I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been contacted by a church wanting to develop an assimilation process. They have one and want to improve it or use their church management software to implement the process. Either way, I’m always happy to help!
Remember, the assimilation process is just a part of the effort to develop a strong, solid, and effective infrastructure. And the heart of any serious attempt to build infrastructure in the church is the Operating Procedure. On Executive Pastor Online, you’ll find lots of content about infrastructure development and the Management System’s role in this process. More than any other document type in the Management System will be the Operating Procedure and associated forms, work instructions, effectiveness measures, etc.
The first step in writing an Operating Procedure is developing a “process flowchart.” The best way to get this done is by involving a team of people who understand how the process currently runs and how it should run in the future. Get everyone together in a room with a whiteboard and begin the discussion.
Break the process down step by step, beginning to draw a flowchart on the board. Don’t be afraid to get into the details of the process. What are the key decision points? How does the process flow depending on a critical decision point?
Download a PDF of the assimilation process HERE.
There are also several examples of Operating Procedures in the Resources area of this site. It’s not until the flowchart is done that the Operating Procedure writing begins. As documented in the flowchart, each major step in the process is described in detail in the written portion of the document.
Take a look at the examples and get started!