SESSION 4 - Understanding & Navigating the Organization

The Production Line

The Production Line

It may not seem like a natural analogy, but your church is a lot like a textile mill. Raw cotton is harvested from the field and taken to a gin where it is cleaned and baled. The baled cotton is then delivered to a textile plant. The cotton bales are fluffed, stretched and twisted to improve strength and create thread. Thread is then weaved together to make fabric. Fabric is then washed, dyed, and printed to create a pattern. The pattern is then cut into pieces and sewn together into a product. The product is then folded and packaged for sale. The packaged product is loaded from the dock on the other side of the plant onto trucks and sent to stores around the world.

OK, this is an over-simplification of the process, but it is a process. Your church has a similar process. Gene Mims, in his book The Kingdom Focused Church: A Compelling Image of an Achievable Future, attempted to capture that process in a graphic. [1]

Your church is responsible for harvesting individuals who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. They come in the front door of the church, hear the gospel, respond in faith, are baptized, and join the church. As members, they participate in worship, they study God’s Word in small groups, and are trained and discipled to grow and mature in their faith. They are given opportunities to serve the church and minister to the community and beyond. The result is a spiritual transformation on the personal level that grows the church, increases the sphere of influence of the church, and advances the Kingdom.

In the textile plant, the plant manager is responsible for the production line. In the church, you are responsible for the process as a whole, or at least part of the process. You need to understand the process, how it works, why each part is important, the areas that are functioning with excellence and the weakest parts of the process.

You are not only responsible for the process, but responsible for making sure each part of the process is serviced correctly and functioning in a way that produces the highest quality product. In the case of the church, your end product is a spiritually mature, disciple-making follower of Jesus Christ that engages the lost to bring them through the process.

Grade your church’s efforts in each of the following areas by selecting one.

1 = Not doing or Doing Very Poorly

2 = Doing Poorly 

3 = Needs Improvement

4 = Doing with Excellence

Save and Continue Later
  1. Gene Mims, The Kingdom Focused Church: A Compelling Image of an Achievable Future, Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 142.
Doubling Production (Thinking Forward)