Strategic Planning

I am always amazed at the many church leaders and pastors that I meet, who do not know how to strategically plan. -Strategic Planning is not something normally taught in our Bible Colleges. A few can tell me what they want for their churches right now and can tell me what will happen in their churches over the next twelve months. But, further than that, they certainly do not know where they want the church to be in 3 or 5 years time let alone 10 years time. “God will take care of that” they say.

Reinhardt Bonnke once said:

“That sometimes we sit and wait for God to move, when in fact God is waiting for us to move”

There are some church leaders who justify their lack of growth and lack of success on the point that they are simply waiting for God to move. The problem with this thinking is that when God does move, they do not have the experience, or the wherewithal to sustain the growth and retain the converts that result from this sudden move of God.

Other leaders try to plan, but don’t understand the concept or the detail required. They also find that they do not have the training or organisational skills to maintain a large healthy church. They use a “pay-as-you-go” type of leadership.

Then there are leaders who realise that they do not have the abilities to train others and develop leadership to sustain growth and continue to increase. This inadequacy can often lead to what I refer to as “paranoid leadership” because as people try to fill the gap as it were, those church leaders become suspicious as to the motives of these go-getters.

So, what is strategic planning? How do you set up a strategic plan? How do you measure a strategic plan? These questions I will leave till a later date. In the mean time let us ask ourselves what sort of leader we are and do we have the skills to strategicaly plan and move our churches forward?