6-Step Strategic Plan to Grow Your Ministry Setting Reachable Goals and Fulfilling Your Mission’s Promise

IntroductionChurch attendance in the United States is dropping about 1% a year, and nearly one-third of millennials say they are unaffiliated with any faith. Churches’ share of charitable giving is also smaller, even as total giving has increased to more than $1 billion a day.

Despite those facts, many churches are still finding ways to grow their membership and giving. The common denominator for them: They have developed and implemented a sound strategic plan.

What’s a Strategic Plan?A strategic plan defines and outlines goals and describes what you need – and what you need to do – to reach them in the most impactful way.

Successfully creating a plan requires:

• Collaboration among key leaders and members

• Setting clear, reachable goals

• Defining a plan of action

A strategic plan for growing your ministry won’t be useful unless it’s written with a clear vision of the future you want for your church. How many members? How big is the staff? What’s the projected budget? What giving options will be provided? What programs will be offered to members and the community?

The plan should include six elements outlined in this paper: mission statement, vision statement, goals, values, focus and plan of action. 

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Churches are still finding ways to grow their membership and giving.

Hypothetical Plan We’ve created a hypothetical, abbreviated plan for a church that wants to grow its weekly attendance and giving to increase the reach of its service projects. These examples provided are only meant to illustrate the higher-level elements of a strategic plan.

Example:

Over the next year, the church wants to increase weekly attendance by 20% (from 500 to 600) and increase weekly giving by 10% so it can offer and fund twice as many mission trips as it does today. It will do this by focusing efforts on attracting new visitors and offering electronic giving options that make giving easier for both members and visitors.

Mission StatementThe mission statement sets a goal for the day-to-day work needed to achieve the growth plan.

It’s a message from the church to its members and the community it serves explaining the purpose of the project and what it intends to accomplish. In just a few words, the statement sets church leaders and the congregation on a clear path to achieve the project goals.

Example:

Growing weekly attendance and gifts to help us share God’s word through increased mission work.

Vision StatementThe vision statement describes the future your church wants to create by fulfilling the project’s mission. Most important, it should be inspirational, clear, memorable and concise.

Example:

To extend our ability to serve others and grow disciples in the community and underdeveloped countries by doubling the number of mission trips we fund each year from 5 to 10.

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A vision statement should be inspirational, clear, memorable and concise.

GoalsYour goals express the specific desired results of your project mission and connect leaders with responsibilities for attaining them.

In this plan, goals should include programs the church will implement, such as special events, group activities and outreach ministries, to boost attendance, as well as methods for increasing giving, such as adding electronic giving options.

The goals should also outline the types of missions the church will offer when it is able to fulfill its vision – disaster recovery missions, local missions for the poor, missions to underdeveloped countries and both teen and adult-driven missions.

Goals are time-based and include measurements such as the growth rates in attendance and giving that would determine success. Progress toward reaching goals should be monitored and adjusted as needed to maintain forward momentum.

Examples:

By first quarter of 2017, the financial committee will implement electronic giving to contribute to a 10% increase in weekly contributions.

The project committee will organize and host at least 5 new events, with the intent to bring in 25 new members per quarter.

Values Values statements guide all decision-making – how leaders and tactics will be chosen. They include supportive language and words like excellence, service, passion and truth.

In our sample plan, the values statements would guide the intentions for adding new giving options and the desire to grow the congregation.

Examples:

We value the gifts we receive as an expression of spirituality and believe that each member and visitor should have options for how they choose to give.

We’re passionate about serving others in our church, in our community and around the world and warmly open our doors to all who want to change their lives and the lives of others through the Word of God.

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Progress toward reaching goals should be monitored and adjusted as needed.

FocusThe next step is to focus your project’s mission so your objective is clear to your congregation.

Consider in advance the questions the congregation or church leaders may have and be open to adjusting your plan according to how you would answer them. This will help you zero in on your mission and reduce – but not eliminate – the need to adjust your plan later.

Examples:

How do we ensure that we can define and accomplish these goals?

What are our milestones for growing our membership?

How will that growth impact contributions?

How many of our members prefer to give through text, mobile app or kiosk?

Plan of ActionThe plan of action details the steps that need to be taken to reach the project goals. Each step is assigned a person or committee responsible for the action and a timetable for completion.

When creating your plan of action, you should answer these questions for each step:

• What are we doing?

• Why are we doing it?

• How will we do that?

• How much will that cost?

• How will we pay for it?

Examples:

The church finance committee will use funds from the operational budget to purchase and implement a giving kiosk and text giving solution within the first 12 weeks of the year.

The Executive Pastor will help increase the number of members pledging in 2017 by 20% through delivering financial messages from the pulpit and making direct requests to members over the course of the entire year.

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Focus will help you zero in on your mission.

ConclusionStrategic planning takes time, so make sure you give yourself enough to get yours off the ground and completed. The bigger your plan, the more time it will take to get the funding to do it. The bigger your church, the more time it may take to get the necessary approvals to begin.

Challenges like those make strategic planning an ongoing process. As goals are reached, new ones need to be identified, evaluated and implemented to address changes in the church, the economy and the community.

As everyone involved in a project starts working on his or her action steps, you may find you are not progressing toward your goals as planned. You might need to challenge or rethink assumptions or revamp ideas. And, completion may occur along multiple timelines.

You need to be flexible so that a bump in the road doesn’t become a major obstacle to your progress. If a kiosk in the sanctuary isn’t meeting your expectations for giving, try using it in different ways – for example, for purchasing tickets to events or fellowship dinners, or for paying tuition to your school.

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You might need to challenge or rethink assumptions or revamp ideas.

We hope this article helps churches make better-informed

decisions about planning for the future of their ministries. At

Vanco, we’re committed to making a difference for our clients

and those they serve. Contact us at 800-675-7430.

connect.vancopayments.com/contact-us

About Vanco Payment Solutions Vanco Payment Solutions focuses on meeting the unique needs of clients who count on predictable, recurring revenue. Faith-based, nonprofit and other relationship-oriented organizations — and the software providers and professional associations that serve them — rely on Vanco’s specialized approach to adding electronic payment options and enhancing current capabilities. The company’s experienced leadership team helps more than 30,000 clients across the U.S. conveniently, securely and efficiently accept a broad range of payments, including credit and debit cards, and more effectively manage their operations.

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