Click here on PowerPoint Presentation to open a PowerPoint presentation of this material on Strategic Planning. The slides in th PowerPoint presentation may be copied for congregational use.

The following slides present an overview of the strategic planning process.
The slides include explanatory notes at the foot of each slide.



 

Every congregation should periodically examine where they are, what they are doing, whether they could do better, of whether there were other things they should and could be engaged in. We call the process Strategic Thinking

Strategic Thinking or Strategic Planning should be a group or congregational process.
It can be initiated by the preacher/minister or by the elders, but should be a group or congregational exercise.
By getting several or all to be involved in the process it is easier to get the group or congregation to take ownership of the strategy developed.




The above slide covers some of the topics to be explored in the process of thinking and planning strategically.




This chart continues the discussion of what is involved in strategic planning.
Pay particular attention to spiritual issues, scripture, and prayer in the process.

Ultimately whatever strategic plan or strategies are developed they should be an application of God's vision for the church, and an emphasis on his power.

In this chart we have an overview of the process we will adopt in developing a strategic
plan for the group or church.
1)  Notice the Strategic Driving Force.  This is the sum of who we are, what we have, what
     drives us, and what we would like to be.
     The Strategic Driving Force includes the purpose and mission statements of the group,
     the group's vision, the people who will be driving the program (members and leaders), and
     the goals envisioned by the group.
     This Strategic Driving Force provides much of the strategic advantage from which the group
     plans to launch its strategic goals.
     Ever group has a strategic advantage!  The strategic advantage may include the groups
     history, what they have done well in the past, the experience of the group, the opportunities
     presenting themselves, the physical plant or facilities they have at their disposal, and the
     various at their disposal.
     The Strategic Plan to be developed by the group will obviously leverage off their strategic
     advantage.
     We will shortly take up each of the items under the Strategic Driving Force and Strategic Advantage
     of the group in order to focus attention on how we are going to develop our strategic plan.
2)  The Strategy Triangle represents those strategies the group is going to adopt in order to
     achieve its goals and maximize its strategic advantage..
3)  The Grey Organizational Circle represents how the group plans to organize in order to achieve its
     goals and apply its strategies, how it plans to implement the strategies, how and when it will
     evaluate its progress, and what adjustments need to be made to improve its strategies.
4)  The final Summary Triangle represents a summary of what has been achieved and how
     this was realized.  It includes an evaluation of the groups strategic plan; its success and failures.



 

Click here for a good model for beginning the process of thinking strategically, especially on a congregational level!

Strategic Thinking involves several factors:
1)  Strategic Advantage which represents the group's strengths and what they do well. 
     Here the group draws on its history and present resources.
2)  Strategic Environment includes the physical factors within we must live and function.
     The strategic advantage can include a number of items: the nature of the community in
     which the group functions, the relationship of the group with its community, the strengths of the
     group, and other similar resources and strengths.
3)  Strategic Assumptions include factors that we must take into account while thinking
     strategically.
     These strategic assumptions include some of the basic assumptions of the group such as its
     biblical and doctrinal values, its standing within its heritage, and its understanding of its "identity".
4)  Strategic Purposes are significant and primary factors that will focus, control, and shape the group
     in its thinking and planning.
 

In the Strategic Process discussed below we will demonstrate a Macro Process (congregational level) and a Micro Process (individual ministry level)

Under the subject of Purpose we examine the purpose of the congregation (Macro) or a ministry group (Micro).

Purpose statements are primarily broad in nature and present the primary understanding of the group
regarding its overall purpose for existence.

Macro:
In this process we will seek to determine how a congregation is strategically focused on its primary reason for existence, and how this will impact it in its various ministries.
A simple congregational Purpose Statement may be "Our purpose is to bring Glory to God through the Church."
How this will be done will be expressed through its mission statement and the individual strategic ministry group plans.

Micro:
Here we examine an individual ministry group such as Missions, Worship, or Education.
The Purpose Statement of a ministry group such Missions, Worship, Ministry, or Education would seek to define the ministry and provide some parameters to the ministry.
A simple Purpose Statement for the Missions Ministry might be "Our purpose is to facilitate the purpose of the church by extending the boundaries of the Kingdom through foreign missions."
A Purpose Statement for the Worship Ministry would be "Our purpose is to facilitate the purpose of the church by enriching its Spiritual life and experience through the worship of God."
A Purpose statement for the Education group would be "Our purpose is to facilitate the purpose of the church by providing Christian education opportunities for the congregation on a broad front."

Purpose Statements differ from Mission Statements in that Purpose Statements broadly define what the group sees as its primary reason for existence, and Mission Statements state how the group plan to achieve the Purpose of the group.

Begin your strategic thinking by developing a simple broad Purpose Statement for the congregation or ministry group. Write this statement down for future reference. Keep it simple!

This purpose statement may be modified as the group develops its strategic plan.




A Mission Statement explains how the group plans to achieve its Purpose.

Macro:
A simple Mission Statement for the Church whose Purpose Statement is "to bring glory to God through
the Church" might be:
"We plan to bring glory to God through the church by:
     living lives shaped by and being dedicated to Christ,
     by being loving servants of others for Christ,
     by worshipping faithfully to God and his word,
     by engaging in an active evangelistic and missionary outreach.
Notice that in this simple Mission Statement the group has already defined broadly some of the ministry
initiatives it will need to develop and engage.

Micro:
A simple Mission statement for the Education Ministry would be :
"We plan to bring enrich the ministries of the congregation by providing spiritual education opportunities through Bible Classes on Sunday morning and Wednesday night, and by engaging in other similar opportunities".
 

Develop a Mission Statement for the congregation or group that explains in broad terms how they plan to achieve their purpose. Write this statement down for future reference. Keep it simple!

In your Vision Statement you state what you "dream" (envision) for your Mission Statement.
These vision statements may be broader than the group can realize, but it is a beginning point to developing goals and strategies.
At this point no visions or dreams are too large or unreasonable!  They will be limited and reshaped as the process develops.

Macro:
Here you "dream" what the congregation should or could be like.
For instance "We desire the church to be perceived in our community to be a faithful, concerned dedicated witness and servant for Christ."
A good place to begin would be for the congregation to dream or envision how they would like the community, their fellowship, or their members to think of them.  The congregation may not be there, but this is how they would like to be perceived.

Micro:
Here the group states in broad visionary ideas what they dream to be possible for their ministry such as planting a new mission team in Africa, or having a better richer more spiritual Bible School program.
The group might focus on perceived weaknesses or areas where they are not functioning or effective.

Vision Statement define the dreams they congregation or group have for their church or ministry.

Begin your vision statement by selecting one idea or ministry and thinking ahead, where the congregation or group would like to be by  a certain time. Write this statement down for future reference. Keep it simple!

The section headed People is where the congregation or group decide who they have available, or how many persons they have available through whom to achieve their Purpose, Mission, and Vision.
This is where the group have to be realistic, and where they may have to revise their Mission or Vision Statements to be in line with reality!
If the congregation or group do not have the necessary people resources, or financial resources, they may have to tailor their dreams to their resources.
There are always three major dangers at this point:   
1)  The congregation or group forget or overlook the power and resources of God
2)  They focus too heavily on their human resources
3)  They overstep what is realistic

Macro People Planning:
This is where the congregation needs to involve the everyone in the planning in order to get them to "buy" into the process and strategic plan.

Develop a list of the group or congregation who may be available and able to undertake the ministry/ministries. Invite all to participate. Click here to go to a lesson that suggests an effective way this can be achieved on both the congregational and group level.

Micro People Planning:
This is where the group works from the information gathered from the ministry planning sheets the congregation developed at a congregational planning session (see the above macro point), and where the group leadership meets with those who have indicated a preference for a ministry.
It may be a good policy to have some of those who selected the particular ministry to "recruit" others to join in the meeting.
By doing this the group leadership are encouraging leadership among the group and getting them to claim some "ownership" in the ministry.
By "ownership" we do not mean control over, but full and energetic participation in the ministry!




Goals are similar to visions but are more specific.
Goals are intended to be quantifiable or at least able to be clearly identified.
In regard to a mission team in Africa, a goal to be reached would be to begin by a specific date doing research on Africa, then to begin a search for a missionary to send, and to have the missionary family work with your congregation.
Goals define things the group intends to do in order to achieve its purpose.
 

Goals must be:    Challenging      Reasonable    Practical      Flexible    Attainable

Macro Goals:
Congregation goals will be similar to congregation Vision, but more specific.
Here, however, one attempts to articulate more specific Goals such as:
1)  Being conceived by the community as a congregation of Christ like character in love and Christian
     living
3)  Being perceived by the community as a servant church, one who serves both its members and the
     community
2)  Being perceived as a church faithful to God's Word, accepting the Bible as the inspired Word of God,
     and attempting to live according to its teachings
4)  Offering to God a deeper spiritual worship in both Christian living (the Christian life is one lived in
     worship of God) and assembly worship which honors God and Jesus Christ, and is uplifting and
     edifying to its members.

Later, during the Strategy Process the congregation will explain how and when it intends reaching these goals.


Micro Goals:
Each ministry group in the congregation must think of specific goals that relate to their ministry, for example, the Missions Ministry:
1)  Be better informed about mission principles
2)  Staying in contact on a weekly basis with their missionaries
3)  Keeping the congregation better informed regarding missions and the missionaries

Likewise, during the Strategy Process the ministry group will explain how and when these goals will be reached.

 

As the congregation or group begin translating their Strategic Driving Force into practical Strategy plans, they will examine and discuss each of the items under Strategic Driving Force, namely, Purpose, Mission, Vision, People, and Goals and begin to define strategy for each of the items under their Strategic Driving Force, demonstrating how  and when they plan to achieve these purposes, dreams, and goals..

DEVELOPING DREAMS INTO STRATEGY   



With a Strategic Driving Force (purpose, mission, vision, people, goals) in defined and in mind the congregation or group proceed to develop strategy in regard to how they are to achieve their Mission, Vision and Goals.
For instance, they decide together what research is necessary regarding their ministry, who is to do the research, how much research is to be done, how it is to be presented, etc.

PURPOSE STRATEGY
Macro Purpose Strategy:
Here the congregation may split up into several working groups, dialogue, summarize, and report back to the whole group.
Remind the group of the nature of the Purpose Statement - a simple concise statement of purpose.
"Prime the pump" with some simple examples!
The Summary Purpose Statements should be participatively streamlined into a concise Purpose Statement.

Micro Purpose Strategy:
In the Ministry group process the same procedure is followed, except the the group functions as one group.
Again remind the group of the nature of the Purpose Statement - a simple concise statement of purpose.

Strategy concerns relate to the following questions:
How?
Who?
When?
How much?


MISSION. VISION, PEOPLE, AND GOALS STRATEGY

The Congregation Mission, Vision, People, Goals strategy process follows the same procedure on both the Macro and Micro levels.
Questions that will be addressed under the remainder of the strategy process will relate to the following concerns:

For example, in regard to Missions Strategy the group may research the following:
Where do we plan to do mission work?
How we are going to locate a suitable missionary?
How much experience should he have, how much training, how much are we going to pay him, what will his salary be made up, how much working fund will he need, etc?
What kind of work will the missionary engage in?
We begin planning for locating a missionary and family in the congregation, what kind of work will he do in the congregation, etc.
How long do we want the missionary to spend with us getting to know us and we them?

 

The ultimate goal of the strategy process is to determine how the congregation or group will do this, who will be doing it, when will it be done, and how much do we plan to do!

ORGANIZATION
At this point the focus is on how the congregation or group are going to organize to achieve our purpose!

Macro Organization:
A major concern at this point will relate to how the congregation will function with elders, deacons, ministry group leaders, minister, etc.

Possible organizational charts for such can be found by clicking here and by going to BIBM 101 and studying Participative Leadership Style.

A second concern relates to ministry groups within the congregation.
How many ministry groups will we need, what kind of ministry groups will we need?
We have already demonstrated above how this can be done in a congregation setting such as a "pot Luck Meal" meeting.
Click here to go to such a congregational process.
The focus here is not on persons, but on ministry groups and how they will work together, how communication will take place, and what kind of congregational meetings will be held.
Another focus will be on managing congregational accountability, how will this be done.

Micro Organization:
In this case the focus will be on persons.
Who will do what?
How many elders do we need?
How many deacons will we need?
How many ministers do we need?
The ministry group chair persons will lead the process.
Elders form a ministry group on the same level as the Missions Ministry Group.




Implementation relates to how the ministries are to be set up and when they will begin.
This is done on a Macro and Micro level.
When will the Education Ministry begin? A Macro decision.
How will the Education Ministry begin?  A Micro decision.





Evaluation is a major concern in Strategic Thinking and participation!

Questions need to be constantly asked such as:
Why are we doing this?
How well are we doing?
Do we need to change anything?

Evaluation should engaged even before the implementation of the ministry takes place.
Periodic evaluation sessions must be planned:
    Monthly - for groups
    Quarterly - for congregation
 

ACCOUNTABILITY!

We need to comment here on Accountability and the management of accountability!

In any participative program of empowering members to become more active in leadership, and in which responsibility for decision and action are delegated, it is imperative that a process of effective accountability and communication be built into the strategic planning process.
Such open communication and accountability becomes essential to the smooth operation and success of the group.

Communication:
We begin by stressing that the group or congregation must set up free flowing and open channels of communication.
All possible channels of communication should be explored, verbal, digital, and printed media should be used.

Accountability:
Individuals and groups in a participative model of leadership must be accountable and willing to be accountable for their actions.
The process of accountability must be carefully managed so that free accountability is available without the process becoming a matter of control.
One very good model of managing accountability is available to congregations through open congregational meetings held on a regular schedule.
Click here to go to such a model of congregational meeting.
During such meetings each ministry group of the congregation reports on its budget, decisions, and activities.
These ministry groups should include the elders as a ministry group.  This insures that the congregation understands that even elders see themselves accountable to the congregation for their decisions and activities.
The meeting should be run strictly by agenda.

ADJUSTMENTS



No program of strategic thinking and planning is perfect!
Evaluation and adjustment must be made an option to the process.
Such occasions of evaluation and adjustment should be built into the strategic timetable.


SUMMARY



Periodic attempts to summarize the success of the strategy should also be built into the process.
Effective communication will be dependent on frequent summary and reporting of the progress of the congregations or groups activity.
Regular communication must be built into the Strategic Planning Process 
Every medium of communication should be used:
   Bulletins
   E-mail communication on both the Macro and Micro levels
   Announcements
   Special Programs for Ministry reports
   Regular Business Meetings (Click here to go to Regular Business meeting page.)
   Video-projection before services

Opportunity should be provided for members of ths congregation or group to question the strategy and success of the strategy.
Questions such as the following could be asked:
What have we done?
How are we doing?
Can we do it better or differently?
Do we need to continue the effort?
If so, for how long should we continue?
Do we have enough elders and deacons?
Is it time for us to appoint new elders and deacons?


OVERVIEW OF STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS