Strategic Planning, Goal Setting & Leading ChangeVA ConferenceMid-size Congregations November 1, 2012

Clarity and Purpose as Central to Vitality

CTA: adaptive question = to redirect resources of attention, leadership, and money to make more vital congregations.

Facts on Growth, 2010 Kirk Hadaway, Hartford Institute for Religion Research

One of the consistent markers of a vital congregation and a variable that correlates directly with congregational growth is a purposefulness of the congregation’s ministry and the clarity of its identity.

Clarity of Purpose & Identity

Clarity of purpose and identity in a mid-size congregation =

Making decisions

Making choices

Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandebaum, That Used to Be Us Leadership in our lives has shifted from

directing resources to apportioning sacrifice.

Three Types of Planning

1. PROBLEM PLANNING: short term planning with a goal of returning to the way things were before the problem

2. DEVELOPMENTAL PLANNING: “long-range planning” that asks the questions – “What’s next?”, “What do we do now?” (Assuming that what we are doing now is faithful and appropriate.)

3. FRAME-BENDING PLANNING: “strategic planning” that asks the essential formation questions of “Who are we now?”, “What does God call us to do now?”, and “Who is our neighbor now?”

Today will focus on #3

Frame- Bending Planning (For which you will need:)1. A Mission Statement2. Outcomes (3-5 years)3. Values / Touchstones for decision

making4. A Bold Story

The Essential Question

WHO

IS

YOUR

CLIENT?

#1 – A MISSION STATEMENT

A STATEMENT OF IDENTITY AND PURPOSE

Who are we now?

What does God call us to do now?

SHORT AND MEMORABLE (REPEATABLE)

THE CENTER OF A BOLD STORY

#2- THE MORE CRITICAL ISSUE OF OUTCOMES

The UMC’s Long Journey from Membership to

Discipleship

The Present Reality

The Preferred

Future

The Unsustain-able Future

The Ultimate Gap

Present

Making Disciples

Future

Unsustainable

The Need for Proximate Outcomes

Making Disciples

Proximate Outcomes

THE PROXIMATE OUTCOME QUESTION:

Making Disciples

“What does God call us to make different (in our congregation; in our community) within the next

3 to 5 years?

Proximate Outcomes

Resources, Activities and Outcomes

The Non-Profit Outcome Dilemma

Inputs ThroughputsOutputs

Resources Activities (Outcomes: what is to be different.)

Process vs. Outcomes

PROCESS FOCUSED OUTCOME FOCUSED

What does your congregation do?

What is your congregation called to accomplish?

What kinds of programs or activities do you offer?

How will people (or your community) be different because they are a part of your congregation’s ministry?

How many people are involved in your programs and activities?

For the coming year, what level of results would make the year a success?

#3 –

VALUES / TOUCHSTONES FOR

DECISION

MAKING

BACK TO: Clarity of purpose and identity in a mid-size congregation =

Making decisions

Making choices

HOW WILL YOU DECIDE WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT?

HOW WILL YOU STAY ON TRACK WITH COMPETING DEMANDS?

ARKANSAS: An ExampleWe shall embrace deep change that empowers us to

make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world by:

Rooting all we do in our understanding of scripture, personal and social holiness (the foundational principles of United Methodism), so that we revitalize our connection and our ministry instead of being connected by our apportionments, appointments and benefits.

Establishing the mission field as the primary place for our attention and resources instead of directing most of our attention and resources to the institutional needs of congregations and clergy.

 

ARKANSAS: Continued

 Equipping laity and clergy for shared outcomes of transformation with excellence instead of directing resources toward congregational preservation and satisfaction of current members.

 

Organizing our ministry around the unique geographic, cultural, demographic, and ethnic contexts in the identified mission fields instead of treating every church, district and conference structure the same.

Monitoring our Decisions

To what extent did we, in the past three months, make decisions that:

1. Revitalized our Manage our Connection apportionments,

appointments and benefits

1___2____3____4____5____6____7____8____9____10

2. Focus on the Address the institutional

Mission Field needs of churches and clergy

1___2____3____4____5____6____7____8____9____10

#4 – A BOLD STORY

A Primary Task of a Leader is to Give the People a Better Story to Live:

The attractiveness of safe and weak storiesPeople live into the stories that they tell about themselves

Who does the planning?

A small group of people who actually have the skills of adaptive thinking and spiritual discernment.

Choosing a conversation team

The need for listening above representation.

Inviting people to balcony work.

Working appreciatively – from strength and sufficiency, not from problems and lack of resources.

Leading in Change

#6 – Non-Synoptic Planning:

Complexity and Conflict

Problem Solving Normative Strategic Planning

Adjudication

Non-Synoptic Planning