Glass chess pieces, seen at eye level on a chess board from the vantage point of the king. Used with permission.
- A Theology of Strategy Development
- A Kingdom Perspective: Strategic Planning for Christian Ministries
- Divine Leadership: Strategic Planning and the Holy Spirit
- Faith and Risk: Strategic Planning That Will Amaze Jesus!
- Strategic Statements and Christian Ministries
- Developing Values, Mission, & Vision for Christian Ministries
- Converting Mission & Vision into an End Statement
- Value Propositions for Ministries
- Planning for the Unpredictable
- Checking for Blind Spots
- Corporate History – Resource or Constraint?
- How Far Out Is Your Planning Horizon?
- The Untapped Power of Your “Mission” Statement
- How to Release Your Mission Statement’s Power
- Theory of Change: A Step-By-Step Guide to Developing a Customized Plan For Your Ministry
- Strategy Maps Adapted for Charities
- The Measure of Our Success
- What to Do with Hard-to-Measure Mission Statements
Building on the theology of strategy development described in another post, a key question ministry leaders need to wrestle with when they begin a strategic planning process is: What sets the strategic limitations for our ministry – our circumstances or our mission? The deeper question is, Which perspective are we using to shape our plans: a solely human perspective or a kingdom perspective supported by human wisdom?
- If the strategic limitation is our circumstances, then the environmental scan (particularly the SWOT analysis) will be done very early in the process and will set the parameters for what will and will not be considered for inclusion in the strategic plan. Since our focus is first and foremost on the possibilities that are open and closed to our ministry, we could easily accept limitations that God might want us to challenge and overcome (with his help).
- If the strategic limitation is our mission, then we are constrained only by what the mission requires for it to be fulfilled. We will start by exploring our mission and developing plans to achieve it by doing whatever is necessary. Our focus will be first and foremost on our mission. If there are obstacles, they will be obstacles to overcome rather than obstacles to accept as insurmountable blockages. Knowing that God supports our mission, we will make obstacles a matter of prayer with the confidence that God is not limited by circumstances, weaknesses, or threats. I call this a mission-first mindset.
A kingdom perspective on strategy development supported by human wisdom acknowledges that while we live in a world with realities we must take into account, there are far stronger spiritual realities that help us as members of the kingdom of God. We must approach our work in this world with ‘kingdom eyesight’, such as Elisha’s servant experienced when Elisha said to him:
“Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Kings 6:16-17
A Suggested Strategic Planning Process for Christian Ministries
While there is room for multiple ways to do strategic planning from a biblical-theological perspective, here are the steps of one faith-friendly approach:
- A group discernment process to be clear on what people understand God’s call to a ministry is. The output will be a set of strategic statements.
- A theory of change to make explicit what your ministry believes about how the mission can be accomplished. For example, sociologists have studied how people change their worldview and religion. Evangelism ministries will want to know about this. Others have studied how people escape poverty. Inner city ministries will find lots of good program ideas in this research. The goal of developing a theory of change is to understand the factors that must be considered for your ministry to be able to make the changes it wants to make.
- A theory of change is also a specific form of a logic model that “connects the dots” and shows how and why your ministry’s activities (its programs) will ultimately result in fulfilling the ministry’s mission. The initiatives column in the theory of change will be the broad strategic initiatives that will lead to mission progress (and maybe even mission fulfillment).
- Development of the strategic initiatives leads naturally into determining the programs that will best fulfill a strategic initiative, and from there the annual action plan converts intentions into actions. There are some good faith-friendly strategic planning tools that are helpful in this part of strategy development.
- Check that you have a business model that will deliver on your plans. This includes organizational structure, revenue model, and other operational aspects of making mission activity happen.
Where do the traditional planning tools fit in? They can play an important but secondary role throughout the planning process. Think of them as “filling in and rounding out.”
- The environmental scan (also called a landscape scan) is helpful to more fully understand the mission and to ensure that the theory of change is comprehensive, so it should be done as a step in developing the theory of change. The scan can also help with the development of the strategic initiatives. The scan may indicate the tasks of fulfilling the mission will be more or less difficult, but it shouldn’t deter anyone from doing what must be done to fulfil their mission. The environmental scan will likely surface a list of things to ask God for his help. Doing the environmental scan ahead of or during the early stages of the strategy development process is helpful as it provides the context in which your ministry is working.
- The SWOT analysis should be done in stages:
- Opportunities are best considered after the mission-related strategic initiatives have been identified. The initiatives are based on what the mission requires and the opportunities show where the ministry can leverage the fruit of its work within those initiatives in terms of programs or advocacy.
- The SW part (Strengths/Weaknesses) is useful when you are checking organizational readiness to implement your strategic plan, so they are best considered once the detailed mission-related tactics (e.g., programs) have been identified. This way, there is a context in which to decide what is a strength and what is a weakness. For example, is being tall a strength or a weakness? It depends on whether a person is playing basketball or riding a race horse. However, don’t allow a weakness to stop you! New strategies will always involve areas of weakness precisely because they are new.
- Threats are particularly important as matters of prayer. We should be wise about threats (as Paul was in Damascus) 2 but the mission continues, just as Paul continued his mission after being stoned and left for dead in Lystra 3
But remember, God works through our weaknesses and God is our defender, so weaknesses and threats should not be deterrents! I admire Paul’s pluck; he got up and marched right back into the city (Lystra) that had just thrown him out, stoned him, and left him for dead. Wow!
Be Wise
To repeat what I’ve written elsewhere, Jesus commended people who used their brains and the best of human wisdom (for example, the unrighteous steward in Luke 16) and he challenged his followers to do for him what they would do for themselves (eg., think ahead and count the cost before following him just as they would when building a tower or going to war – Luke 14:27-33), so we shouldn’t be derelict and switch off our minds when planning for our ministries.
But if you reduce your plans to what you think you can do with human wisdom and strength, you’ve left no room for God to do what only he can do, and I suspect that when you can do it yourself, God lets you do it yourself! But if you want to partner with God, then make a plan big enough that God has room to manoeuvre and do his thing.
- Matthew 25:11. ↩
- Acts 9:23-24. ↩
- Acts 14:19-20. ↩
