Don't you think that every church that have a vision grow financialy and spiritualy needs a formal business plan. As in our case in Africa, not all but MOST of our churches here do things on a repetitive basis every year. You don't see any growth over a couple of years. People come and leave faster.

I might be wrong but if a church have a formal business plan you can see the growth on quaterly basis. Because controls are inplace to ensure growth. Sometimes I feel bad because pastor's and PE don't welcome such things. I sometimes think that we are actually moving backwards. The AME church use to be one of the greatest churches in Africa, but not anymore. And believe me it's not because that we don't have a lot of money, but because we don't have a business plan in place to ensure these things. Anyhow you might think that I speak negative about our church but I am not, it's only because I am so worried, people in Africa don't listen to people like me because I am over qualified, they said. Anyhow, I would like to here what all have to say.

Love Jerome

NB. All things I experience, I said a business plan for an other church(not AME) now it's one of the fastest growing churches in that area!

-- Anonymous, May 10, 2002

Answers

Do not lose the faith!

I have maintained that if a church is in fact a business, whose product is salvation, then it needs a business plan, as well as milestones to measure success.

We always tell our members, "You can't know where you are going if you don't know where you came from". Why shouldn't this apply to churches?

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2002