Church planning

Today we had a conference to discuss planning for our church's future.

All up,  a few lessons:

• the agenda was too long: we had half a day for a two day agenda.
• we started with a devotion, prayer and song; good, but time consuming
• the lead 'input' person, the administering minister (I eschew the word 'lead') was also the facilitator: doesn't work

On the good side; was great to be talking about such things. The meeting was far more engaging than our typical 'service' Now that's the format we should use! A bit of up-front talking, but sitting in loose circles of 5-8, and being able to move around part way through. Excellent.

Doing workshops: they are a delicate thing. They need expert facilitation, preferably using an adaptation of Checkland's Soft Systems Methodolgy. Here's a summary.