Is your congregation a worshipping church, a learning church, or a serving church? Most leaders would like to think their church would be described as equally emphasizing worship, Bible study, and service. In reality, though, churches usually lean one way or another in their programming.

Tom Shirk, senior pastor of Calvary Bible Church in Boulder, Colorado, says that when his church decided it was time to focus more on external programs, they had to take a long, hard look at their current ministry activities. What they saw was a less-than-balanced picture. But before I tell you where Calvary’s emphasis leaned, let me share with you their assessment process.

First, they cataloged everything they did as a church in every ministry area and then grouped each program under their new, value-driven organizational strategy. Tom shares, “We reorganized to three core commitments: worship, learn, and serve. Those three activities are what it means to be a part of CBC. Then we put all of our programs under these categories.”

For more details on the ministry of Calvary Bible Church, see The Externally Focused Church or review “Connecting to Your Community: First Steps in Externally Focused Ministry,” a free downloadable leadership discussion guide available at www.externallyfocusednetwork.com.

What did they find after this assessment? Tom admits, “We had 75 things under the “learn” category and all the “serves” were to keep those 75 learning programs going! We were a Bible-teaching church, so we had all these learning opportunities. One of the things we came to discover is that people are not spiritually mature if they are not serving, no matter how much they know.”

How did Calvary go about resolving the imbalance they uncovered? Interestingly enough, the initial step was not to add but to subtract. “For us, it began with asking hard questions about the current reality and if we could really afford to add something else. You can’t keep layering on more and more things. As we got bigger, we realized we had to simplify. We said we couldn’t add. We had to subtract in order to get to a more external focus,” he says.

The process of elimination didn’t happen overnight. As new ministry ideas in each area at Calvary would come about, those ideas had to fit into one of the core strategies of worship, learn, or serve. Church leaders stopped performing CPR on programs that were not functioning and allowed a few to end. Over a relatively short amount of time, space began to surface in the area of service and people were drawn to it.

Today, Calvary Bible Church is externally focused and internally strong. The church engages thousands in serving local schools, and it partners with other churches and community organizations that benefit all of Boulder County. On Saturday, May 31, 2008, hundreds from Calvary Bible Church united with other churches from the Boulder area for a day of service especially focused on serving public schools. This was Calvary’s 5th annual Sharefest Saturday. Collectively, 2,500 people volunteered to paint schools, landscape at community agencies, and write notes of appreciation for teachers. Calvary also has many ongoing community service relationships and partnerships ranging from supporting Sudan refugees living in their community, serving the homeless, helping single parents, and even repairing computers for low-income families.

Assessing current programming for its value to the church is an essential step to improving the church’s effectiveness in all areas. Fall tends to be busy with activity in the life of a church. It’s also the time many ministries will work through strategic planning and budgeting in preparation for 2009. Maybe it’s time to gather your teams and see how volunteers and staff answer these six questions:

1. What are our core values?
2. How are our core values represented in our ministry programs and strategies?
3. Is our programming balanced?
4. What are our overall programming strengths?
5. What are our overall programming weaknesses?
6. What could be streamlined or simplified?

An honest assessment of whether programs align to core values isn’t easy. Leaders and relationships are attached to each activity on the church calendar. People sometimes feel threatened by assessments. Some will lobby for their programs to continue. I advise leaders to perform assessments like this as teams and encourage staff members to serve as facilitators. When people are challenged to refine and refocus on purpose and vision, staff should be optimistic and trust volunteers to rise to the challenge, offering innovative ideas and input.

In his Leadership Network paper titled “Ten Paradigm Shifts Toward Community Transformation,” Eric Swanson writes, “In a post-modern world, most people are neither impressed with the size of a church or its commitment to ‘truth.’ Perhaps, in this century, the greatest apologetic for the reality of Jesus Christ living in a community will be observational more that propositional. To have a faith that can be observed is to be living out the truths we want others to grasp and the life of the Savior we want them to know” (www.leadnet.org/Resources).