You may be wondering what the value is of understanding all this time information on Cats, Collies, Ranches, etc? This is simply another tool to help understand the nature of each church and what leadership styles might best serve that church. We have traditionally spent a lot of time with statistics, without really observing that the nature of the church changes as the size changes. Much as children of two, won’t fit into their new born clothes any more, nor teens into their toddler outfits, the way we provide for our churches requires understanding the real nature and size of each church.
By now, you should have a fairly good idea of the nature of your church. Now I understand that all churches do not fall into absolute categories. You may have a church with an attendance of 55 but it is really functioning like a Cat rather than a Collie. Or you may have an average attendance of 25 but it seems to be much more Collie-like than cat-like. That’s OK. The characterizations are merely there to help us understand the general trends of churches. They are not absolutes categories. Find the church that seems to act like yours.
In the introduction I shared my hope that these articles would help each church understand the following:
- What is the nature of our church?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of our church?
- What kind of pastoral leadership is required to lead our church?
- What kind of church do we want to become, or are we happy where we are right now?
If I can help you at any stage in that discussion, I am here for you.
Give me a call.
Steve Petty
You have reached the end of the series