Fanning the Flame (FTF) is a fourteen-month coaching ministry built upon the 10 strategies of biblical church health taught in the Embers to a Flame Conference. FTF is not a "program" rather, it is a commitment by a church’s leadership to continually seek to be a more healthy church. This is a lifelong journey. It is NOT a "program" we can engage in for a season confident that we have arrived. It’s not a sprint, but a marathon.
The Japanese have a word for this: "Kaizen." It means having a heart for a continuous, unflagging commitment to incremental improvement. Just so, God's Word consistently calls us to be faithful, constant and obedient; in other words, we are to "... run with endurance the race that lies before us."
In order to accomplish this, we will diligently seek to achieve three major objectives through the FTF process:
1. A review of all 10 strategies for authentic biblical church health. We will explore all 10 strategies and find ways, where appropriate, to "drip" them down into the life of the church. The goal, at the end of our journey, is to make sure that the leadership of the church has a thorough grasp on the essentials of the 10 strategies.
2. Drive down prayer as the most critical and essential element in the DNA of a local church. Martin Luther said that "prayer is the daily business of the Christian.” John Calvin said "We see that nothing is set before us as an object of expectation from the Lord which we are not enjoined to ask of Him in prayer.” John Wesley said, "There is nothing without prayer…. " Prayer is a constant focus throughout the 14 month period.
3. After taking a church health survey and discovering the area that you need to address first, we will then develop a strategy to help you address the particular needs of that area. This process of identifying the area and then working on correcting the weakness is a lifelong process that you should make a part of the fabric of your church as you seek incremental improvement toward health.
