Once you’ve determined your image and begun generating ideas it’s time to get to work. It’s time to put thought into action. Implementation occurs when you and your team put the gears of image and ideas together to create plans and programs that have maximum impact. When you combine an accurate and consistent image with great ideas, you will be rewarded with results. After pressing through the process of putting time into defining your image and devoting yourself to developing the right ideas, there is a prize in store.

You may have had your image down for years or you may have just figured it out. Regardless, your image does nothing for you until you blend it with ideas that are an outpouring of who your church really is.

This is the hard part. It requires putting every decision made about your ministry through the grid of your image. It requires saying “no” to putting resources into a program or idea that doesn’t fully mesh with your identity as a church.

Further, it’s imperative to continually educate and train your church members on what the image of the church is and what they can do to support it. Successful churches know that staff and leaders must live and breathe their image every day. By doing so, they are able to keep the image in sharp focus. This level of clarity has to radiate outward from the core of the church into the congregation. Church members fuzzy on what the image is over time, so don’t assume they have it all in focus. Help them out by revisiting the values that come together to create your church image.

So what’s the big reward of proper implementation? It’s a church body working as a cohesive unit towards a common goal making decisions with a common understanding of what are (and what aren’t) the right steps for their congregation. It’s a church body making an impact on their community with ministry programs that have a high level of effectiveness because the programs are flowing out of a clear understanding of the image. It’s lives being changed for eternity because the message of Christ’s love has not gotten lost in the shuffle.

It takes intentionality and it takes endurance, but it’s more than worth it in the end!

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
- Philippians 3:14