MayDeve 07-12-128 Developing a Missions Strategy that Fits Your Church A resource (on CD) for church leaders and consultants David Mays David Mays, 2007, v. 1.0, many pp.,

David Mays is the Director of Learning Initiatives for The Mission Exchange, formerly the Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies. For more than twenty years he has helped church leaders strengthen their missions commitment and effectiveness through teaching, writing, and consulting. David and Marcy live in Indianapolis and enjoy reading, writing, and grandchildren.

This resource is designed to help church leaders develop a missions strategy. It may be used by an outside consultant or an inside leader to

• Lead a strategy development workshop for one or more churches.
• Facilitate an ongoing process of developing a missions strategy for a church.

It will help leaders

· Select the team who will put together the strategy

· Understand how to begin the process

· Uncover and resolve unspoken values

· Learn what they need to know

· Find key resources

· Review or establish the biblical foundation for missions

· Define missions

· Build on their church's purpose

· Recognize major issues to consider

· Identify strategic missions priorities for their church

· Outline the strategy document

· Set goals

· Identify implementation steps and cautions

This CD is more than a book: it is a full-orbed resource. It is based on and includes material David has been collecting and teaching for several years. A leader's guide (which is a book in itself) and PowerPoint slides are included for teaching a workshop or facilitating a consultation. A participant workbook is included for participants who attend a workshop or participate on a strategy development team. There are multiple documents containing Scripture verses, missions definitions, budgeting and funding grids, survey forms, and sample church strategies. A strategy template, individual worksheets, and numerous supplemental articles and resources are also included.

The Leader's Guide is punctuated by calls to prayer, recognizing that God's ways are not our ways, and that God will be delighted to direct us as we are willing to surrender our vested interests to His guidance.

The materials are divided into three sections, process, content, and implementation. The content section is the best thought out and has the most material. Mays divides the content of a strategy into two parts a) primary inputs that provide the foundation and b) secondary inputs that help establish priorities.

A study of four primary inputs - Scripture, scope of missions, church purpose, and needs of the world - are meant to lead church leaders to discover their missions destination: "What does God want to accomplish in the world through our church?"

Secondary inputs help a church think through how to establish the priorities that fit their church and that will enable them to maximize their efforts toward the destination. Church leaders will select the four or five secondary inputs that are most significant for their church and think through what their particular position should be with regard to those inputs.

Secondary inputs include:

● Audiences – Whom do you seek to reach?

● Ministry Tasks – What most needs to be done?

● Balance – How much local? How much global?

● Focus – A beacon or a thousand points of light?

● History – Do you need gradual or radical change?

● Relationships – Do you support only those you know?

● Our Roles – What ministries best fit your congregation?

● Partnerships – Is it important to partner with other groups?

● Participation – Do your members have to help hands on?

The package would benefit from some professional design work to carry a visual metaphor throughout. Field testing by several churches will likely to lead to improvements in consistency of flow and language.

To purchase the Strategy CD, send $35 in U.S. funds to David Mays, 7589 Burns Drive, Brownsburg, IN 46112

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