How to Execute a Strategic Plan at Your Church – Crafting the Plan

Too many leaders attempt strategic planning without fully considering their past and present circumstances.

As I’ve said in the past several posts, the better (and more honestly) we evaluate who we are and where we are, the better we’ll be able to define a strategy that moves us to where we want to be.

In this NEW POST, we move along from Defining Reality and Position” to step two: Develop a strategy

If you need to better understand strategic planning, I hope these articles help.

How to Execute a Strategic Plan at Your Church – Where Are We, Really?

If you want to execute an actionable strategic plan, you need a practical process. 

Effective strategic plans do not just present where you want to go – they begin with a complete understanding of where you are. And who you are.

That’s the goal of the first segment of strategic planning. And it ends with a reality check.

In this NEW POST, we’ll finish out the “Determine position and reality” portion of our strategic plan.

How to Execute a Strategic Plan at Your Church – The One Unifying Question?

All actionable and pragmatic strategic plans follow a similar process:

1. Determine position and reality
2. Develop a strategy
3. Design the tactics
4. Measure the progress

Part of the first step is to ask the ONE that defines our strategic true north while creating unity within the organization.

In this post, I give you that ONE KEY QUESTION.

How to Execute a Strategic Plan at Your Church – Differentiation

Have you ever heard or used the term “Points of Differentiation?”

Differentiation is what makes you, you. Differentiation is essential to your brand, product mix, and market positioning. It’s also part of your culture.

When you are working on a strategic plan, determining your position and reality requires you defining your differentiation.

You don’t want to lose it when you plan for the future. The opposite, in fact – you want to leverage it!

How do you define your points of differentiation? In this NEW POST, I give you 8 questions to get your started.

How to Execute a Strategic Plan at Your Church – Defining Success

Success will be accidental and unreadable if you don’t have a strategic plan.

This is beyond your mission and vision statements. Well beyond!

The strategy is how the mission and vision come to fruition.

All great strategies are built strategically in this order:
1. Determine position, reality, and success
2. Develop a strategy
3. Design the tactics
4. Measure the progress

In this NEW POST: I give you some crucial tactics to determine success.

Follow along for the rest of the conversation as we outline the full strategic planning process.

Why Adding “For Now” Will Keep You Relevant Forever

If you’re a leader of any kind, you have a strategy or plan.

I’ve got bad news: It’s dated.

Strategies are made for moments, but moments never remain unchanged.

I wish I understood this earlier in my leadership journey.

If you have 6 minutes, give this NEW POST a read.

I think adding two words to your strategy might be the solution to bringing a renewed flexibility to your current approach.

6 Questions to Determine if Your Strategy is Old or Obsolete

KEY QUESTION for this NEW POST: How do you know if the changes surrounding your organization dictate a strategy change in your organization?

At times, it’s easy to spot. A global pandemic is an easy example. Every strategy became immediately obsolete in March 2020.

But most community evolutions are subtle, making it much more difficult to decipher between an old model and an obsolete strategy.

As an organizational leadership coach, I could sit down with you to help determine if your model is in need of a makeover. But, since we aren’t together right now, in this NEW POST I’m giving you 6 key questions I would ask you and your team.

Of course, if you want to sit down, just reach out…

7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church

Some of you are on the verge of destroying the future of your church.

I realize that sounds like one of those silly, bold statements people make to get your attention. Perhaps it is. Possibly restarting the ministry of your past is exactly what your community needs today.

I doubt it.

I’m skeptical because:

1. The pandemic changed things in our world and our communities. 
2. Much of what we were doing in 2019 wasn’t working in 2019. 

The fastest way to destroy a church is to build a ministry on an outdated model. And that’s what too many church leaders are doing today. Taking old methods and deploying them in this new time.

The reason: We remember our 2019 ministry models with rose-colored glasses. It’s human nature to romanticize the past, but in the case of church leadership, attempting to implement a ministry model that wasn’t working in 2019 in 2021 is a death wish.

In this NEW POST, I give leaders 7 Key Questions to Avoid Romanticizing the 2019 Church.

Answering these questions will help you more accurately remember the past while making decisions in your present.

The Four States of Transition Management

Leaders often mistake change and transition. They are not the same. In this post, I discuss the difference between the two and provide insight into managing the emotional and psychological transitions experienced by the people involved in the change.

Filling Seats on Your Bus

If you lead any type of organization — company, church, or department — you probably have an organizational chart of some sort. It’s one of those necessary structures that help delineate chain of command and channels of communication, among others.

When I first began leading a church (a typical organization in many ways), I was encouraged to envision the org chart 5 – 10 years down the road. What departments would be necessary? What divisions? How many layers? How many staff? I even went as far as putting my name in most of the “open” positions in this hypothetical org chart. Visually, it looked impressive and strategic. Personally, it just looked like I had too much to do!

I think this is a valuable exercise for every leader. If you’ve never done it, you should. But a few years into leading at Woodstock City Church, this exercise created quite the conundrum.

Here’s the dilemma I began to ponder: Is it better to start with the org chart in place so you can then find the right people for each box, or is it better to find the right people and build the organization around them?

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