Strategic Planning: A Must!
The importance of planning can be seen in the words of Jesus. Once, while addressing a great crowd (Luke 14:28), Jesus warned the people against the habit of doing something without adequately planning the project.
Strategic Planning in the local church is the work of planning the project, whether it’s building a building or planning a ministry approach. Without adequate planning and consideration of whether or not you will be able to do the work, many efforts to do the work of the Lord will not be successful.
ACGC, and the Department of Nurture are committed to the task of helping pastors and local church leadership do the work of strategic planning. This can be in the form of dialogue, providing material that might be useful, or an onsite evaluation and teaching series regarding the work of strategic planning.
This site is designed to introduce you to the process of doing effective strategic planning in your church and how we can assist you.
Dr. Sam Warren
Director of Nurture, ACGC
Becoming a Team!
Most churches fail to carry out the work of the Lord because they never become a team. Patrick Lencioni suggests that church leadership must trust one another in order to move the church toward a common goal. Our approach to strategic planning in the local church is to first increase the ability of the church leadership to work together. Much time is spent on helping the leadership know their gifts and create an environment where dialogue, discernment and definitive action can flourish.
Deploying the Team!
I cannot count the times I’ve heard the following words in the context of the local church, “I don’t know what I am supposed to be doing!” Perhaps you’ve heard it too! This is not only unfortunate, it’s damaging to the life and ministry of the church, Christ’s body. Anything that can be done to eliminate this confusion can help the church move forward in its ministry in a positive way. Phase two of our approach to strategic planning is to assist the local church leadership and laity to carefully consider what they must be doing in order to achieve their mission. A significant amount of time is spent on training the church on exactly how they can spend their energy on the right things. A failure to do this will only lead to frustration and confusion about what the church is doing.
The Next Steps…
Perhaps the biggest step for the church is determining what comes next. It is our conviction that the next steps are critically important for the future health of the church. Our goal is to equip the church with tools that can guide them along the way to building a ministry that glorifies the Lord and uses them to accomplish his will for their given context of ministry.
If you are interested in knowing more about this kind of training in your local church please contact the ACGC department of Nurture.
Future Goals
Our plan for the future, within the department of Nurture, is to equip a group of leaders from across the AC denomination who can assist in the work of Strategic Planning. This training will be extensive and comprehensive. Only certain people will qualify for this important work. If you are interested in being considered for this special training and ministry within the AC denomination, please contact Dr. Sam Warren personally.