Dr. Joe Ellis is the author of a book entitled “The Church on Purpose.” Dr. Ellis is the former Dean of the Graduate School of the then Cincinnati Bible Seminary. He has authored many books on evangelism and spiritual growth and conducted Church growth seminars across the country.
In his book, he devotes a chapter to “The Power of Purpose.” In that chapter, he talks about bringing in an organizational consultant to help address a church growth issue. The consultant indicates that when he is brought in, he always asks two questions of people. Those questions are appropriate for us at Troy Christian Church in our quest for effective ministry. I have listed them below:
“What are you suppose to be doing?”
“ How well are you doing it?”
The first question deals with purposefulness- that is the clear and dominant sense of what one is supposed to accomplish. The second question deals with rationality-that is the intelligent, deliberate, reasoned actions that move effectively toward accomplishing that purpose.
We need to be able to answer the questions individually and collectively to determine the overall effectiveness of Troy Christian Church in our community. Our purpose statement indicates “Troy Christian Church exists to connect people to Jesus and help them grow to be more like Him.”
The key question remains, and that is "how well are you doing it?". One of the best ways to attempt to answer the question is to look at your calendar and determine where you are spending the bulk of your time. Are you concentrating on activities that support the question, "what you are supposed to be doing?". Are you too busy with other “things” to get to your true purpose? Sometimes we get so busy doing “Ministry Stuff” that we forget to do Ministry.
Dr. Ellis’s book is a good reminder of priorities and also the simplicity of our earthly mission. It does a great job of pointing out the Power of Purpose!
Purposefully serving Him with you, Connecting Others to Jesus.