Becoming Missional: Build on Your Strengths

For years we have talked about the uniqueness of every individual and the fact that “God has wired each of us” in a certain way. As a result, we have made efforts to help individual believers discover their gifts, passions, and personality types in order to serve more effectively. Is this idea also true for the church as well?

Marcus Buckingham is the author of several ground-breaking books including First, Break All the Rules[1] and Now Discover Your Strengths.[2] While he was with the Gallup Organization, he helped develop the Strengths-Based approach to management. The basic idea is that we should spend more time using the abilities we already have than trying to improve upon our deficits or weaknesses.

Out of that conference came the idea that this may be the best approach for churches to pursue as well. Contrary to the Natural Church Development approach[3] of discovering where your church falls short (“where it leaks” in NCD terminology), a church would be better off to accentuate its unique strengths.

How does this apply to the missional church? Each church is uniquely gifted to do something in its setting than no other church can do or, at least, do as well. Due to your location, facility resources, the gifts of your membership, and the abilities of your leadership, you can address a community need or develop a ministry for which your church is uniquely gifted.

How do you do this? Two things are essential. First, pray to find and be open to the leading of God’s spirit. This must be open-hearted, no-holds-barred praying. Second, engage in purposeful conversation among church members. This involves ongoing, face-to-face dialogue among everyone in the church. Of course, both of these activities take time, but it will be time well invested if the church can come to appreciate its strengths and discern how to use them effectively.

(This blog post is adapted from material in For Such a Time as This: Aligning Church and Leadership for Missional Ministry by Ircel Harrison. The book is available from Amazon.)

[1] Buckingham, Marcus, and Curt Coffman. First, Break All the Rules. Simon and Schuster, 1998.

[2] New York: Gallup Press, 1999.

[3] Christian A. Schwarz, Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches. Chicago: ChurchSmart Resources, 1996.

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