Do You Need to Plan More … or Less?

Our summer vacation to the Pacific Northwest was an interesting lesson in planning for me. We had identified several sites that we wanted to see and had made hotel reservations accordingly. But we did not have a detailed itinerary of what we would do each day. That turned out to be quite fortunate. One day we spent far longer than I would have planned at a spectacular beach. Another day we spontaneously turned on a small road and enjoyed the views of a beautiful waterfall and a roaring, glacier-fed river. We discovered several wonderful restaurants by asking the locals for recommendations. In earlier years, I would have mapped out the entire trip in detail in advance so that we wouldn’t “miss anything.” In the same way, my approach to planning for churches and ministries has changed over the years. I have learned that the sweet spot for strategic planning looks more like our recent vacation. That sweet spot is somewhere between a rigid, detailed multi-year plan and flying completely by the seat-of-your-pants with no plan at all. The sweet spot includes the major priorities and milestones – what do we believe that God would have us do by the end of this year? It answers shorter term questions – what are the steps we need to take this quarter to reach that milestone? But it leaves room for adjustments, new discoveries, failures, and learnings. A church may have a vision to transform its local community, and may decide to pursue partnerships with two elementary schools as a major initiative. The church intends to do tutoring at both schools, but as they interact with school leaders, they discover that the greatest need is support for the teachers. So the church adjusts the specific plans without losing sight of the goal – partnering with local schools to help transform the community. Have you found the sweet spot in your planning process? If you’re not sure, ask your leadership team what adjustments are needed so that your plans provide the direction and flexibility that your church or ministry needs. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>