Our core discoveries based on the current realities of Western Oaks:
1. We must leverage recent years of stability and trust toward a season of outreach-based growth.
This growth should be characterized by individually gifted faith-sharing, confidence in inviting, and evangelistic, Acts 1:8 missions.
2. We must understand the most pressing needs and spiritual realities of our community and develop relevant ministries to meet those needs while simultaneously fostering an inviting atmosphere for the unchurched and spiritual seekers.
The goal of understanding and meeting community needs is our membership having gospel conversations. Likewise, we must keep ourselves in a perpetual state of being “ready for company” so that we are prepared to minister to whoever enters our fellowship.
3. We must commit to developing and implementing a consistent volunteer engagement system.
While looking at statistical data, two causalities of Western Oak’s significant membership losses were seen. The first is the loss of a clear assimilation process. Without tackling this early on in the ReFocus process, we will not be setting ourselves up for success. If God blesses our outreach efforts with salvations and church membership numbers, do we have a clear strategy to integrate them into the life of the church?
4. We must emphasize robust personal disciple-making along with an intentional leadership development strategy.
The second casualty of our past membership loss is the sudden lack of leaders and a leadership development system. Individuals have stepped into leadership gaps but we need to continue to identify, train, and deploy future leaders, especially as we experience growth.
5. We must provide innovative opportunities for members to know and love one another more deeply in order to reduce fellowship gaps.
These gaps are created by geography, age, life-stage, busyness, etc. Since the local church is a family of faith, we must commit to finding new and more ways to invest time developing deep and lasting friendships.
