growth.
- Helping us define GCC’s mission vs. vision, and compelling us to craft values statements to prioritize the seven to ten ethics we hold in highest regard.
- Holding us accountable for a maximum of six “mission-critical” foci which we prioritized, defined, and clearly communicated to the staff, lay leadership, and entire congregation.
- Working alongside our central strategic planning team and strategic focus teams to clarify and craft ministry philosophies and strategies (a view from 30,000 ft) and then drill down to SMART goals and objectives (a view from three feet) to accomplish the overall plan.
- Giving us helpful guidance and resources for the tweaking, wholesale changing (if needed), and the addition of new strategic initiatives in the future.
- Helping us choose the right point persons and teams to ensure that the 208 Greenville Community Church Strategic Plan was a working document and not just another pretty but fruitless folder sitting on a shelf somewhere.
The strategic plan has helped us to make intentional staff changes; it has helped us to be very honest and tactical in our general budgeting process; it has helped us to stick with a strategic “to do” list as well as a counterpart “to don’t” list. In addition, we can attribute the hiring of two key staff members (worship and student pastors) to the effectiveness of the strategic plan. Both pastors said they were attracted to our church and leadership team because we had taken the time to “do the hard work of strategizing and planning for intentional spiritual and ministry growth.”
Our staff and elder board couldn’t be happier about having the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and a plan on which to lean when making mission critical decisions for the church. I would be glad to recommend your consulting services to any church leader wise enough to launch such an effective process. Please have them contact me!
Onward & upward,
Joel A. Heron,
Lead Pastor, Greenville Community Church
