Strategy Matters
Based on our observations, both of these decisions—greater attention to groups and collaborative sermon planning—are growing in frequency. These new approaches to groups led us to much more research in Transformational Groups, a new book I’ve co-authored with Eric Geiger. Simply put, we are in a new season of group engagement—more and more people are realizing that groups matter, and how we do groups matters.
The collaborative approach to sermon preparation is also growing, for sure, though not yet as widely embraced. More pastors are planning collaboratively, but most are not. It will be interesting to see if the pattern continues to be more widely embraced.
Either way, strategic leaders understand that what they do has eternal significance. Pastors and church leaders are entrusted with the spiritual care of many and they want to steward that obligation carefully.
Strategy may not always be on the top of our list when it comes to pastoral responsibility, but studying these trends makes me think it should probably be more important to many of us.
Micah Fries and Kevin Walker contributed to this article.