At KHC we are currently interviewing for a Transition Team (TT). The TT is a temporary servant-leadership team, most of whom were nominated by staff and elders – and will be affirmed by Intentional Interim Pastor Gregg Caruso after personal interviews.  This team of 7-12 individuals will come alongside the Staff as the Elder Team is being reconstituted to help guide us through this transitional season in our church. This team of trusted servants with administrative gifting, spiritual discernment, and a willingness to further develop their leadership skills will have a “voice” but not a “vote” in our development and planning meetings. Together with the Staff and reconstituting Elders will form a unified and gospel-centered guiding coalition that will move KHC toward revitalization and God’s purposes. The work of this TT is paramount in the healing and renewal of KHC.  (It needs to be said that some of those who received this invitation and application may end up on the reconstituted Elder Board.)

Information and Interview Form For Prospective Transition Team Members

Part 1 – Information

The Transition Team will…

• Seek to experience personal renewal and lead the church in corporate renewal.
• Call our church back to intimacy with God and community with each other.
• Discover, discuss, and resolve real problems honestly, respectfully, and openly.
• Resolve conflict biblically and restore unity to our church.
• Take action on the King’s Harbor Diagnostic Report when it has been prepared.
• Discover and begin implementation of God’s plans and direction for our Church.
• Prayerfully generate and guide godly change in our church.
• Prepare the church for a successful pastoral search process (although you will not function as the Search Team).
• Along with the Staff and reconstituted Elders plan and take part in clear, accurate, and consistent communication to the congregation.
• Plan and Calendarize regularly scheduled all church gatherings — including 4-6 all-church summits (to re/affirm King’s Harbor values, mission, and vision, etc.), information meetings, and regular times of all-church extended worship and prayer.
• Receive training that will empower you to do this work.

Your nomination indicates the positive impact you have had on people’s lives and the ministry at King’s Harbor. You are seen as a mature Christian, minimally exhibiting the deacon/ess qualities found in Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3.

This form provides you with the objectives of the TT and a self-evaluation process to help you evaluate your responsibilities of serving as a member of the team.

Meeting Dates and Times: The TT will meet on primarily on (TBD – Sun afternoons from 4-6pm or Mon evenings probably). This team will meet weekly or every other week for approximately three months and then we may multiply into teams to work on various aspects of KHC’s transition needs. If you are at all interested please pray and complete the Self-Evaluation and Interview form as we discern God’s leading. Thank you…

Part 2 – Nominee Self Evaluation and Interview Information

Please answer the questions candidly and honestly and return to Intentional Interim Pastor Gregg Caruso by _______________. You may hand deliver this completed form or email it to Gregg Caruso at: ____________________. If you have questions, please email Gregg Caruso.

All responses will be kept in confidence. We ask that until the process moves to a formal invitation, you keep your nomination in confidence.

Following the completion of the self-evaluation, Gregg Caruso will review the responses and Annie will contact you about scheduling an appointment. Please note that submitting this form is not an indication of a position as a member of the TT. 

I have been an active participant of King’s Harbor Church since:

What has kept you here?

What are your Spiritual Gifts? (Please check any that you believe you have)

• Teaching
• Administration/Organizing
• Leading
• Serving and Helping
• Giving
• Evangelism
• Exhortation/Encouragement
• Showing Mercy
• Faith/Stepping out believing God
• Hospitality
• Knowledge/Information oriented
• Wisdom/Good Judgment
• Other:

How have you seen validation of your spiritual gifts through ministry?

Please indicate and evaluate your personal strengths and weaknesses…

Some of my strengths are:

Some of my weaknesses are:

Do you think you will be able to give objective input and be open and honest in your relationships with other members of the TT? Please answer and expand…

Do you think you would be able to have respectful and humble dialogue with those who may have a different theological position on the secondary (or, non-essential) issues of Scripture? Please answer and expand…

God is beginning a restoration process at King’s Harbor. The TT will be an integral part in this restoration.   Can you work toward reconciliation of all relationships: spiritually, mentally, and emotionally?

How do you think you might be able to assist in this process:

• I would accept the nomination
• I would decline the nomination

If you decline, would you please provide your reason(s)?

Regardless of your decision whether to continue with the process or not, thank you for the impact you are having on people at King’s Harbor in order to be nominated for a position on the TT.

Would you please pray with us that God would rise up and prepare men and women for this vital restoration ministry within our church?

What lies in the future will be determined by God’s intervention, His grace, His guidance and everyone’s heartfelt submission to Him, claiming His Lordship.

Thank you for your thoughtful and prayerful consideration.

Excellent article, please check it out: www.christenacleveland.com/2013/12/singled-out/

There is an administrative and business side to every church that includes organizational development as well as strategic planning.  Healthy, vital churches handle these aspects well and unhealthy churches do not.  Churches have core values, a specific mission and vision; as well as assets to manage, metrics to track, employees to pay, and members who rightfully demand accountability for their financial contributions. The administrative and business side of church leadership is a biblical concept; Jesus taught at length about money matters and His traveling band of apostles had financial affairs, managed by a treasurer.

One way to think about the administrative and business sides of church is: “Placing administration around God’s vision and calling of a local church.”

Strategic Planning In A Local Church

Strategic planning (or mapping) is learning to anticipate the random, changing needs of the next generation and developing ministries to meet those needs before the needs arise. Strategic mapping is learning to identify the routes to the future and avoiding the detours and side roads that do not position us to be effective in the future. It is the ability to understand the clues to the future and place ourselves at the major intersections of the future instead of being stranded on some dead end trail.

Organizational Development

Organizational development (OD) is a deliberately planned, church-wide effort to increase a church’s effectiveness and efficiency and to empower the church to achieve its strategic mission and goals.

The following is a paradigm for church life.  The objective is to keep the three key components in a healthy tension and balance…

Most churches are not in balance…

• Conflict comes from people attempting to have a conversation from different circles. Understand your organizational (corporate) tendency; your personal (community) inclination; and your passion (cause) for ministry.
• Learn to celebrate the differences of those around you! There is unity in our diversity.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who took the time to attend one of the three Family Gatherings we held last weekend. It was good to interact together and some very good questions were asked.  We intend to hold these Family Gatherings on a regular basis — probably every 6-8 weeks.  My intention is that we will be very clear, forthright, and transparent through our grace disguised revitalization season.

As you may remember there were cards passed out at each Family Gathering where you could ask questions that did not get addressed during the get-together.  I have three cards with four questions that I will respond to here.  (If you turned in a question that is not responded to here it means it was accidentally misplaced.  Please contact Annie Chase if that is the case.)

Questions:

Q-1 Is there any shepherding happening, a coming alongside, with Chris Canon?

A-1  Yes, there has been.  One member of the Pastoral Council has met with Chris quite regularly and other members of the Council have met with him as well.  Chris has also been meeting with a long-time mentor and friend on a fairly regular basis.  And just an FYI, Chris and I have connected electronically and we are working on a time to visit in person.

Q-2  Would a chart, to show the Chain of Command, be helpful?

A-2 Yes.  Typically that is called an Organizational (or Org) Chart.  (But since the phrase “Chain of Command” was used, I will tell you that I prefer “Chain of Care.”)  With the George Family moving to Iowa the responsibilities of several staff members will be adjusted so we are working on updated role descriptions that will affect an Org Chart.  And things are a bit fluid right now with the active involvement of the Pastoral Council.  As I mentioned at (at least two of) the Family Gatherings I am meeting regularly with the Pastoral Council, the Staff, and the Elders (who remain the legal board of KHC) for prayer, communication, and input.

Q-3  We have the greatest staff but I feel they have more than they can handle.  Can we ask the congregation to come alongside to volunteer?

A-3  YES!!  If you have an hour or more a week to volunteer we would love to put you to work at our campus.  We are still setting-up our office space, so we can use organizers, receptionists, construction types (including carpenters, plumbers, painters, and electricians) food-prep people, set-up and tear-down people, interior design, etc.  Please contact the office if you have some time (info@kingsharbor.org).  Also, one of the MOST important things you can do is get involved in one of our many Life Groups or Bible Studies.  We are on this journey together and we need a place where we can talk, pray, serve, and do life together.

Q-4  I also would like the congregation to know the needs for finances more.

A-4  Thanks for asking.  We will be presenting a clear financial update at our weekend services in the next few weeks.  We are also determining the best way to keep the KHC Family consistently updated.  My preference is have a financial update in the bulletin weekly.  I haven’t wanted to come in and impose that, but we are talking about it.  I can tell you that our finances have stabilized since the beginning of the year and that we have a strong reserve account.  More to come…

Finally, we had a chance to talk a bit about our diagnostic options at each of the Family Gatherings so I wanted to publish an overview of the options here.

Intro — Conducting a diagnostic survey can be a major intervention into the life of a congregation. It endeavors to provide an accurate understanding of the current situation. It is a reality check for the leadership and members. If done well, it removes the misconceptions and denial that prevents a clear understanding of the present ministry situation and issues that hinder ministry effectiveness. Thus, for the congregation, it requires courage and a willingness to see and embrace the revealed reality.

A diagnostic survey also serves church leaders by providing information by which they can make better-informed decisions. The survey provides a framework for inquiry so that ongoing organizational learning can take place that will lead to true pro-activeness in ministry. It reveals blind spots in the perception of the current situation. It helps leaders to understand that the source of many problems and hindrances to effective ministry do not originate “out there” somewhere beyond their control, but rather are often the result of their own decisions, or the lack thereof.

Finally, the first step in thinking strategically about the future is a clear understanding of the present. Without an accurate picture of the current situation, plans to move toward a future vision will be hindered. Confidence in leadership decisions about the future increases when supported by relevant data.

Three Tiers Of Survey Options

Currently three tiers of congregational diagnostics are offered. The objective of each tier is to provide a list of current strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). A list of 2-5 core issues are generated and each core issue will be addressed with 2-5 specific recommendations for implementation.

Tiers 2 and 3 can be tailored to fit the unique needs and culture of a local congregation, and Tier 3’s include verbatims in the form of a PAA Analysis (asking congregants what they want to Preserve, Avoid, & Achieve?) plus onsite interviews. Churches often supplement a diagnostic a community demographic report like The Percept Group, which is offered at various mileage points from the church’s location.

• Tier 1 is a basic internal demographic and ethnographic collection of data. This tier measures the basics, including, but not limited to: gender, age, ethnicity, relationship status, children, education levels, household incomes, occupations, financial stewardship, years Christian, church mobilization, commitment to mission and evangelism, conversion rate, basic doctrines, emotional health, feelings of acceptance and belonging, leadership trust and training, tenure analysis, etc.

• Tier 2 measures of the basics (see above), plus congregants rating of current ministries, and includes a set of questions intended to gather congregational input for a specific area (e.g., recent Tier 2’s have included questions related to preferences for a pastoral search, to identify areas of conflict, to measure a church’s missional capacity and preparedness, and to measure the quality of congregants personal devotional lives) There are value added packages available with the Tier 2 diagnostic which may include on-site consultation from a CRM staff person, which are negotiated individually.

• Tier 3 is what has been labeled a full ministry audit and includes all of the above plus an onsite weekend and initial oral report followed by the written report within 4-6 weeks. The cost is sliding scale – depending on church size, budget, and assets.

The reports utilize appreciative inquiry in the diagnoses and reports, encouraging churches to understand and mobilize their strengths and opportunities to address their weaknesses and threats. The reports are quite thorough with executive summaries between 15-30 pages in length, followed by graphs and charts with detailed analysis.

If you have further questions or input regarding our diagnostic options please feel free to use a connection card in anyone of our four weekend services.  Or, you can email us at info@kingsharbor.org.

Thanks!