Strategic planning can often mean the difference between seeing your vision become reality and watching it fade into obscurity. It’s not hard to come up with goals. It takes hard work and dedication to make those goals come to life. Being strategic about how you’re going to accomplish your visions, and being intentional about setting up that plan, is one key to success in ministry.

Think of a major goal you want to see accomplished this year. It may be launching a new campus. It could be seeing that ministry you’ve had on your heart get off the ground. It may just be hiring a new staff person. Picture it in your mind, and then begin working on some steps to get it done.

Anyone can be good at strategic planning. It doesn’t take a master’s degree or specific gifting. It’s all about following the right steps and working hard. In the first installment of this series, we looked at how strategic planning can benefit you and your church or ministry. In the following weeks, we’ll talk about some specific ways to become even better at planning.

In this article, we’re going to look at how to pull it all together. But first, let’s answer some questions that will help clarify the steps to get there.

Asking the Right Questions

What has and hasn’t worked before? If you’ve never worked on a comprehensive strategic plan, you may not understand why something did or did not work. So, take a very honest look at what you’ve done in the past and how it turned out. There may have been some dramatic failures. You may have struck gold with a project. Knowing beforehand how you’ve done in the past will help you prioritize your actions today.

Strategic planning is all about following the right steps and working hard.

How long will it take? Set a deadline and a timeline for getting it accomplished. A goal without a timeframe to finish it is just a dream. Without a finish line, you may never have the impetus to get going on your plan. Make sure the deadline is a realistic one. There’s nothing more crippling than underestimating how long it will take and then coming up just short of that goal.

How much will it cost? Next to a realistic timeframe is a realistic cost analysis. How big of a budget will it take to see your goal to the end? And it’s always helpful to overestimate somewhat to provide margin. You’ll always encounter problems and setbacks along the way. Make sure your budget is ready for it.

Who needs to be on board? The cost of accomplishing your goals is not always monetary. There’s the manpower aspect as well. Whom do you need to have on your team to get the best outcome? That may mean going outside your organization, recategorizing someone inside your organization or asking some people to pull double duty for a time.

Taking the Right Steps

Assemble the right team. This comes on the heels of the last question you ask. Once you know who needs to be on board, get them on board. This includes getting outside help. You don’t have to be an expert recruiter to get the right team, but you do have to know how to communicate vision clearly and convey responsibilities effectively. Getting the right team from the start is the number one factor in producing momentum early on.

Set a goal for the process. Now that your team is together, set an overall goal for completing the plan. The goal should be realistic yet challenging. Allow enough margin to compensate for unforeseen problems you may encounter. And make sure everyone on the team is on board, sharing the same vision and ready to move forward.

Write an outline. This does not have to be comprehensive. You don’t need to know all the details right now. But having an outline for reaching your goal will give you clear mile markers toward success. Without an outline, you won’t really know whether you’re making progress, whether you’re focusing on the right things or whether you’re closer to your goal than when you started.

Add detail and clarity. Now is the time to start filling in the gaps in your outline. This will take a team effort. Assign each area of your outline to the most qualified member of your team. Details may include finding property to buy or rent, which will require someone doing a search of real estate while another person focuses on funding. As the outline takes shape, more and more details will emerge.

Before your final revision, share it with key stakeholders. Take it to the top people in your organization, and do a soft sale. This isn’t the final product by any stretch, but it gets certain people in on the project before it’s finished. They can help you clarify your goals and discover any overlooked details. This is also a chance to get early buy-in from some of your most influential people.

Identify criticism early. The decision makers will likely have some concerns. That’s why I like to have the meeting before the meeting. If I’m dealing with a board from whom I need approval, I will take the plan to them individually first to identify any problems they may have with it. The last thing you want is for someone to throw you a curveball while you’re presenting the plan for approval.

Present the plan. Now it’s time to get to work! And the first step is getting approval. When you present the plan, you should be confident that you’ve covered all your bases and addressed the major concerns so that you are ready to move forward. If you’ve done it the right way, there will be no surprises at this step.

I want you to make your goals a reality in 2018. And I know that strategic planning is one way to get that done. As you can see, it’s not easy. But the hard work you put in on the front end will pay dividends down the line.