Strategy

On our lounge table there sits a chess board.  But I seldom take out the chess pieces out of their drawers.   Why?  Because I have not yet mastered strategy in chess.   I am told that great chess players can glance at a position and quickly assess which side is winning.  Not only that, but they can also determine the best moves and ideas for each side.   Chess strategy is the purposeful attempt to gain an advantage over your opponent.   Chess is more than just having the right tactics to take shots at your opponent's chess pieces.   As the renowned Chinese general Sun Tzu (d. 496 B.C.) said, "Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."  And you do not want to go down to defeat in the game of chess.   That is why great chess players understand the importance of having a strategy.

Great church leaders also understand the importance of strategy in churches.  And the stakes are higher for churches.  In chess you might stand to lose your pawns, your queen, and in the end your king is trapped.   But you have only lost a game.  But for churches a poor strategy impacts the effectiveness of reaching the lost, maturing believers, and multiplying leaders.  Ultimately a poor strategy will impede churches living out the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20): the making of disciples, the gathering in of the lost, and being "rooted and built up in Christ, strengthened in the faith." (Colossians 2:7)

While I do not know a lot about strategy in chess, I do know a thing or two about strategy in the local church.  In my denominational role I am consulted by scores of churches to help them develop a strategy for their church.   A strategy is the process that determines how your ministry will accomplish its mission and vision.  The mission and vision of the church answers the ‘what’ questions:  What are we supposed to be doing?  What kind of church would God have us be?  Strategic planning is the process churches of all sizes use to turn their God-inspired visions into realities.  In a sense, it is the recipe for effectiveness. 

So how do you get from where your church is to where you believe God wants it to go?   Between where you are now as a church and where you need to go is a performance gap.  Strategic planning bridges the gap between the church you are today and what God wants your church to become.  It also lays the foundation for your church to develop a unique life and personality of its own.  You create a strategic operating plan for the same reason you take a map along on a trip to an unfamiliar destination. You need direction. Think of your strategic plan as a road map you develop based on your God-given goals, the capabilities of your church, and potential obstacles you face.

Having a strategy will also help you create a church environment that brings out the best in your ministry leaders and teams because everyone knows how they are contributing to the accomplishment of the plan.  By creating a strategic plan everyone in your church will understand:

• • • What areas are critical for the church to focus on right now
    • What overarching objectives God has given to the whole church.
    • What goals everyone can participate in to fulfill those objectives.
    • What each ministry area will do to help achieve those goals.

While mission and vision answer the ‘what’ questions  the strategy answers the ‘how’ questions – how to do what we are supposed to do. Strategic planning is about asking God, “What do you want us to do so that your direction might be fulfilled in us?” You need to understand where you believe God is calling your church to go and then being very intentional about being and doing what He has called you to.

Developing a strategy for the local church involves five steps:

1.  Define your current Critical Success Factors—What are the few strategic areas on which it is critical to focus at this stage in order to accomplish your mission and  vision?

2. Determine your Measurements—How will you measure progress in each of the critical success factors you have defined?

3. Identify your Church-Wide Objectives — Based on how you’ve determined how you will measure progress, what is one far-reaching church-wide initiative that will insure progress in each critical area?

4.  Identify your Shared Goals – Once you have determined your church-wide objectives, each objective needs to be broken down into a specific shared goal in which everyone in your church could potentially participate to help reach that objective. 

5. Develop Ministry Area Plans - What specific plans can each ministry leader and team implement in order to contribute to the accomplishment of the shared goals of the church?

If you like to discover more how to develop a strategy for your church I encourage you to go to the strategy development tool on the Ministry Formation website:  Strategy Planning and Implementation.    Here you find five training videos and implementation tasks that will guide you through the strategy development process. 

One day I will ask a great chess player to teach me the strategy of chess.   Then our chess pieces might find a permanent place on the chess board.  If you want  to learn more about how to help your church become effective in ministry, then This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..   You will discover the importance of having a strategy.