Strategic Ministry Planning

October 04, 2022•2 min read

We blinked and it was summer and now the crisp fall season is in full swing. Before this season slips away, be sure your leadership makes time for the critical work of strategic ministry planning for next year. Have you calendared and begun to plan your church’s strategic ministry planning retreat with your leadership team (board/council) yet? Have you planned for your staff’s (paid and unpaid people leading ministry areas) ministry planning retreat to set objectives for the goals set by the leadership team? Or, perhaps, does all of this sounds overwhelming or even like gibberish? No worries, Strategy Matters is your go-to guide to plan, execute and follow up on a strategic planning retreat. You can find the book here, the webinar here, or a special combo package for both here – be sure to use the coupon code SMPSHIP in conjunction with the special combo package!

To help you get in the spirit of strategic ministry planning, here are the Top Three Misses and Top Three Opportunities when it comes to strategic ministry planning.

Top Three Misses

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” Alan Lakein

When leadership does not make strategic ministry planning a part of their annual rhythm, they are much more likely to lose sight of their purpose/mission and likely operate reactively or with a management focus rather than having an intentional missional focus.
Without a strategic planning retreat, there is a missed opportunity for the much-needed, annual deep dive into the evaluation of vision, goals, polies, procedures, vital signs, guiding principles and more.
Without a leadership retreat, the leadership team misses the opportunity for team building, establishing a new covenant together for the upcoming year with new team members, and a unified sense of direction and ownership in the upcoming year’s church effectiveness.

Top Three Opportunities

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Strategic ministry planning provides a clear pathway for both leaders and staff to engage in a collaborative, missional and intentional approach to live into the mission and vision of the church.
Strategic ministry planning sets the gauge for an evaluation of ministry effectiveness in the upcoming year. Without it, activities will have nothing to align to and leaders will have nothing to evaluate against.
With effective strategic ministry planning, there is a heightened understanding of missional focus, alignment, energy, and momentum at all levels of the church.

As you can see, effectual strategic ministry planning is one of the major keys in creating and sustaining congregational health and vitality. So, what are you waiting for? Get your calendar out now and plan these two retreats – board and staff. Be sure to pick up a copy of Strategy Matters to help you plan, implement, and follow up after a great strategic ministry planning retreat!

Kay Kotan

Kay’s purpose is to Equip and Empower Leaders of Faith Communities How to Engage in More Effective Ministry. Kay Kotan is the founder of You Unlimited (coaching, consulting and training company) and The Greatest Expedition – a collaboration of more than twenty thought leaders providing resources and insights for a congregational journey to develop new MAPS (ministry action plans) to reach new people in your community. Kay also launched Multipliers’ Movement – a gathering of kingdom multipliers for sharing, equipping, and encouraging. She is a CoachU and Advanced CoachU Graduate, an accredited coach (PCC: Professional Certified Coach) with the ICF, International Coaching Federation, a Certified Path 1 Coach, and once served on the faculty at Coaching4Clergy. As a passionate lay person, she has a banking background and has been a business owner for more than 25 years. Kotan has served as a church developer for conferences and worked with churches, pastors, conferences, and judicatory leaders across the country for more than a decade. She is most proud to be the wife of Bob for over 30 years and the mother of their adult son, Cameron. Kay is the author of multiple books, workbooks, and resources including Gear Up: Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church, Cry From the Pew, Full Schedules, Barren Souls, Being the Church in the Post Pandemic World, and Journey Preparation: Surveying Your Church’s Landscape, as well as the co-author of the books titled: IMPACT!: Reclaiming the Call of Lay Ministry, Small Church Check-Up, Insights on Productivity, Renovate or Die – Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, Ministry 3.0 and Get Their Name , Ten Prescriptions for a Healthy Church, Necessary Nine – Nine Things Effective Pastors Do Differently, Launching Leaders: Taking Leadership Development to New Heights, Strategy Matters: Your Roadmap to Planning a Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat, Voices of Christmas: A Daily Devotional for Advent and Expanding the Expedition Reach Through Marketplace Multipliers. Mission Possible for the Small Church. Inside Out: Everting Ministry Models for the Postmodern Church, and more. Kotan and her co-author Bradford published their third version of the best-seller, Mission Possible: Simple Structure for Missional Effectiveness. Mrs. Kotan spends her time investing in pastors, laity leaders, congregations, and judicatory leaders through equipping, coaching, and creating resources to help them discover and live into their fullest missional potential of effectiveness and fruitfulness to reach people for Jesus Christ. Through her enthusiasm, truth-telling, and passion, she challenges those who encounter her in both their thinking and their doing.

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