A Strategic Framework for Church Networks and Associations

1. Helping Leaders

The association’s work with leaders focuses on five key dimensions:

• Health – This encompasses all areas of human flourishing. It includes emotional, spiritual, relational, and physical well-being. A healthy leader is whole in life and ministry. Networks should support leaders in developing habits and rhythms that promote resilience and vitality.

• Growth – This includes growth in knowledge, skills, and character, especially spiritual maturity. Networks can facilitate training, mentoring, and development opportunities that help leaders deepen their understanding, sharpen their ministry competencies, and strengthen their walk with Christ.

• Addition – This refers to helping leaders engage in intentional gospel sharing. Networks should equip leaders to cultivate an evangelistic mindset, training them to consistently share Christ where they live, work, play, and shop.

• Multiplication – Multiplication involves raising up new disciples and new leaders. Networks can foster a culture of discipleship and leadership development, ensuring that leaders are not just maintaining ministries, but multiplying their impact.

• Renewal – Leaders often need renewal in their spiritual lives, vision, and personal priorities. The Network can help leaders return to foundational truths, clarify their mission and values, and rediscover their calling. Sometimes, this simply means helping leaders recover their passion and purpose.

2. Helping Churches

Associational support for churches mirrors the pattern used for leaders, again focusing on health, growth, addition, multiplication, and renewal:

• Health – A healthy church is rooted in strong spiritual disciplines, sound doctrine, biblical community, and healthy systems. This includes healthy administration, outreach strategies, assimilation processes, and communication structures. Networks can help churches identify and pursue practices that lead to corporate spiritual health and operational effectiveness.

• Growth – Growth means increasing in spiritual maturity, attendance, the number of believers, and the development of leaders. Networks can resource churches to evangelize more effectively and disciple those they reach. There is a need to help with pathways of discipleship and leadership development.

• Addition – For churches, addition can take the form of new groups, services, venues or ministries. A growing church may need to add groups (age, gender, geographic, season of life or affinity based), add service times (e.g., starting an 8:00 a.m. or midweek service), or even expand to additional physical locations. In a multi-site model, churches may raise up campus pastors or use video teaching across locations.

• Multiplication – Multiplication is expressed in church planting and church replanting. Rather than focusing solely on growing one church larger, associations can help churches participate in multiplying gospel presence across a region. This could involve planting brand-new churches or revitalizing dying congregations. Every new church becomes a new opportunity for health, growth, addition, multiplication, and renewal: a true movement model.

• Renewal – Churches, like individuals, often need to return to the basics. Networks can help churches refocus on the biblical purpose of the church, rediscover their mission, clarify vision, and align their values with their actions. Renewal is about remembering the “why” before diving into the “what.” Practically, this might involve reassessing a church’s mission, vision, values, priorities, and practices — all of which are eventually reflected in their calendar and budget.