Strengths and Weaknesses

Our Purpose

To plan and carry out an intentional transition within Liveoak from campus ministry orientation to a community orientation that includes campus. Pastors, deacons, and lay ministers will lead these ministries instead of church staff members who must raise ministry support.

Jonathan Williams, Pastor at Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas is here to facilitate us being in God's presence and to rediscover God's leading. Our unified prayer for Liveoak: Philemon 1:6

5 things that have encouraged Jonathan even before the meeting:

1. Leadership of Liveoak: men who love the Word and walk with integrity
2. Mark's emergence from the dark night
3. Mark's experience will be turned around for good to minister to hurting people: we live in a lost, broken culture crying out for relief
4. The LOBC building as a presence in the community
5. Our campus presence still exists

Each member shared why he or she wanted to be on the assessment team. (Members, feel free to share)

Prayer...We come empty handed in salvation, begging, and we still come empty handed and begging now...


Discussion of Strengths, Weaknesses, and Observations

Each church has specific strengths and weaknesses. To be successful, we must focus on our strengths and manage our weaknesses.

Strengths

• Relationships - strong open honest
• godly leaders
• many mature believers w/ depth of relationship with God
• strong sense of theology among members from an intellectual perspective
• music team has great talent and servant heart
• strong women's ministry
• very committed, humble people
• strong marriages
• strong finances - general management, debt management, tithing
• intergenerational fellowshiping exists
  

Weaknesses

• historically no support for students transitioning from campus ministry to community life
• lack of vision
• intellectual theology not found in active practice as a church - ex. community involvement, evangelism
• visitors come once but don't come again
• we don't get people linked into our communities
• too many people are not proactive in introducing themselves to visitors/prospective members
• pursuit of depth on Sundays can result in lack of introductions to visitors/prospective members
• as a church in general we do not know how to foster community beyond college students
• how [many members of the assessment team] know to do ministry was developed in the college setting, and no [age 60+] older outsiders are aroudn to help us grow our community fellowship
• lack of clear measures of success for community
• when community fellowship does not happen like college fellowship, college graduates at liveoak get disenchanted - there is a culture shock when leaving college but staying at liveoak
• many singles of various ages, but no ministry towards singles
• lack of sense of membership, no covenant or classes

Observations

• Focus has changed over time: no evangelism classes
• leadership has changed: 9-10 staffers down to just Mark and Jeff as pastors
• ministry support of liveoak workers has changed - $200K-$250K from outside Liveoak used to fund staff
• we became staff-dependent on driving ministries (top-down) and events and did not learn how to work with volunteers from the church community (bottom-up - for example LOLA, marriage class, missions)
• the number of staff has greatly decreased, we are sending church
• structured intentional shepherding used to exist primarily for campus ministry, ad-hoc shepherding for the rest of the church; shepherding has happened primarily through fellowship we could be more purposeful in shepherding and sharpening each other
• no one at Liveoak has been a Christian for more than 50 years, thus there are no spiritual "anchors" to help working-age community to gain perspective
• people choose churches based on perceived strength of relationship with the pastor
• a major time of church transition occurred during the most difficult part of Mark's life

Team Assignment

Memorize Philemon 1:6 in the version of your choice and pray it with Ephesians 1:17-18 for our church every day

6that the fellowship of your faith may become effective, in the knowledge of every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus.
Philemon

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; 18
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Ephesians 1

Liveoak Members
Mark and Kristin Hagen, Mark Nodine, Kelly & Ursula Liao, Jeff Kobes, John Rees, Renee Boelsche

Facilitator
Jonathan Williams, a Pastor at Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas

Date

Monday July 20, 2009, 7pm -9ish

Next Time
Discuss models of equipping, evangelism, and shepherding.
Location TBA (Hagen house?) 7pm-9pm