STATEGIC PLANNING FOR THE CHURCH
Below you find five steps that you are expected to follow as you develop your strategic plan. These steps build upon one another and should be done in sequential order. As you work your way through each step, you will need approach several of the steps with two objectives—description and prescription. You will describe the current state in your church (or ministry organization) and how you understand that the church arrived at its current place. You will also prescribe what changes or approaches you would introduce to strengthen the church in that particular area.
Selecting your ministry—You will be required to select a church or ministry organization in which to conduct your strategic planning process. If you choose a specific area of ministry within the larger church such as the youth ministry, you will need to discuss the church at large (to some reasonable degree) and then the specific area of ministry concern.
STEP ONE—PRAYER The beginning of any planning process is prayer. You will need to begin by evaluating / describing the current prayer practices of the leadership in the church including yourself, as well, the church at large. You can use surveys to determine this or perhaps informal interviews, etc. Describe any church wide emphasis on prayer.
Then you will want to prescribe means to increase the prayer focus of the church—be specific at various levels of leadership and of the church at large.
STEP TWO—ANALYZE In the second step, you will evaluate the current mission statement and vision statement. Be sure to include how/when these statements were created and evaluate how well they are known and to what degree they guide the church and its leaders. Prescribe any changes in wording, communication within the church regarding the mission and vision, and application of statements to the planning process and daily functioning of the church.
You will also need to describe the following areas in your ministry organization (refer to Malphurs’ book pages 75-76). Feel free to address all of the areas that Malphurs notes, but at minimum you must address the following: x Life Cycle x Performance Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, limitations) x Direction/Strategy x Congregational Make-up x Spiritual Climate x Financial Stability x Ministry Health (consider individual areas of ministry) x Demographics of the Community
The information on the community can be gained through http://www.census.gov/ , as well your state convention or North American Mission Board may be able to help. You will want to have 10 years worth of data for the congregational involvement (worship attendance/small group attendance at minimum) and 10 years worth of data regarding financial records—giving, etc. For those who are involved in SBC churches, this information can be gathered from the Annual Church Profile that is submitted to the SBC. Make sure to think about the interrelatedness of the areas listed above—is your church representative of the demographic? Is it keeping up with population growth? Is the financial giving commensurate with household income? These are but a few of the questions you could explore in this step.
STEP THREE—TARGET In this step, you will want to determine what areas are in the greatest need of change in the life of the church. List 2-3 areas that are of greatest concerns and describe their current state.
STEP FOUR—DEVELOP This step is divided into four parts: x MINISTRY OBJECTIVES—this is where you will consider the 2-3 areas of concern that you are choosing to target (see step three) and develop 3-5 significant ministry objectives. These objectives may focus on any or all of the areas of concern that emerged in step three. These objectives need to be clearly stated and point toward growth in ministry impact. o GOALS—under each ministry objective, you will need to itemize goals which are measurable and will help you attain the ministry objective. ACTION PLAN with TIME LINES—under each goal you will detail an action plan for reaching the stated goal with a specific time line included. x INFASTRUCTURE—related to each action step and set goal, you will detail what infrastructure will be needed to accomplish the goals (such as administrative support, budgetary allowances, volunteers, leaders, facilities, etc)
STEP FIVE—EVALUATION In the final step you detail how the evaluation process will be done as attempts are made to realize the set ministry objectives. Ask questions related to achievement of goals, persons involved, procedures, etc
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