224 - Strategic Leadership Learning Outcomes

The student who successfully completes this course will be able to: 1.! Explain how a vision is born. 2.! Explain the role of faith in vision casting. 3.! Explain how to go public with ones vision. 4.! Explain the power of vision.

5.! Explain the price of vision. 6.! Explain the need for perseverance. 7.! Explain the need or courage. 8.! Describe the preparation for strategic planning. 9.! Describe the process of strategic planning.

Section 11 - Preparing to Think and Act

1. A Vision Is Born 2. Praying and Planning Create summary of one of these chapters Study chapter 1 in ASP Study the introduction and chapters 1-2 in Visioneering. Subscribe to the free online Christian Vision Project Newsletter http://www.christianitytoday.com/lyris/su bscribe/ctlibrary.html

ADVANCED STRATEGIC PLANNING

By Aubrey Malphurs

ADVANCED STRATEGIC PLANNING

By Aubrey Malphurs

PART 1 PREPARE TO SAIL!

The preparation for strategic planning

Understanding how you are doing and preparing for what you are about to go through

CHAPTER 1 PREPARING THE BOAT

A PRE-LAUNCH CHECKLIST

When you get onto an airplane there are all sorts of prelaunch checks conducted - it is the same for a boat before it is launched - all the equipment must be in good working order, which in turn ensures the journey is smoother and quicker - the same principle applies to strategic planning. So this chapter consists of 11 prelaunch checks for a leader - by using these it will help you prepare for strategic planning.

Malphurs suggests that if a leader does not establish why a team is doing strategic planning, then some in a team will fail to see the need for it, which will lead to reduced eort and ineectiveness. So in order for success to be attained the 11 points need to be examined and understood.

1. UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

1. SP makes a difference Churches which are more eective use SP - the use of a plan which involves evaluation and long term planning has been shown to work in 85% of churches that moved from plateauing to growth.

1. UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

1. UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

Malphurs suggests most churches which are making a dierence have a strategic thinker with either a plan written down or well formed in their head.

2. SP addresses 3 organisational questions - identity, who are we, what is the churchs DNA? - where are we going? (mission and vision) - Ministry strategy, how will we get there?

3. SP addresses 3 affects the long-term life of the church The circumstances in which ministry is performed are constantly changing - we have to adapt and change, SP is the vehicle for this. SP helps us to navigate (using a naval analogy) dicult waters, or to set a course for a new destination.

4.SP addresses alignment issues Are the churchs vision, values, mission etc. aligned?

2. DEFINING STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic planning is the envisioning process that a point leader uses with a team of leaders on a regular basis to think and act so as to design and redesign a specic ministry model that accomplishes the Great Commission in their unique ministry context.

Process - it is not an event but is ongoing. It acts like a compass directing the course of the church according to the churchs identity (core values), direction (mission and vision) etc. An envisioning process Malphurs suggests in ASP you envision the future and then ask, How will we get there? [This will be explained more fully later on.]

Comparison of Conventional and Visionary Strategic Planning Strategic Elements Conventional Strategic Planning Learns from past sources. Tends to preserve and rearrange established categories. Visionary Strategic Planning Learns from all sources. Creates new categories.

1.Learning

2. Thinking

Synthesis - uses Analysis - breaks goals intuition and down into steps. creativity. Its very messy.

Strategic Elements 3. Questions

Conventional Strategic Planning

Visionary Strategic Planning

What was or what is? What could be? Past orientation. It works forward from the past. It is longterm & brings the past forward with it. Assumes little change will take place. Future orientation. It works backward. More short-term, tend to break with the past. Assumes much change will take place.

4. Time

5.Change

6. Future

More of the sameLittle of the same- we we can anticipate the can create the future. future.

Strategic Elements 7. Relationship

Conventional Visionary Strategic Planning Strategic Planning May impede visionary strategic planning. Centralized - stick to the plan. Less team involvement. Compromise. Long-range. Formal (by the book). May include some conventional elements. Decentralized - add to and adjust the plan. More team involvement. Consensus. Short-range. Less formal (more open).

8. Control 9. Team 10. Decision making 11. Planning 12. Process

The point leader - SP requires a captain of the ship to be in charge of day-to-day implementation and be responsible for the process. Sometimes this person will need to make decisions quickly and independently - at others they will challenge the team to contribute, inuencing but not dominating them.

The Leadership Team - this is vital (Malphurs calls them the strategic leadership team [SLT] - ministry has to be accomplished through a team - good leaders work in teams and use their wisdom and gifts - it is not a one man show. Moses, Jesus and Paul all exemplify this. Thinking and Acting needed - you have to think and dig deep into the basics of who and what you are and what the Bible says. Remember that dierent models of church and ministry wok in dierent places - then you act upon thought and the Bible!

A Specic Ministry model ASP will produce a unique ministry model - ask the right questions and you get a specic answer - regular application of the process results in continual redesign and ne tuning. Obeying Christs Great Commission - what does Christ want for his church - Matt 28:18-20, 1 Cor 10:31 etc.

The churchs unique ministry context - ministry is contextual do not copy or mimic other peoples good ideas, learn from them but you do not open a franchise of MacChurch

3. OBSERVING TWO ADDITIONAL ASPECTS OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

Biblical - Malphurs stresses that SP is a biblical idea. Moses (esp. along with Jethro) was strategic, Joshua strategised in taking the PL, the Gt. Comm is followed by Acts 1:8 and then the missionary journeys. Not Operational Planning - OP addresses what a church should be doing (mission and vision) - this is included in (as a part of) SP.

4. UNDERSTANDING THE NEED FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

Malphurs suggests the typical (American) church is like a ship without a compass, drifting without any sense of navigational plan - a conclusion based on his own research observations. He concluded that there was a need to put together mission, vision, core values and strategy - which is where this book comes in.

His research suggested that less than 20% of churches pursued strategic planning - the result is (generally) stagnation. He suggests also that his SP needs to be deeply theologically based - and so precludes using the worlds techniques. He also says that good SP is based on an envisioning process which asks why questions of the church and its direction. In this way it does not just plan but dreams Gods dreams.

5. ADDRESSING THE PURPOSE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

What is the benet of SP, what good will it do for your church? Malphurs gives 26 reasons! I shall not give the full text for these but if you want to read more you can nd it here: http://
southwestregion.adventistchurchconnect.org/ article/136/conference-administration/ executive-subcommittees/strategic-planningcommittee/the-26-purposes-for-strategicplanning

1. To discover the organization's strengths, limitations, and weaknesses. 2. To build on its strengths and minimize its weaknesses. 3. To facilitate organizational communication and build the organization's trust. 4. To understand and implement spiritually healthy, Christ-honoring change. 5. To get our peopleleadership team and congregationon the same page. 6. To encourage and promote spiritual revival.

To discover and articulate your ministrys core values. 1.To develop and communicate your God-given mission. 2.To develop and articulate an inspiring, compelling vision. 3.To understand and relate more effectively to the community. 4.To develop a disciple-making process for the entire church. 5.To assess, recruit, and develop a strong staff team.

To mobilize the congregationto serve and do the work of the ministry. 13.To make wise decisions about the facilities and their location. 14.To inventory and assess current giving. 15.To explore new streams of giving to increase current income. 16.To design a stewardship strategy to help people be good stewards of their nances. 17.To analyze and evaluate theorganization's budget, looking for ways to best handlethe nances. 18.To raise additional funds and to direct capital funding projects. 19.To know how to implement the entire strategic plan.

To regularly evaluate and improve the organization's ministries. 21.To discover the ways God is blessingorganizations across America and abroad and why. 22.To know and work with the latest technology (Internet, website, and other). 23.To empower the governing board and pastor to lead with excellence. 24.To build a lay and staff leadership development process. 25.To develop a marketing strategy that will best position thechurch in the community to glorify God.

6. DETERMINING THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN SP

Malphurs suggests 25-30 people in an ASP process - less if the church is small - why? - people occasionally have to miss meetings - a broad spectrum of opinions is required - larger means less chance of extreme groups swaying the process

6. DETERMINING THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN SP

There might also be times when you involve the whole church in part of the process e.g. When talking about giving

7. CONSIDERING THE TIME FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

Time commitment and cost are important considerations in SP. Initial process - 9-12 months, meeting every 3-4 weeks - suggested Friday night 6-9pm and Saturday 8am-12 noon. Meeting 1 - chapters 1, 2, 3 #2 - chapters 3, 4 #3 - chapters 5, 6 #4 - chapter 8

#5 - chapter 9 #6 - chapter 10 #7 - chapter 11, 12 #8 - chapter 13, 14 Other meetings can cover specic areas which are important to the church / group, implementation then takes place - the church then continues this process for the rest of their life on a less regular basis.

8. WEIGHING THE COST OF STRATEGIC PLANNING

- the cost for the people drafting the initial work - these might already be on sta. - if you meet outside of the church then the cost of hiring a hall etc. - the cost of a consultant to help you through the process ( common in the USA: $500-1000/day - research for the community phase and environmental analysis

9. DECIDING ON THE LOCATION FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

Whatever place is used it has to allow for the best thought process and action: - church facility - whiteboard, tables, internet access, video facility, wall space - other locations where there might be reduced chance of disturbances

10. USING CREATIVE TOOLS FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

Functional tools - see previous section 9 Process tools: - brainstorming - Storyboarding, most used by Malphurs, Scale of 1 to 10 - on a specic issue

Do you have to have full agreement (unanimity) for a decision to be made? Compromise suggests we all give a little for the sake of the bigger picture - often people are left feeling unhappy. In consensus people approach the decision with the attitude that they will try to support the decision of the team, even if they disagree with it - because they eel it has had a fair hearing.

Within this people can agree to disagree without disturbing others as they feel they have had a fair hearing for their point of view. This is not the same as majority rule - taking a vote on every thing! The problem with majority rule is that most churches have more immature than mature believers - thus the spiritually immature can control the direction (or lack) of the church.

Consensus diers from majority in the people involved - spiritually mature people are involved Malphurs argues this can save you countless hours of fruitless discussion.

11. USING AN OUTSIDE CONSULTANT FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

Malphurs suggests this is the wise action (if at all possible.) Someone who has been through the process and knows the possible areas of diculty or sticking points - they will guide the church. As he would be an outsider there is no problem of church politics being involved - objectivity.

11. USING AN OUTSIDE CONSULTANT FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

Malphurs suggests this is the He also gives extra credibility wise action (if at all possible.) to the process. Someone who has been through The major problem here is the the process and knows the cost. possible areas of diculty or A full paper on this issue can sticking points - they will guide be found here: the church. http:// As he would be an outsider there www.malphursgroup.com/ is no problem of church politics images/PDFs/FiveReasons.pdf being involved - objectivity.

11. USING AN OUTSIDE CONSULTANT FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING

He also gives extra credibility to the process. The major problem here is the cost. A full paper on this issue can be found here: http:// www.malphursgroup.com/ images/PDFs/FiveReasons.pdf

THE COMMITMENT TO STRATEGIC PLANNING

The church must commit to the process - meaningful action ows out of commitment. Will people give it full energy and make it a high priority? The pastor must commit to the church - he needs to provide an example of being committed and seeing the value of the process.

PRE-PLANNING CHECKLIST
Score the following 1 =strongly against, 10= strongly for 5, 6 = not sure. 1. Is your church ready for SP? 2. Is this ministry willing to take the necessary time to do SP? 3. Is the church willing to spend the funds necessary to think and act strategically?

4. Is the organisation willing to meet in the best possible place to accomplish its planning? 5. Which of the strategic thinking process tools will you use, which wont you - why? 6. Do you believe it would be wise to hire a consultant? Why, why not? Is lack of money a good reason for not using one? 7. If you are going to start the SP process what commitment will you make to it? What will you set aside to achieve success?