Our main goal, hope, and prayer is that your church will build a path to conforming to God’s will as a gathered people of God. That’s a big statement. However, it is not all encompassing. There are things that we do not, and will not, do. Primarily, we do not attempt to find ways to increase your membership or budget, or to keep your doors open for the next few years. Instead, we firmly believe that churches exist to serve God through their particular purpose. We attempt to help you find your purpose. We also firmly believe that the churches that are serving God in their purpose will be blessed by God so they may continue to serve. Numbers, while important to get things done, are not our goal, and we believe they shouldn’t be yours either. We believe numbers come from God as God sees fit. Thus, we focus on helping you find your purpose and then rely on the Holy Spirit to walk with you as you fulfill that purpose.

Our Mission Studies usually take 4-6 months and involve all the congregation. A wide variety of surveys, one-on-one conversations, small group discussions, and a church-wide meeting form the basis of our information gathering practices. We start the study by asking a simple question: Why?

In our first meeting, we will focus on why your church does the things it does. Where is your congregation most passionate? What forms the foundation upon which your practices are placed? We call this the Church Identity Discussion. In this gathering, we invite all members and friends of the church to gather for 1-2 hours to share what you each consider important and primary to the life of the church. We don’t focus on particular activities, but the beliefs behind those activities. We’ll lead you through a set of questions that allow for discussion and debate as we seek to uncover the foundations of your actions. We feel this step is vitally important to the path you will build to conform to God’s will. Our belief is if your members can’t express what you are passionate about, it’s very difficult to get there. Further, choosing popular or successful ideas from other churches (with different passions) and attempting to implement them in your church (which may lack those same passions) will likely not be very successful and will lead to frustration. Thus, we start with this very important piece of the puzzle: Why do you do the things you do?

After this gathering, Forest Walk will produce an Identity document for your review. In this document we’ll discuss what we see as your passions, how well we think you recognize those passions, and how well your current programs and/or activities connect to those passions. After this has been delivered, we will begin to focus on what may be keeping you from building the path that God desires for you. We will ask your church’s leadership team for a list of members (and friends) that can give us a diverse set of feedback on how and what the church is currently doing. We will also put together a survey, administered via both hardcopies and online, that each member and friend of the church can fill out and return to us.

Once those are completed, we will schedule 1-3 small group gatherings where Forest Walk will talk with portions of the church membership to continue to gain an understanding of how the church can best build God’s path into the future. Our last gathering will be an all-church gathering where we will discuss possible ideas for the future along with gaining an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. This is a discussion-based meeting and all members and friends are encouraged to attend one large gathering so that all voices can be heard by all.

Once all of this has been completed and survey results have been analyzed, we will create a Mission Study document for the church. This document typically has the following sections:

1. Revised and updated Identity Document
2. Primary findings
3. Short term recommendations
4. Mid term and/or long term recommendations
5. Raw data obtained from the church (cleaned of any identifying verbiage)

One thing to remember as you review this process is that we will be flexible in our implementation. There may be certain approaches or suggestions that you have that will be helpful in gathering information from your congregation. We look forward to hearing your ideas!

We will complete our work with your church by reviewing the Mission Study document with the church leadership team and working with them as needed to provide clarity and answer questions as you gain an understanding of the recommendations we make. In the end, we hope and pray that a path has been built that opens up God’s desires for your church!