Dan Smith & Mary K. Hucyke: CourageousSpace Newsletter: April 2006

Strategic Planning that Works

Strategic planning. Say the phrase and hear the groans. Tucked away on a dark shelf in almost every church is at least one mission statement and strategic plan that was the fruit of a well-intentioned planning retreat. (One pastor we know can lay his hands on three.) People gather with the best of intentions, create a cogent and compelling document, and then go back to doing business as usual.

New activities are initiated not in service to moving towards a commonly held vision for the future, but in response to the latest crisis or great idea. Separate groups within the church continue to compete for the financial and human resources to serve their separate agendas. The discipline of saying “no” to what no longer serves health and vitality is avoided – as well as saying “yes” to scary new challenges.

Strategic plans that will guide the decisions and align the deployment of a congregation's resources not only sound like a good idea, they ARE a good idea. But strategic planning too often identifies what a congregation would like for themselves to want to do rather than what they are truly committed to doing. The plan comes from their minds but not their hearts.

Effective strategic planning engages the hearts and souls of people as well as their minds. One way to ensure that happens is to be aware of the different levels of reality that must be addressed in such processes. "Levels of reality," you say? "Yep", we answer, 'levels of reality."

Life is lived and experienced on three levels. The most surface level is that of consensus reality - the nuts and bolts of daily life. This is the level that task-oriented people are most at home in: paying bills and working with the budget, putting together a church dinner, fixing the faucets, coordinating Sunday School.

The level below that is the level of our dreaming - our hopes and fears, what we long for and what we fear, our attitudes, assumptions, and perspectives. Our dreamings (good and bad) shape and color how we approach and carry out the nuts and bolts work of life. Our dreamings tell us what is possible or not possible, propelling us down a path or convincing us something isn't worth our time and effort. Imagining what the future could be like is dreaming level work.

Below both the levels of consensus reality and of dreaming is the level of essence . Hard to put into words, this is the level of reality that transcends words. It's the level of reality you're in touch with when you get goose bumps in a holy moment, or when you lock eyes with that certain someone and feel that "zing”. It's neither action nor attitude; it's the essential chemistry that runs beneath it all. When people are moved to that holy place where there are no words…that's essence. The level of essence is where we are in touch with Spirit. Connecting with the reality that exists at the level of essence produces dreams that reflect more of God's desires for us and our world rather than our passing wish list.

Ask someone who has had a good experience with the beginnings of a new church start about the early days of that church. It's like listening to someone talk about how they fell in love. Their eyes grow bright, their energy increases, and they use words like "magic" and "Spirit" and phrases like, "it's really hard to describe". You're watching that person speak from the level of essence. It is quite moving both to witness and to experience. Essence reminds us who we are and what we are about and infuses us with the energy of God's Spirit.

Each level serves in a different way. Essence connects us with what is deep and true and of God. Dreaming begins to shape, through our own hopes and fears, the form that essence level reality will take in the concrete, consensus-reality world. Consensus reality is what is created from our dreamings, helping or hindering the manifesting of essence level reality. All levels serve and too much of any level at the expense of the others detracts. When congregational life is lived too much at the level of consensus reality, life together feels dry and difficult. When a congregation lives most of its life together at the dreaming level, they dream big dreams and form elaborate plans, and never DO anything. A congregation may even live most of its life at the essence level – settling for experiencing holy and ecstatic moments without seeing themselves and giving themselves to be conduits of that love for the sake of the transformation of others and then world.

It's common for strategic planning processes to begin at the level of consensus reality, dip down a bit into dreaming and move quickly back to consensus reality. People's dreams then come from what they've seen or heard about, rather than from the deeper reaches of what God might be dreaming for them. The energy generated dissipates quickly, for the outcomes, while making sense to their minds, are not resident in their hearts and souls and so do not generate the required commitment.

Strategic planning that works, that has a lasting effect, addresses all three levels of reality and starts with essence. Successful planning begins with anchoring people in a renewed understanding of who they really are, an understanding of the deep and holy foundations of their life together. Grounded in essence level reality, people then begin to dream, begin to get initial pictures of what life in a world that honored their essence would begin to look like. And, grounded in those dreams, people begin to develop specific ways those dreams can become realities. The specifics, the nuts and bolts of consensus reality, are important. They bring into existence the fruit of God's Spirit and our dreams. They capture the hearts, minds, and energies of people, but only as they are grounded in and emerge out of deeper dreams and, even more deeply, essence.

The goal of strategic planning is to move people into committed missional action. To that end, most strategic planning processes address four components: mission, values, vision, and goals. Each component, when effectively addressed, allows people to connect with and experience the three levels of reality (essence, dreaming, consensus reality) on which life is lived. The statements and goals resulting from strategic planning serve the on-going vitality of the congregation far after the completion of the planning process. They reconnect the congregation and its ministry teams with their understanding of God's calling and their commitment to follow (and if they are not serving in that way, it is time to revisit them).

• MISSION : What is the basic and fundamental reason for our church's existence and the ultimate purpose of its work? What does everything rest on and flow from? What is our “stake in the ground”? The mission provides the most basic check for all decisions, "Does this action support the mission?" A mission is only useful to the extent that a congreation bases its decisions and aligns its human and financial resources to achieve it. It has power only to the extent that it connects a congregation with God's calling as experienced on the level of essence.

• VALUES IDENTIFICATION/CLARIFICATION: What are the qualities we will embody both in the results we work for and in how we work together for those results? What qualities make must be lived out in order for our life and work together to be fulfilling and authentic? Values describe what we most fervently believe in and wish for…and will hold ourselves accountable to. Values shape how we live out the mission. Shaping the dreams and visions of the organization, effective values work takes place in that area between essence and dreaming.

• VISION: What are the desired results of living out our mission and values in our particular setting at this particular time in history? A vision is a compelling picture of the different future you are committed to creating. To be helpful in planning and guiding decision making, the vision will point to 3-7 areas and paint a picture of the different future in those areas. Examples from one church include: children who are nurtured and growing in Christian discipleship; a physical plant that facilitates ministry; music ministry that connects people with God. Visioning takes place on the level of dreaming.

• GOALS: What are the benchmarks we will set for each area in our vision in order to measure our progress toward the future we're trying to create? What are the measurable results that will inform us about our progress? Goals provide the short-term "stepping-stones" that lead and encourage a church towards its long term visions. Goals move hopes and dreams into the realm of consensus reality.

People tend to have one level they are more comfortable and at home in. Some people are all about consensus reality and getting things done; visioning work makes them crazy. Others get excited about visioning, but drift away when it comes down to deciding the nuts and bolts of how to do something and doing it. This is natural. Each part of a strategic planning process will enliven some and bore others, but each part is necessary for the healthy working of the whole.

Strategic planning that combines the levels of reality and carefully addresses all the planning components is crucial for the health and vitality of a congregation. It addresses head and heart, aligns the various departments and programs of a church and sets them moving toward a common goal. The synergy it creates allows people to accomplish more than they ever thought possible. Strategic planning provides the compass that keeps a congregation on course through whatever "weather" it encounters.

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