If you know me at all, you’ve probably heard me talk about the Law of Preparation and how I think it has massive influence on church growth.
It’s the idea of being prepared for the next stage BEFORE it arrives, and it’s SO important for church leadership.
I’ve heard so many church leaders say they’re waiting for God, and I understand what they mean. But I think many times, God is waiting for us to get serious about being prepared for more.
It’s a concept that applies to your church as a whole, but also to every area of ministry.
For example, when it comes to Guest Follow-up, don’t wait until you have a lot of guests to create a clear workflow, set up systems, write out the texts that you’ll send, write out the letter you’ll mail, buy the envelopes to mail letters, etc. If you want God to send more guests, your job is to go ahead and PREPARE now, as if they really are coming soon.
Here are a few other examples:
- Does the budget have line items for Future Improvements & Expansion?
- Are there enough places for more people to serve?
- Do you have parking for 50 more cars?
- Are you training more-than-enough Group leaders?
- Is there a plan for additional rooms for more Kids?
- What’s the plan for when we outgrow this building?
These are just a few examples, but you can see how it touches almost every part of your church. And so many churches aren’t thinking this way, but we NEED to if we want to see our influence grow.
Here are 4 Reasons Preparation is SO Important…
1. It’s an Act of Faith
The typical sermon includes claims that God is going to heal families, reach the broken, and increase the territory of the church. But if we aren’t preparing for those things to happen, do we really believe it? Preparing is an Act of Faith that God “really is” going to bring increase.
2. It’s a Statement of Faith
Especially for Pastors and Executive Leaders, this one is really important to understand. When you start the process of preparation in different areas of your church, it sends an incredibly clear message to everybody. More than our words, our actions communicate what we believe about the future.
3. Lack of Preparation Leads to Failure
Without preparation, our spikes of growth are met with the frustration of not actually being ready to serve those people well. More important than our next big outreach, is the preparation before our next big outreach.
4. God isn’t Stupid
If you truly believe that God is dealing with the hearts of families all around your city, you also have to believe that He cares enough about them to lead them to a church that is prepared to serve them. If God has any influence to guide them to a particular church (which I believe He does – lol), I expect He’s going to lead them to the one that is PREPARED.
We don’t have to tackle everything overnight but always be prepared as if you actually believe it’s coming.
- Would you be ready right now if this Sunday you had 25% more Guests?
- 25% more cars in the parking lot?
- 25% more kids in Kids Church?
- 25% more people wanting to serve?
- 25% more people asking questions online?
- 25% more contributions?
Start thinking in terms of actual increase, and what your team needs to do to get ready for it.
God operates within the Law of Preparation.
Let’s get READY and expect God will do the rest.
Brian Davis