Churches love “strategic plans.” They collect a committee, maintain a retreat, and start with actual hope and vitality. But these efforts normally slip, repeatedly, into two acquainted traps. Some parishes produce a doc that’s neither “strategic” nor a “plan.” They produce an announcement so fastidiously worded that it finally ends up saying nothing in any respect. Others leap straight to planning with out ever establishing a method. They assemble an inventory of applications and investments—a preschool, a recent worship service, a thrift store—every wise by itself phrases, however missing any clear thread that binds them collectively. The church feels busy, but in some way unchanged.
I spent the final yr serving to St. Francis within the Fields in Harrods Creek, Kentucky, develop a strategic plan. From the outset, I used to be satisfied that the problem was not planning however the order of operations. Too typically parishes attempt to determine what to do earlier than they’ve discerned who they’re changing into. The technique should come first.
Technique is a set of decisions. It asks a parish to determine which of the numerous good and essential issues it might do will develop into its distinctive approach of pursuing the Nice Fee: to make disciples of all nations, by sacrament and formation. The mission is already given; it applies to each church. However there may be a couple of devoted technique to embody it. Technique is the work of discerning a parish’s explicit vocation inside that shared mission.
For a option to depend as technique, although, it should be a actual selection. Parishes typically keep away from actual decisions, as a result of real choices expose tradeoffs or disagreements we would favor to maintain within the background. They declare that they’ll develop into “a group that welcomes everybody” or “a spot all can name dwelling,” however these aren’t actual decisions. One easy technique to check whether or not one thing is mostly a selection comes from Roger Martin, the secular enterprise thinker, whose work on technique I utilized to the parish context: if the other of your selection is just not instantly ridiculous, then it’s possible you’ll be making an precise strategic selection.
As an illustration, a parish may select to prioritize embodied, liturgical worship over digital outreach; the other selection, leaning closely into on-line ministry, could also be equally devoted. Technique requires deciding on amongst a number of viable paths, reflecting Paul’s perception in regards to the “sorts of items.” The physique is wealthy in potentialities, and faithfulness could take totally different shapes in other places.
At St. Francis’, this meant wrestling with a deceptively easy query: What’s our explicit way of life into the mission we’ve at all times had? After months of dialog and prayer, the sacristy selected a transparent reply: to be the very best place to have interaction deeply with the richness of Nice Custom Christianity. That selection is just not common; it isn’t meant to be. It displays our parish’s strengths, its folks, and the wants of its group. One other parish, even close by, may make totally different choices. That variety is a present of Anglicanism: we don’t consider our precise strategy is the solely proper strategy.
As soon as that imaginative and prescient was named, different choices unfolded naturally. A technique turns into concrete not by slogans however by a set of reinforcing decisions: how a parish will worship, kind Christians, have interaction its group, steward its assets, and welcome those that include totally different backgrounds or expectations. Every selection informs, and is knowledgeable by, all the others.
Some have raised issues about importing “enterprise instruments” into church life, and people issues are warranted. A parish that chases corporate-style metrics will rapidly lose its bearings. If the aim turns into boosting Common Sunday Attendance for its personal sake, then the parish will probably be tempted into gimmicks. We joked at St. Francis that we might double our ASA by giving freely free iPhones on the door, however that joke carried a degree: when a measure turns into a goal, it ceases to be a very good measure.
Our rector, Fr. Clint Wilson, set a agency normal: the one correct aim for a church is faithfulness. It isn’t quantifiable, however it’s recognizable: in worship, in formation, within the form of our lives. Attendance and giving matter, since faithfulness bears fruit, however they can’t be what we optimize for. If the aim is true, the enterprise instruments of structured considering, clear governance, and considerate prioritization serve the parish, fairly than distorting it.
A coherent technique for a parish is rooted in its items, aligned with the unmet wants of the group it exists in, and is trustworthy about its limits. When a parish establishes a transparent and coherent technique, it positive aspects freedom. It not tries to be all issues to all folks. It is aware of what it’s known as to do and what it isn’t known as to do. Applications have rationale, fairly than inertia. Ministries reinforce each other, as a substitute of competing for consideration.
Strategic planning, achieved effectively, is just not the intrusion of ill-fitting company programs into the church. It’s a disciplined type of Christian discernment. It asks every parish to call its explicit items, to make actual decisions amongst many good potentialities, and to construct its widespread life round these decisions with readability. In that posture, a parish is freed to hear for what God is doing in its midst and to align its life with that decision. Technique, achieved correctly, is an act of stewardship. It’s an providing of consideration, creativeness, and hope, so the parish can reply faithfully to the work God has entrusted to it now.
Joshua White is a Visitor Author. A company technique guide advising Fortune 500 shoppers on development technique and organizational transformation, White is a member of St. Francis within the Fields, Louisville, Kentucky. He led the parish’s Technique Working Workforce and contributes to newcomer engagement. White’s spouse Barbara is affiliate rector of St. Francis’ they usually have three kids.
