Hot Picks: Deepening Your Effectiveness and The Church Vitality Indicator

Deepening Your Effectiveness
Restructuring the Local Church for Life Transformation
By Dan Glover and Claudia Lavy

Dan Glover and Claudia Lavy develop their own depiction and image of the path of spiritual growth to help church leaders cultivate a more clear awareness of where their people are and how to help them mature in the faith and in their own sense of discipleship. Framing their very workable ideas in a seashore analogy, the authors explain how to identify the stages of spiritual development — from skeptical seekers to authentically functional disciples. At each stage, Glover and Lavy add the primary elements of each stage of growth: Primary question (who is at what stage); primary relationship (who can best support the person); primary barrier (pitfalls and dangers that prevent growth); and primary ministry (what the person is called to do at each stage).

The primary elements are a value themselves; further value comes from a description of what all this looks like in a local church setting. Small charts provide visual summaries of the steps along the "discipleship pathway": Invitation ("Come and See" and authentic, high impact hospitality); Instruction (giving and receiving electives, core beliefs, core principles); Relationships (giving and receiving in small groups, then "Go and See"); and Servanthood ("Go and Make" and one-on-one discipling).

Deepening Your Effectiveness goes deeper than many of the descriptive and diagnostic reads out there to provide much needed direction within a system of discipling.

Church Vitality Indicator (CVI)
Online Assessment Tool

Several annual conferences are providing the CVI to their congregations for assessment and revitalization. CVI is an online tool/experience that helps congregations focus on the robust aspects and practices of their existing ministry and members.

CVI starts with a congregational survey and adds the further step of leadership discernment to help congregations find the unique indictors that signal the congregation’s strengths as a faith community. An Impact Report is generated by the website using the results of the survey and maps to help a congregation identify a particular Focus Area for planning vital ministry.

For more information, go to www.cvindicator.com.

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