Relationship-Based Verses Program-Based Ministry
We are launching a new ministry this Fall at Grace Community Church. I am as excited about its potential as I am anything we have done in our church’s short history. Recently I was asked about the “budget” for this new ministry. I chuckled when I was forced to answer, “What budget? “ The truth is there is no money for this ministry. It is a total relationship-building ministry. Money may eventually be available as the ministry grows, but the goal of this ministry, as with all others, is to meet and change lives. The initial start of this will have to come with no financial investment.
When we started our church, a paradigm shift that I had to make, as did most on our staff, and the one that new people coming to our church must make, is the shift from being a program-based ministry to one of being a relationship-based ministry. There is a difference.
I grew up with a program-based mindset. Program-based ministries need to be managed. Most programs require staff oversight, financial resources to fund them, and require on-going support and maintenance from the church. When problems occur within the ministry rules are created to keep them from happening again. Once a program begins it rarely is dropped from the church’s ministry offerings.
In a relationship-based mindset, while the goal is the same, to grow people into the image of Christ, the approach is completely different. The focus shifts from a developing and managing a program to fostering relationships between people. I agree it is a subtle shift, but instead of looking for new programs to develop, the intent is to look for relationships to begin and grow. Relationships-based ministry can often be done with no money. Instead of adding rules, more grace must be applied. Because relationships involve people more than structure, relationship-based ministries can be messier at times and harder to manage.
If done well, I believe relationship-based ministry has a better potential to enhance real life change. I realize my program-based ministry friends would say that their programs have the same intent as our relationship-based ministry and I agree. I also realize our relationship-based ministry relies on a certain amount of programs to administer relationship development, but the major difference is the shift in primary focus from developing and managing programs to developing and encouraging relationships.
Imagine when a ministry opportunity arises in the church if the number one goal was not to create a new program but instead to explore ways of creating new relationships.
