Nearly 20 years ago, Biltmore Baptist Church had over 700 people praying together weekly in small groups. I interviewed their prayer leader and the primary takeaway from the conversation was that she spent 75-80% of her average week relating to the leaders of the prayer groups.
The key was not in investing in the strategy as much as it was investing in leaders. And it was the leaders of the prayer groups that Satan particularly tried to undercut, therefore she spent time with them. I mention this because we humans (or perhaps, we Americans) naturally substitute strategy brilliance for people development as our confidence for victory. If you are going to see things change at (your church) on the human level, your development of your leaders is more important than any other single factor.
The majority of your people won’t care about strategy too greatly – they will care about relationship with those they love and who love them. When they are in a prayer environment that people are bearing one another’s burdens, then they will encounter God and pray passionately.
Does that mean that strategy is unimportant? No. I realize that twice I have now made comments that look like I’m disparaging strategy. That’s not actually the case, but I am actually and intentionally saying it in such a way as to get your attention. That’s because it is so easy to put strategy first instead of third place in importance (people loving each other, leader development, strategy.
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