Unit 1. Mission-Centered Planning Principles: Tools for Leadership 

Axioms and mottoes regarding leadership abound in all the literature. The same is true of planning. Most leaders in any organization have a plan in mind, but it may not be written down. If you were to ask the average leader how important a master plan is, he/she normally would answer, “Very important!” If you ask what is included in a master plan, one might answer, “I don’t know.”

Planning, simply described, means nothing more or less than predetermining a course of action. Every leader must understand what has to be done and figure out a way to do it, in light of what he/she knows about the future. Remember, a goal needs a plan to make it work. Therefore, everyone in a leadership position is required to do planning, whether or not one understands how to do it.

The overarching purpose of this study is to provide the Christian leader with the knowledge and skills needed to plan for the church’s present and future ministry. Respond to these attributes and benefits of good church planning based on mission:

• Mission-centered planning begins with God. The first question a mission-centered leader asks when leading a church in planning is: “What does God want this church to be and do?” All church planning begins with sincere prayer seeking God’s divine leadership. Otherwise, planning becomes cold, calculating, and mechanical. Though its members are reconciled, redeemed people who through
  faith in Christ have been “put right” with God, they are still imperfect creatures, needing “the mind of Christ.” God gives His wisdom to those who seek it and who through faith trust His revelation. Good church planning begins and proceeds from the heart of God. Based on biblical principles, it can lead to revival and renewal. Planning can easily become a human endeavor. To avoid that kind of costly mistake, good church planning keeps asking the questions: “What does God desire?” “‘What is God’s will for this church?” “‘What would God have us to be and to do?”
• Mission-centered planning generates a unifying mission statement. (See Section I) The church must never lose sight of what it is trying to achieve, although from time to time it may change its method of approach. A bedrock statement of purpose and intent becomes a guiding light for showing the way to proceed. The church should stay focused on what it is trying to be. Good planning generates a commonly agreed upon and understood statement of purpose. It contains the essential values the church seeks to embody and the basic reason for all its ministries and activities. It becomes the “great arbiter.” Every program, activity, ministry, etc. should be weighed heavily against that statement. If the given activity does not contribute, then it should be discarded or never attempted.
• Mission-centered planning encourages innovative thought and creativity. A good church planning process should provide ways of stimulating and capturing the innovative thought of church leaders and members. It seeks to encourage spirit- led creativity in ministry and channel it to a common purpose. It will provide avenues for individual participation and will elicit broad input from church members. It will generate many ideas about the church, its mission, its community and global environment, and hone these into stated ministry priorities. Above all, it encourages an atmosphere of frankness and constructive criticism, and will stimulate church leaders to attempt great things for God. It results in the whole people of God doing the work of the Kingdom as it finds expression in a local church setting.
• Mission-centered planning improves the ability to cope with change. A feature of contemporary church life is the amount of change that ministers and lay leaders must confront. Perhaps the greater challenge is not the extent of change, but the rapidity with which it occurs. Planning cannot prevent change from happening–in fact, it does not seek to do this. It can, however, help church leaders have greater awareness of the incidence of change, build this into church plans, and give the church a greater chance of maximizing the opportunities (and avoiding the threats) that change brings.
• Mission-centered planning results in higher motivation. To achieve God-sized results, individual church members have to find spiritual motivation. Good church planning motivates because it defines and makes known what the church, under the Lordship of Christ, is trying to achieve: “What are the Lord’s plans for us so we can adjust our goals?” This provides the church with a common purpose. It is so easy for individual members to get lost in the shuffle and busyness of church life, thereby losing sight of the church’s ultimate mission. The more people understand the mission and measure individual and church action by that mission, the more they are personally motivated to be involved in the church’s ministries. A thoughtful, prophetic leader will guide in developing a vision statement that gives popular expression to the mission and see to it that the entire congregation can accept it and believe in it.
• Mission-centered planning results in coordination of church activities. In most churches there are a variety of ministry activities which vie for time and resources. Good planning results in better coordination, which leads to higher motivation. The church is a covenant community and is made up of many body parts. Each part of church life should have an awareness of what is going on in other ministries of the church and be required to work closely with other ministries which are influenced by or have a bearing on its results. Good church plans are integrated, flexible, and coordinated. In most churches there are a variety of ministry activities which vie for time and resources. Good planning results in better coordination, which leads to higher motivation. The church is a covenant community and is made up of many body parts. Each part of church life should have an awareness of what is going on in other ministries of the church and be required to work closely with other ministries which are influenced by or have a bearing on its results. Good church plans are integrated, flexible, and coordinated.
• Mission-centered planning results in good decision-making. God ordained that His work would be carried out through the church. He chose to entrust the church to struggle in prayer and faith with carrying out His work. Struggling together to determine the best or alternative course of action sharpens decision-making skills. When decisions are made not in a vacuum but in community, there develops a growing sense of covenantal relationship.
• Mission-centered planning encourages the exercise of faith. Scripture is replete with descriptions of those persons who attempt to be all they can be by trusting in themselves, and those who attempt by faith to become what God leads them to be. Hebrews 11 is called the “roll call of the faithful,” and it is inspiring to contemplate the risks that these ordinary men and women exercised in order to be obedient to God.Without question, the size of your goal reflects the size of your God. One’s concept of God determines what is asked for and what is received. God is always able to do more than we could possibly think or request, and He has purposed that if we ask in prayer believing, “it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).

  No thing great or small is ever accomplished apart from the exercise of faith. Planning is not an attempt to eliminate risks, but requires that risk-taking decisions be hammered out on the anvil of faith.

• Mission-centered planning brings the future into present decisions. No one can know for certain what tomorrow may bring. The only decisions we can make are present ones. However, by utilizing forecasting and strategic decision-making tools, one can anticipate and create a desired future by the kind of present decisions one makes. So the good planner is always thinking of what to do today in order to be ready for tomorrow’s opportunities.
• Mission-centered planning fixes responsibility and accountability. A good plan tells who is responsible for what and tells what organization or group in the church is responsible for what results. By assigning responsibility and holding leaders accountable for results, the planner has gone a long way in guaranteeing the growing and greening of the church. Once strategies are formulated and implemented through assigned tasks, God produces the results (see 1 Cor. 3:6).
• Mission-centered planning clears the paths to goals. Church plans that include the implementers in the process of planning are far more effective and motivational than plans that are determined by the leaders and then assigned to the “would-be implementers.” This basic postulate of motivational theory is that a leader’s function is to help participants establish clear, challenging and specific goals and then clear the path to those goals. For example, in Holy Scripture we read:
  “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God, may your good Spirit lead me on level ground” (Psalm 143:10).
  “Make level paths for your feet” (Heb. 12:13).
  Church members will commit themselves to a church, a pastor, or a team of leaders who are directing them along a particular path. The hope is that even more, they will “commit themselves to their faithful creator and continue to do good” (1 Peter 4:19).

REVIEW EXERCISE – Thus far, we have looked at the basic steps of the planning process and considered how to develop mission/vision statements. Next we reviewed principles of mission-centered planning that provide a basis for applying the steps in planning. To help you summarize and pull this information together, evaluate the following diagram.

Mission-centered planning is like navigation. If you know where you are and where you want to go, navigation is not so difficult. But suppose a passenger goes to the captain of the ship and says, “Show me on your charts our present location, what the next port-of-call will be, and our final destination.” The captain responds, “I don’t know that, I just work to keep the ship moving!” How would you feel? Would you really want to be a passenger on that ship? The above diagram helps you see the difference in aimless wandering versus purposeful pursuit. Let’s then examine the next steps in the planning cycle that are necessary in order to move forward purposefully in carrying out the mission.

Back to Principles: 2.2 Assessing the Situation / Next to 2.2 Unit 2