Written by Peter Blanch
5 years ago at the prompting of our Board of Reference our church family wrote a 10 year plan. At that stage Wagga Wagga Evangelical church was a young church plant of four years and there was a need to carefully plan ahead. We needed to evaluate where we were and then forecast into the future how we hoped to bring glory to God over the next decade.
When we set out to write the plan, we were very clear together that the goal was not set by us but by God. And God’s goal was clear – his ultimate goal is to unite all things under Christ for His glory, to magnify his great Name. God’s strategy for achieving this goal is to save people (both Jews and Gentiles) through the Holy Spirit as they hear the word of truth, the gospel of Christ. The plan of God, right from the very beginning, was the redemption that was won through Christ’s blood, and the preaching of this gospel to all the nations – to bring all things under one head, that is Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1).
The 10 year plan was developed to help us work together under this goal for God and His glory. In his wisdom, God has given us the ability to think and plan. However, if our plans are not coordinated and prioritised well, then we are limited in our effectiveness and efficiency as a church. The ten year plan aimed to pull together our resources as a church so that we might best work together towards the end that God has determined.
Within the plan, the church family correctly noted the need for a review of the plan after 5 years. We acknowledged that in God’s sovereign wisdom, our situation maydiffer from our original plans and so it would be prudent to review the 10 year plan halfway through in case there was need to amend the plan in order to better suit our situation.
As we review our 10 year plan, we must remember that God’s goal and strategy are unchanging. The gospel is timeless. It is the implementation of the goal and strategy in our local context that we need to carefully consider.
We are aiming to undertake this review over the next 6 months. The review will be conducted as outlined in the table below:
What | Who | When |
Restate the Vision in a sermon series | Peter Blanch Stephen Cox | 19th April – 17th May |
The current 10 year plan is made available to the whole church family. | Peter Blanch Stephen Cox | 19th April |
Week of growth group review – each Growth Group will be given one of the purpose areas from the current 10 year plan to review in detail. | Growth Groups | 1st June – 8th June |
All Church family members are given time to comment on any part of the current 10 year plan. | Everyone | 1st June – June 21st |
Comments are distributed to the relevant Purpose Area team or Administration Committee to consider as part of their team review. Each of these groups will then draft their section of an updated 10 year plan. | M Purpose teams and Administration Committee | June 21st – August 16th |
A review panel will build the draft sections into a final, updated 10 year plan. | Review Panel (staff and a representative from each M team and representative Administration Committee member) | August 23rd – October 4th |
Present the updated 10 year plan to the church family. | Peter Blanch Stephen Cox | Term 4 |
Of course we would appreciate your prayers and participation in this process. We earnestly desire to work together as a church family to magnify our God in all that we do.
Peter Blanch
