Once you understand the purpose of your board (see Preparing Your Annual Report Part 1) you’re now ready to begin creating a report.
Since the first purpose of the board is to guard the mission I like to begin a board meeting by reporting on the mission (after I open in prayer and give an overview of the meeting). Jesus told us to make disciples, baptize them and then teach them (Matthew 28:19-20). So we’re to make, mark and mature disciples. Making disciples is all about helping people get saved. Marking disciples is all about marking people as followers of Jesus through water baptism. And maturing disciples is all about helping people grow spiritually.
At New Day we gauge our effectiveness in making disciples by tracking the number of salvations.
We track our effectiveness at marking disciples by tracking the number of baptisms.
We track our effectiveness in maturing disciples by tracking four things:
1. Growth group participation. People mature spiritually as they experience biblical community in the context of a growth group (Acts 2:46).
2. The number of people serving. People mature spiritually as they give of their time through serving (Mark 10:45).
3. Total giving. People mature spiritually as they invest their financial resources in God’s Kingdom (Matthew 6:21).
4. If our people are inviting others to church. People mature spiritually as they use their lives to point others to Jesus (Luke 19:10). If people are inviting others to church total attendance should be up as should the number of first time guests.
After the report on the mission comes the report on the money. This report should include things like:
- Where you finished the year in relation to the budget
- An explanation for any significant increases or decreases in income
- What the auditor said about the state of the financial affairs of your church. At New Day we do something called an Agreed Upon Procedure. Click here to learn more.
- And anything else your board wants to know about! 🙂
After the report on the money comes the report on the message. This report should include a summary of what you preached on the previous year. This is obviously a lot easier if you do series. I will show the bumper video we used for the series and then tell the board a little about the series while it plays.