CCCC is in the midst of a major strategic review.  If you’d like to interact with us as the review progresses, please visit the Strategic Review Engagement website.  I want to open source the strategic review by having as many non-board, non-staff people engage with us as possible.  In this blog, I am writing about how to do a strategic review.  On the engagement website, I am posting in real-time about how we did it at CCCC as a way of helping you see how to apply these suggestions.  That website also has the results of our strategic review, and I am most interested in any comments you would like to make about them.

Strategic Statements

Here are a few considerations for developing the three major strategic statements I’ve previously described (values, mission, vision) and some suggestions for how you can discern them in a God-honouring way that is faithful to your Christian identity.  Our draft strategic statements are available on the Strategic Review Engagement website.

Values

Values should be assessed on two levels.  First there are the biblical values that should be present in every Christian ministry and then there are the other values held by the people called to serve together in one particular ministry.

As an example of biblical values that might apply to your ministry, in The Church At Work I developed four biblical values related to relationships between ministries (the book’s subject):

• Love – In John 13:34-35 Jesus commanded his followers to love one another and Paul affirms it in Romans 12:10;
• Order – From Genesis to Revelation, we see that God is a God of order, not confusion.  Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians 14:40 and 12:16 is that “Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way….Live in harmony with one another;”
• Unity – Our God is one, and he is Lord of all.  Christ is not divided and neither should his church be divided (Ephesians 4:4-6 and 1 Corinthians 1:13); and
• Voluntary mutual submission – We see voluntary mutual submission modeled in the life of Jesus (who made himself a servant to his own followers) and made explicit by Paul (John 13:5-10 and Ephesians 5:21).

These values suggest a strategy of collaboration, consultation, and coordination with other ministries.  Your Bible study could lead to a different set of values that are significant to your ministry.  All biblical values apply to your ministry, but some are especially significant to your ministry’s work and should become your organizational values.  Whatever you do, don’t try to make every value an organizational value or you’ll just have a list of platitudes.  Every ministry is expected to be honest, so unless lack of honesty has been a problem for your ministry, don’t include it.

Values can also be developed by asking people associated with your ministry (past and present) what they think the corporate values are.  You might ask staff what would cause them to raise or lower their pride in being associated with your ministry as a way of discovering the ministry’s key values.  Here’s how I’ve asked about our CCCC values in the current survey:

We believe that before God has called CCCC to do something, he has called us first to be a Christian ministry. How we do our work is arguably more important in God’s eyes than the actual work we do. So before we get to God’s purpose for CCCC, we’re going to explore the Christian values that we live by.  As an example, I believe that we must demonstrate just as much care for the smallest ministry as we do for the largest.  Jesus paid attention to everyone, and so must we.

This is one question, but I will ask it several different ways to help you think about values from different angles:

- What values or aspects of CCCC would you NOT be willing to sacrifice for the sake of our mission and identity?

- What would you not give up regardless of what changes in society?

- What would you not give up even if we were penalized for holding those values, or were put at a disadvantage because of them?

- Which corporate values would you keep even if they produced no tangible benefit for CCCC?

 Here’s how we developed our values for CCCC in the current strategic review.

God’s Call

The starting place for discerning God’s purpose for your ministry is to ask how people came to be associated with your ministry, since God calls people, not organizations.  Ask them how your ministry fits their own personal call to ministry and their answers will provide clues to God’s intentions for the ministry.  This information provides insight and context as you develop the strategic statements.

But be careful how you ask about a personal call because not everyone has had that experience.  You don’t want them to feel devalued or second-class.   They are faithfully serving the Lord as much as someone who has experienced a specific call. Here’s how I asked it in the survey given to staff, directors and corporate members:

For most people, their association with CCCC began because they felt they had gifts to contribute to a Christian ministry that they cared about.  Some may have felt that their association fit well with a pre-existing call of God on their lives, or a call that was discerned when they discovered CCCC.  If you have a story to tell related to a sense of personal call to the ministry of CCCC, please share it.

I asked this question of the four senior leaders: myself (CEO since 2003), my predecessor Frank Luellau (the first employee and executive director from 1983 - 2003), Ken Dick, board chair from 1978 – 1985 (when it was mostly a working board), and our founder Ian Stanley (board chair 1972 – 1978).  I also asked all current staff, board and corporate members, and as many former board members as I could locate.

Here’s how we developed our  Statement of Call.

Mission

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Vision or mission?  Normally we expect to start with a goal (the vision) and then develop the mission that is the means of achieving the goal.  But when God calls people in the Bible, he calls them either to do a task (Paul to proclaim Christ to the gentiles – Acts 9:15) or to fulfill a role (eg. Jeremiah as a prophet Jer 1:5).  I can’t think of anyone called to fulfill a vision.

In practice, developing your mission and vision statements will likely be an iterative process.  You’ll start with mission and from that develop a vision for the future that will result.  But doing that future thinking will likely help you refine your mission.  Don’t get hung up on the order – just get it done!

I asked the mission question this way in our survey:

Here we get to the heart of what we are to do. To fulfill God’s vision and purpose for CCCC, what is our specific mission?  The following questions (from What to Ask the Person in the Mirror) will help us discern our mission:

- Why do you work or volunteer with CCCC? When you could invest your time elsewhere, why do you invest it here? What do you love about CCCC?

- What would you like to tell your grandchildren or extended family about why you served at CCCC for such a long period of your life?

- What would you like CCCC to look like in ten years? What would you hope to say that it accomplished?

- What are the distinctive competencies of CCCC? What would the world lose if it did not exist?

- Do you think God had any specific intentions for how we would operate, or any conditions that he has set as boundaries? If so, please let us know what you think they are.

- We would like to know what your hopes and dreams are for the future of CCCC.  What are your aspirations for CCCC? What hopes and dreams do you have for it?

Here’s how we developed the draft mission statement for CCCC.

Vision

A vision statement always propels us towards the ideal.  It does not settle for anything less than the way it should be, in terms of our mission.  It should be aspirational, evocative and highly emotional.  Upon reading it, people should be inspired to join your cause (or at least say “That’s a great mission!”).

The vision needs to align both with whatever Scripture says that relates to your mission and vision, and also to your core values.  It needs to align with the activity of the Holy Spirit in this world.

In our survey, we asked about vision this way:

We believe that the Lord led Ian Stanley and his six friends to found CCCC for God’s own purposes. That means that we exist as part of the Christian ministry community in Canada and that there is some particular way the Lord intends us to help the church fulfill its mission.

Given that we are a support to frontline ministries, can you describe the difference that you think God created us to make?  Another way to think about this is, What is God’s vision for the state of Christian ministries in Canada that we will help him achieve?

What are you seeing that God is up to that affects CCCC?  What shifts or trends do you see in Christian ministry that might affect our strategy?

Again, you can read about how we developed our vision statement.

Written in stone?

While your strategic statements should serve you well for many years at a time, your ministry is a like a living organism that responds to the continuing work and leadership of the Holy Spirit.  Over time, aspects of your mission may be accomplished, so you move on to something else.  Also over time, your staff and board gain more insight into the possibilities for what might be, and the vision could become more detailed or more expansive.  A new or revised vision could cause a review of the mission, and the mission might be redefined, tightened up, or expanded to better fit the vision.

So don’t change your strategic statements every year, but do be willing to change them as circumstances warrant.  Next I’ll get into some other secondary matters related to your strategic statements, such as your Value Proposition and the Key Success Indicators.

The Strategic Statements

Every organization has a core ideology (its vision, mission and values) that is the underpinning for everything that it does.  This ideology is the driving force that inspires and propels the organization forward.  Vision explains why the organization exists (what it wants to accomplish), mission is its overarching strategy for accomplishing the vision, and values are the rules it lives by.

A hypothetical example will show the difference between vision and mission.  Two ministries might have the same vision: Local churches thriving under excellent leadership, but have very different missions because they have different strategies to grow excellent leadership.  One mission might to be provide excellent seminary training while the other ministry might be to provide coaching services or to publish church leadership books.

Three other items should be part of the strategic statement package:  the Tagline, the Value Proposition and the Key Success Indicators.

The tagline is a three to five word phrase that clearly positions your ministry for your audience.  It is what you want to be known for and evokes the first thought or feeling you want people to have when they hear your ministry’s name.

The value proposition:

• defines what you believe your ministry’s contribution to the church’s mission is, and is one of the justifications for your ministry’s existence as a separate entity,
• can be a key component of your fundraising, marketing and recruiting literature, and
• provides focus for strategy development.

The value proposition for a local church might answer the question, “With so many churches in your town, why should there be another one?”  For an independent agency, it could answer the question, “Why not merge with another ministry and save the duplicated overhead costs?”  Perhaps your methodology is different, or you have a denominational distinctive in theology or culture you want to maintain.  Perhaps it is the mix of what you do that is valuable.

People writing about strategy and marketing use the term ‘unique value proposition,’ but I’m not keen on using unique in a ministry environment where every church has the same mission and every other ministry is working on some part of that same mission.  I do, however, think you should be very clear about your ministry’s contribution to the church’s mission.  What makes you stand out from the crowd?

The value proposition needs to be defined before the programs are designed because it should have a key influence in designing your strategic initiatives and programs.

The success indicators:

• provide evidence that your ministry is moving forward with its mission,
• build a compelling case for support for your fundraising program, and
• ensure board and staff stay focused on mission as the priority, and not programs.  (It’s easy to get so wrapped up in programs that the mission they serve becomes just an after-thought.)

The success indicators need to be defined early in the strategic review because they will be used later to assess the effectiveness of your current strategies and programs.  In this regard, be especially careful that success indicators are set based on the strategic statements alone, because only the strategic statements define organizational success. 

You must fight the tendency to define success in terms of your programs. 

Some people have pet strategies and programs they want to ensure will survive the strategic review, and if you give them the opportunity they will craft these statements accordingly!  That would be the tail wagging the dog!  Whether or not a program is successful can only be determined in light of what constitutes organizational success.  (A program could be highly successful on its own and yet not contribute to an organization’s mission success.)

A Christian perspective

The source of a Christian ministry’s core ideology is the revelation of God through Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible provides the context for all Christian ministry, so you must know it very well.  At least a few senior leaders on your team should have some formal theological education.  Scripture lays out the ideal future that God is leading us towards, the values he wants us to have, and the character traits that should guide us in all our work and relationships.

Some aspects of the ideal kingdom life may have more relevance to your mission than others, just as some values and traits may be more central to your mission than others.  So feel free to highlight those and make them prominent in the life and work of your ministry.  For example, God’s love for all humanity, his concern for the poor, or what he views as proper worship could each have greater significance in a ministry devoted to one of those issues.  Perhaps you have been quite isolationist as a ministry and you want to take special care to be more relational in the future.  Highlight that.

As you go through your strategic planning process, keep asking, “What in Scripture relates to this?  What do we know about God and his work that should inform how we think about this?”  These questions need to permeate every aspect of the strategy review process.

You must pay close attention to the Holy Spirit because he is the one who:

• calls us to a particular part of the mission,
• gives us a vision for what we can accomplish through our part of the mission, and
• guides us as we make decisions so that we can work faithfully as God’s agents.

It is critical that you are willing to be led by the Spirit, and are not just bringing your plans to God for his blessing.  If you don’t give the Spirit time to lead you, all you have is what the human mind can conceive.  I learned years ago that my mind is no match for God’s.  Give God space by practising the Christian disciplines of silence and solitude.  A great book to help you do this is Space for God.

Strategy making in the 4th Dimension

God has a specific purpose for your ministry, and to discern what it is I suggest that you consult with the directors and staff whom God has called to serve in your ministry, not just in the present, but in the past as well.  Churches should also consult with their members.

Why should you pay any attention to people who are no longer active in your ministry?  Because God spoke to them, and their voices must be heard.  I love this quote from G.K. Chesterton in which he talks of a democracy that crosses time and death:

Tradition may be defined as an extension of the [voting] franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father. I, at any rate, cannot separate the two ideas of democracy and tradition; it seems evident to me that they are the same idea. We will have the dead at our councils.

While the present board and staff can make strategic changes, they are not free to do so without due respect to the past. Are the old strategies outdated? Has the mission been accomplished? Are there new aspects to the mission that didn’t exist before? By all means, make the necessary changes, but don’t just arbitrarily think that you know better than your predecessors. That would be chronological arrogance!

To fully understand God’s purpose for your ministry today, do a chronological review of the strategic statements to see if there is a trajectory that ties them together. Is there an overarching common vision? Talk with the people who led the ministry over the years (if they are still available to you) or read their plans and other documents.

If there is a trajectory, look carefully at what changed between the versions and look for underlying trends. Perhaps there is movement from crisis intervention (shelters, food banks, etc.) to advocacy for systemic change to prevent poverty in the first place. Maybe your congregation is expanding its view of what church is all about. Most ministries will show some development over the years.  Try extending the trajectory forward to see where your ministry is headed.  Is this where you want to be?

Special attention must be given to the people whom God has placed in senior leadership because they acted in the capacity of stewards of the ministry and its mission, and presumably were placed in the senior leadership role by God for a reason. Each may have contributed to a different understanding of the mission while also adhering to the core ideology.  At this point, keep your focus on the the strategic statements and leave their strategies and programs, which are secondary and tertiary matters, for later.

In part two of this post I will give you specific practices and questions to help you discern your strategic statements.

In a sermon I heard in Sunday School, Andy Stanley made the point that there is only one time in Scripture that it says Jesus was amazed, and it was the big faith of a Roman centurian of all people that amazed him!

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
Matthew 8:10

A personal challenge

Stanley challenges us asking, “What would your life be like if you knew for sure there is a God who is all powerful, who knows you and has promised never to leave you nor forsake you?  What if you had perfect peace and no fears or anxiety about anything?”  What would we dare try for the sake of Christ?  What might we do that would demonstrate a faith that could amaze Jesus?

A ministry challenge

What would it look like if your ministry assumed no limitations that God couldn’t easily overcome?  What if we decided to trust God for the things that keep us from daring to do all that we can dream of?  If we believed God could provide the “if onlys” that we are wishing for?  Better yet, what if we prayed for them?  What if the exploits of our ministries demonstrated a faith that would amaze Jesus just like the centurion’s did?  What if…?

A planning challenge

What if our strategic plans required divine rather than human capacity?  What if our plans were so big, so bold, so far-reaching that we’d have to assign responsibility for executing parts of them to the Lord?

If we can complete the plan ourselves, I’m sure God will allow us to do it ourselves.  But maybe he wants us to plan something so stupendous and awe-inspiring that it gives him a unique role to play.  The Bible is full of stories of how God worked through individuals to accomplish great things.  What if we inserted into our plans something that only God could do?  That means, of course, that by definition our plans will be unrealistic.  Would a staff be bold enough to recommend such a plan?  Would a board be daring enough to approve such a plan?  Just wondering!!

Are we:

• too cautious?
• too realistic?
• too self-reliant?

I admit that as I read these paragraphs, they scare me!  But I think they are also a healthy challenge to think about with the board and staff.

Living by faith

If we try to increase the faith component of our plans, we face the question of whether we should act first and depend on God to provide subsequently or let God act first and be ready to do what he has provided for.

In Acts 1, Jesus tells his followers not to do anything yet, but wait in Jerusalem until the Father sends his promised gift.

In Exodus 14, God told Moses to take the people of Israel to a specific place where they could be easily cornered by the Egyptians.  He basically told Moses to deliberately lead them into a trap!  Moses obeyed God and only then did the Lord part the waters and provide a way of escape.

I think there are some different approaches to the topic and each of them has a biblical basis.  I believe that which one we use will depend on how the board and staff together discern God’s will in a specific matter.

Pray and act with human wisdom

It might seem strange to start with human wisdom, but Scripture takes it seriously and so should we.  The book of Proverbs consists of the best of ‘worldly wisdom’ in that it sets out “the way things are” or “the way things work.”  God has given us great intellectual power to work out for ourselves some of the mystery behind God’s work, such as the hard and soft sciences.  Jesus commended the use of human wisdom in Luke 16:8.  French Arrington discusses the surprising position Jesus takes on human wisdom in his New Life Bible Commentary on Luke, saying:

…the sinful “people of this world” are favorably compared with the “people of the light.”  It is their resourcefulness and their dedication to the achievement of their intended goals that are held up as examples for emulation.  The implication is that the “people of the light,”  whose goal is infinitely more valuable, should be all the more resourceful and dedicated as they work toward their goal of a ‘treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted.”

Furthermore, Jesus’ advises in Luke 14:28 and 31: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?…Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”  It seems that Jesus believes that thinking ahead is just good common sense.  His point is, “Don’t become a disciple if you are not willing to go the whole way.”

Finally, Paul advises Timothy (1 Tim 5) to drink a little wine because of his stomach and many illnesses.  I’m sure Paul had already done the spiritual thing and prayed for his healing, but he also gave Timothy the best human wisdom he had to help him with his stomach problems.

My position is that, unless he has otherwise directed us, God expects us to use the best of human wisdom in leading our ministries.  Use your noggin!

Pray and wait for God to act

We can also think big, figure out what is humanly possible, pray for God to do the rest and then act when he has made it possible.  There is Scriptural support for this option.  Jesus’ instruction to wait for the gift of the Spirit is one example.  Paul raising the collection for the Jerusalem relief effort is another.  Paul committed to no specific amount, just that he would bring an offering.  The prayers of the saints for Peter in prison are yet another example.  They did not mount an attack on the prison to free him, but were waiting in prayer, and God acted and miraculously freed Peter.

This is also an approach recommended by Jesus: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:7, 11.  What Jesus is telling us is: ask, receive, proceed.

Pray and then act in anticipation of God’s action

This is the basis behind faith missions.  Sometimes we have to act first and then we will see God do something wonderful.

• Joshua had to march around Jericho seven times before he saw God bring down its walls.
• The disciples handed out the fish and bread not knowing what was going to happen, but God provided.
• Jesus had to go to the cross trusting that his Father would resurrect him.

Virtually all Christian ministries operate to some degree on faith because their revenue comes mostly from donations, and who knows what will come in next month?  They make long term commitments by hiring staff and acquiring property and trust that money will continue to come in.  But while some are very good at active fundraising, writing persuasive appeals and so forth, others will only do passive fundraising.  This group will pray but not tell anyone of their financial needs.  Hudson Taylor ran CIM this way, on the  assumption that “the Lord will provide.”  God has blessed this approach too.

Some advice

Any of the three strategies may be the appropriate one for you.  My comfort level is to operate the very best we can with the best knowledge we have (option 1) and to think big and wait for God to provide (option 2).

Which should you follow?  It all depends.  I think it comes down to group discernment.  I believe that God will lead the entire leadership team to one of the three options.  The board, the chief staff officer and the senior leadership team should all be in agreement about their position on faith and risk.  If one person feels the ministry should take on more risk with higher faith, then the whole group should enter into a discernment process to determine if they also feel the same.  This is what Paul did with his group.  He alone heard the call of God to go to Europe, but the whole team decided it was the right thing to do.  When Paul felt he had the answer to how to evangelise the gentiles, James and the apostles in Jerusalem discussed the issue and came to a collective decision.

If someone gave your ministry a million dollars, how would you use it?  If you don’t know, then maybe you aren’t ready to receive a million dollars!  If God said he would do anything you asked him to do to help with your ministry’s mission, what would you ask him to do?  If you don’t know, then maybe you aren’t ready to receive his miraculous help.  At the very least, have a list!!

Think BIG, pray HARD and follow the option that seems best to the team.  “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28) needs to be what you say when you announce your decisions.

When ministry leaders come and go in just a few years, I wonder how connected they were with other people.  Could they have had greater longevity and success by being vulnerable and discussing these issues with someone else?

If you are finding leadership a lonely experience, here are some people who can keep you company.

Staff

You should be able to discuss almost any issue with your senior staff because they are your team and they are the ones who will execute whatever plans you approve.  They are every bit as familiar with the ministry as you are and they share your vital interest in its success.  Why not bring them into your confidence?

Just because the senior leader has the executive authority and bears all the responsibility for results (to the board) doesn’t mean the person must be a lonely, solo leader.  Two of my senior staff report directly to me and I trust both of them completely and value their judgment.  Beyond them, there is a leadership team (and also staff who join us based on the topic of discussion).  Why should I rely only on my own knowledge and experience when I have so much more available to me?

There are a couple of reasons why some leaders hold back from their staff:

• They may have a personnel issue or something that they don’t want to discuss with any staff.  Okay, but as you’ll see below, there are still other people you can discuss things with.
• You many think that not having the answers will make you appear weak.  You may be afraid of losing the staff’s confidence if you ask for their help.  If so, I think you’ve bought into the ‘heroic leader’ myth.  Business books and biographies almost always tell a story by focusing on one individual, as if their success was 100% from their own efforts and ideas.  I can recall only one book written about an heroic team, The Wisdom Of Teams.  That’s the exception.  All the other books focus on a single person because we want a hero, and heroes are supposed to be able to overcome obstacles by themselves.  But this is to put unrealistic expectations on yourself.  Roger Patterson, co-author of Leading from the Second Chair, sent me the text for his second book (not yet published) called The Theology of the Second Chair and in it he makes an interesting point.  Scripture shows that God appoints people to leadership, but these are all people with limitations well known to God.  Think about Moses and his poor speech.  God puts people around his leader who fill in for the leader’s shortcomings.  The leader is strong in what God wants them to do, and the team does the rest.
• Finally, be wary of pride.  For the sake of the ministry, accept the team’s wisdom.  James presided over the Council of Jerusalem and allowed his team to thoroughly discuss the Gentile question (Acts 15) even though he alone made the final decision.  Paul had his missionary team confirm the meaning of his Macedonian vision even though he knew what the dream meant.  It was a way of testing his interpretation.  So confide in your team.

Board

If you think you can’t talk to your staff, you can talk with your directors.  I am blessed with a board that is supportive while at the same time holding me accountable.  CCCC has a policy board, so my concerns are within my jurisdiction not theirs, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have a ‘fireside chat’ with them.  We both know that they will not tell me what to do and that I am solely responsible for any decision I make, but we have had hours of fruitful discussions that have benefitted me greatly.  Just like my staff, they are dedicated to the success of the ministry, and because they hired me, they want me personally to be successful as CEO.  Why should I not have the benefit of their wisdom and experience too?

However, you might not want to talk with your board because you may feel your job is in jeopardy if you ask for input or show that you struggle with some things.  You certainly need to be a top performer, but it shouldn’t be a problem to seek counsel or to ask for prayer support.  Unfortunately we at CCCC hear about many conflicts between board and staff.  You can reduce board-staff conflict if you accept the board’s authority and if the board does good board orientation and development so directors know where the line is between board and staff.  The board should also recruit people who subscribe to the values, ethos, and strategic statements already in place and who are in basic accord with the senior staff person.  They don’t have to always agree with the leader, but they shouldn’t come on to a board already wanting to change basic elements of strategy or staffing.

Ministry Peers

I have developed relationships with ministry leaders across the country by simply visiting them in their offices, seeing them at events such as EFC’s Presidents Day, and otherwise being open to any opportunity to say “Hi” to them.  You may not have access to leaders across the country, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t know the ministry leaders in your area.  Pick up the phone, call someone and ask to have lunch with them, or ask to come and see their ministry.  You may have to juggle schedules, but sooner or later you can make a new friend who could be very helpful.

When I wanted advice on change management I called four leaders of ministries that had been through successful change, and all of them were willing to talk about their experiences and the lessons they learned.  While visiting some leaders out West a few weeks ago, conversation drifted around to a leadership topic that I’ve been wrestling with for a while and these leaders just opened up and shared their own experiences with that issue.  Leaders are willing to talk and help each other if you are willing to be vulnerable and share the issues that you are dealing with.

Sometimes you need someone else to see something that you can’t.  Moses had his Jethro who could see the quagmire that Moses had fallen into.  Wouldn’t it have been better for Moses if he had found out earlier about the problem and fixed it sooner?  He could have asked someone, maybe even Jethro, “Here’s my plan to lead the people of Israel.  Do you see any potential problems with it?”

The only thing that might hold you back from talking with your peers is pride.  Everyone wants to look successful at what they do, but the most meaningful and helpful conversations come about when the masks come off and people are real with each other.  It deepens your relationship from the relatively superficial “Hi, how are you?” stage to the much deeper level of feeling you really know the other person.

Your Spouse

I am richly blessed with a spouse who also has a business degree, is an accountant, and who has chaired some boards.  She understands leadership, strategy and all the other issues I deal with.  She is an invaluable support to me and offers great perspectives.  But even without her background, she would still be a tremendous support because:

• as my spouse, she is 100% committed to my success because both of us are bound together  in marriage, so my welfare is her welfare and she wants the best for me.  In this spirit, your spouse is not afraid to ask the tough questions, and will provide a clear-headed perspective.
• she doesn’t have to know business or governance to ask the right questions.  ”Have you prayed about this?” is one of those perennial favourites of hers!!!  Your spouse doesn’t need to have the answers, just the right probing questions to stimulate your thinking.

God

I’ve left God to last not because he is the least important but to end on the note that you must be talking with God because the ministry you lead is his, not yours.  This reminds me of a video that we show in the Stewardship I course – God’s Pie.  A person divvies up a pie with pieces for people representing his house, his cars, etc., but gives God nothing.  As he eats his own piece of pie while God watches, with an empty plate, the guy representing his German car says, “Dude!  He brrrrought ze pie!”

Well, dude, the ministry you lead is his, so consult with him about what you should do with it.  The key to Christian leadership is to recognize that you are a follower before you are a leader.  If you find yourself talking about leadership and then admitting as an afterthought that, “Well, of course, the Bible says that God is the ultimate leader of this ministry,” then God’s leadership looks pretty perfunctory.  His leadership needs to be fresh and vital every day.  If you only know the idea of God’s leadership rather than the experience of God’s leadership, I suggest you check out the spiritual disciplines and practices that are at the core of being led by God.  Take a spiritual formation course at a seminary or Bible college or pick up a good book such as Space for God: The Study and Practice of Spirituality and Prayer or Listening Prayer: Learning to Hear God’s Voice and Keep a Prayer Journal.  While you should go to God first, he is also the final resort after all human wisdom and advice has failed.

Conclusion

I hope you see by now that there are a lot of people around who could support you in ministry.  There is no reason to feel lonely and unable to talk to anyone.  Take the initiative and go see someone right away.  And if you have anything to contribute to this discussion, I’d love to hear from you.

Eleven years ago Andy wrote a thesis to complete his MA in Evangelism Studes and the purpose of the thesis was to find the best methods for evangelism for GVYFC.  The situation and results that he describes at the ministry are quite out of date today, so please keep that in mind.  After completing the thesis, he used it to refresh and renew the ministry at GVYFC and the results have been great.  By taking a hard look at their practices and results his team built a much more fruitful ministry!

You can download Harrington’s thesis and use it to stimulate ideas for how you could review your own ministry.  While the content will be helpful to anyone with a youth ministry, the process he used is applicable to any ministry.  Here’s what he’s done so well in this 90 page thesis:

• He documented the program rationale that governed the design of their many programs.  I don’t think that had been done before so he had to look at what they were doing and then reverse-engineer the theoretical foundation that justified their programs.  That meant he had to create both a theory of change and a logic model.  Although he doesn’t use those terms or build a diagram, he does document them in narrative form.  I wrote about how to do this at a the program level, so this is a good example at the organizational level.  You should have a theory of change and logic model at both the organizational and program levels.
• Andy does a great literature review to ensure he is right up-to-date on the latest thinking in youth evangelism.  He researched general shifts in culture, particularly from modern to post-modern world-views, and the agents that are driving youth culture.  Again, I wrote about doing literature reviews at the program level, and Andy has shown how to do for the organization.  You should do both.
• He addresses the issue of how to define success for their ministry and then found a way to measure it.  I’ll be writing about this topic later in the CCCC strategic review that is currently underway.
• After doing all the analysis, Andy then addresses the “So what?” question and develops several strategies that will take GVYFC to a new level of effectiveness.  He suggests that YFC and other movements adopt a new embodied apologetic, rather than relying on a programmatic approach. This apologetic incorporates five factors; the cultural desire among young people for authentic relationship, their openness to spirituality, the importance of story, the concept of journeying together and the formation of community.

Thank you Andy for sharing your thesis!  May we all learn how to look hard at our own ministries and enjoy benefits similar to what you have experienced.

“Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.”  And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Kings 6:16-17

It should be obvious – traditional strategic planning tools do not allow for kingdom insight.  If those tools are all we use, then we will not see what God wants us to see.  This was the point Jesus made when he challenged his followers:

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.  Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’?  Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.  Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.”
John 4:34-36

The deficiencies of traditional strategic planning

From a Christian perspective, traditional planning tools are out of alignment with the way God works.  A plan for harvesting would have waited four more months, but Jesus, who knows the true situation, says “Look up!!”  His urgent message is that the fields are ripe for harvesting at this very moment!  And while you are waiting for circumstances to dictate the right time to get to work, others are already earning their wages, like – right now!  Get a move on!

What strategic plan would ever have dared lead the Israelites out of Egypt only to corner them against a sea?  What strategic plan would have ever conceived of conquering Jericho as God intended to conquer it?  What strategic plan would have brought salvation to the world through a peasant born in a cave in what most people at the time thought was a backwater, no-account country?

The Bible declares that God is on a mission and is unstoppable as he works to fulfill it.  His strategic options are bounded only by his mission.  Circumstances are acknowledged and then blown away by a God who can do miracles.  As his earthly representatives, as God’s agents in mission, we can do no less than Paul who steadfastly pursued his call and relied on God to work things out however he would.  As I’ve written before, the world would be a different place today if the apostles had tried to write a strategic plan.

I love Paul’s attitude, his fixation on what God had called him to do.  While he’s writing about his personal growth here, I think we should all emulate his attitude when it comes to planning for our ministries:

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.  Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14

The primacy of our call

Traditional planning tools can be helpful, but they should not be the primary drivers of Christian ministry strategy.  While a business may look at its strengths and its environment, and decide to enter a new line of business that presents more opportunity and a greater financial return, a Christian ministry has a fixed mission that it cannot change until it has been accomplished.  Ministries can take account of their strengths and environments, but they don’t change their mission because of them.  Which comes first – the  limitations or the mission?  The mission, of course!

God has called churches to the full mission of the church and he has called specialized ministries to particular parts of the church’s mission.  A ministry does not have the freedom to do anything that circumstances allow, it must work on its assigned mission.  We are not free to say, as a business can, “What can we do with our people, our experience and our resources?”  We might clarify the mission from time to time and find fresh ways to state it, but the underlying mission remains the same.

At CCCC, our strength is in our staff and if we look at opportunities and strengths we might discover that we could do more good by serving the poor and funding it with grants.  Maybe there’s a lot of government funding for that activity.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that as worthy as that cause would be, it’s not the cause God has called us to.  We have been called to serve the church in Canada by providing our expertise to churches and agencies.

A ministry’s strategic planning is not based on leveraging assets but on solving a problem.  The problem is that people need to know God and experience his love.  How do we bring people to Christ?  How do we create more justice in the world?  These are problems that Christian ministries are called to solve.  The appropriate strategic planning model for Christian ministry is the same model used by many relief and development ministries, the theory of change/logic model.

A suggested strategic planning process for Christian ministries

I mentioned in a previous post, Is your ministry near its “Best before” date?, that CCCC is beginning a comprehensive strategic review.  I’ll be blogging that experience in real time, so as we complete major sections I’ll be reporting what we’ve done so you can see what I think a good Christian strategic planning process should look like.  The major structure will be:

• A group discernment process to be clear on what we understand God’s call to CCCC to be.  The output will be a set of strategic statements.
• The mission statement (or End statement in Carver policy governance terms) can be considered the statement of the problem that CCCC has been called to solve.
• A theory of change will be developed which makes explicit what we believe about how we can solve the problem.  For example, our implied theory of change to-date is that most of the problem can be fixed by education and awareness, which is why we have the conference, the Bulletin, regional seminars and so on.  Is that a valid theory of change?  The strategic review will probe that question.
• Once you have a theory of change, then you can build a logic model to show what you are going to do to solve the problem, what you need in order to do that, what you expect to happen as a result of your work and then what you think the consequences will be further down the road (hopefully the problem is solved!).
• Once you have the logic model you can develop the strategic initiatives that will ultimately be incorporated into your annual action plans.
• Next you can address the business model that will deliver on your plans.  This includes organizational structure, revenue model, and other operational aspects of making the core ministry happen.
• Lastly, you compare what you have designed for the future with what you have today.  You check to see if the organization is ready to move forward as is, or if some changes need to be made to align today’s organization with the one that will take you into the future.

Where do the traditional planning tools fit in?  The environmental scan can be helpful in gaining understanding of the problem and ensuring that the theory of change is comprehensive.  It can also help with the development of the strategic initiatives.   But all of this is only in a supporting role.

The scan may say the problem solving task will be more or less difficult, but it shouldn’t change the task itself.  It will likely surface a list of things you should be praying about and asking God to intervene in the situation on your behalf.

The SWOT analysis can be helpful at two places: 1) the SW part (strengths/weaknesses) is useful when you are checking organizational readiness and the OT part (Opportunities/Threats) is helpful when developing the strategic initiatives.

Remember though, that God works through our weaknesses and God is our defender, so weaknesses and threats should not be deterrents!

Be wise

Jesus did commend people who used their brains and the best of human wisdom (for example, the unrighteous steward in Luke 16) and he challenged his followers to do for him what they would do for themselves (eg., think ahead and count the cost before following him just as they would when building a tower or going to war – Luke 14:27-33) , so we shouldn’t be derelict and switch off our minds when planning for our ministries.

But if you reduce your plans to what you think you can do with human wisdom and strength, you’ve left no room for God to do what only he can do, and I suspect that when you can do it yourself, God lets you do it yourself!  But if you want to partner with God, then make a plan big enough that God has room to manoeuvre and do his thing.

I think this is a rather contrarian view of strategic planning, although there is support for it in the literature, so it may have challenged you.  I invite you to interact with this post in the comments.

Paul’s Example

Paul’s first missionary trip was very fruitful due to the many churches he planted in Asia.  Good leadership and strategic planning would dictate a return trip to ensure the churches were growing as they should and to further strengthen them, and that is what Paul intended to do (Acts 15:36).  He left Antioch after his church commended him to God with this mission in mind (v40).

Significantly, although the Holy Spirit gave specific instructions for the first trip, there is no mention that Paul received any direction from the Holy Spirit at all for this trip.  The way Luke tells the story, any reader would think that Paul’s plans are plain good sense and are just what they would have done if they had been in his sandals.  There is no foreshadowing of trouble at all.  Luke could have written, “But he failed to consult the Lord” to alert his readers to what was to come, but he didn’t.  Luke wanted us to experience the Holy Spirit pretty much as Paul did, so that the lesson would be all the more forceful for us today.  After visiting the churches Paul tries to venture further into Asia, but each time discerns the Spirit withholding his permission.  The frustration of Paul’s Asian plans mounts until finally, in a dramatic vision, the Spirit reveals to Paul what his mission trip is really about and calls him to Macedonia in Europe.  By blocking Paul from going deeper into Asia, the Holy Spirit was gradually corralling him into a port city from which he could easily embark on a ship to the place he wanted Paul to go.  At least this time God used a ship to transport Paul’s team and not, as he did with Jonah, a  great fish!  But then, Paul didn’t run from his call.

Robert Tannehill wrote a brilliant narrative analysis of Luke-Acts and in Volume Two: The Acts Of The Apostles writes that:

The narrator shows a keen interest in the dialogue between human purpose and divine purpose, indicating that Jesus’ witnesses, too, must patiently endure the frustration of their own plans in order to discover the opportunity that God holds open.  This opportunity may not be the next logical step by human calculation.

The Gospel of Luke shows the Holy Spirit guiding Jesus at every step of the way and he continues to guide the church in Acts.  God interrupting human plans is a central theme in Acts.  Just as the Spirit interrupted Paul’s planned visits to Asia, so he interrupted Peter’s planned visits to the Jewish church in diaspora (Acts 10:10-20) and directed and even moved Philip to the places he needed him (Acts 8:26-40).  God’s plans were not what the apostles had in mind.  But to the benefit of the entire church throughout the ages since, the apostles trashed their own plans and and followed God.  Later the other apostles supported the new dimensions of mission introduced by Peter and Paul as they deviated from their own plans and accepted God’s plans (Acts  11 and 15).

God’s Leadership

From a planning standpoint, the essential point Luke makes is that it is the Lord who directs Christian missions.  The book should really be called “Acts of the Holy Spirit,” not “Acts of the Apostles“ because the book tells the continuing story of what Jesus only began to do and teach in the Gospel of Luke.  (I think it was Dr. Roger Stronstad who said this in a seminary class.)  Luke wants his readers to know that when the Spirit gave clear direction to Paul to start out on an entirely new mission, the conversion of Europe (a mission that was not at all contemplated in Antioch and that was completely outside the scope of his intended journey), Paul immediately followed the Spirit’s direction, just as we should today.  Many people regard Acts simply as a history book.  It does tell the history of the early church, and Luke did intend to bolster our faith by informing us of its origins (Luke 1:1), but that’s not the only reason why Luke wrote it.  Luke tells of the origin of our faith, and Acts is a manual for how the church should faithfully go about its work as a Spirit-led church.  Its purpose is to encourage and inspire us as we continue to fulfill the church’s mission today.  Paul’s team wasted no time in getting on board with the new mission.  Luke records in 16:10 that ”After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”  And thus the Western church was born!  We need to follow God and not a plan.

My Experience

I have had to learn this lesson in my own life.  As a corporate leadership trainer, I was an enthusiastic supporter of strategic planning, goal setting and performance reviews based on measurable objectives.  My enthusiasm for planning changed, however, when I received my own very unexpected call ‘out of the blue’ from God to prepare for something new.  Believe, me, no plan of mine had that call from God in it!!  The Spirit did not reveal what the preparation was for, and I was challenged to trust God, give up my work and become a full-time student again in mid-life without knowing what the goal was, where I was headed, or what God had in mind.  All I knew was I had to go to seminary.

Half-way through my second year I felt abandoned by God and, at my age, despaired of ever having gainful employment again.  I dropped back into planning mode and ‘helped’ God by putting my resume out for work as an administrator at various Christian ministries.  In the midst of one interview, the Holy Spirit let me know that, “This is not what this is all about.  Withdraw your applications.”

The Spirit reminded me that,  “If my ways are not your ways, and if my thoughts are so much higher than yours that you can’t even conceive the depth and breadth of my thoughts, then the best your puny little plans can do is frustrate what I want to do through you.  Stop planning and let me lead!”  (I was, shall we say, overly-planful at the time!)  The image of me being blindfolded and holding on to God’s shirtsleeve was very vivid and God’s intent was quite clear: “When I take a step, you take a step.”  And that is how I have lived my life ever since.

Strategic Planning in Christian Ministry

So back to strategic planning.  I’m documenting in real time the strategic review I’m doing of CCCC, and you can follow that on this blog.  The key point about strategic planning for Christian ministry is that you can’t plan your way into the great and marvelous things God wants to do through you or your ministry.  (I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post asking “What if the apostles had tried to write a strategic plan?”)  I do not want my commitment to any plan to limit what God might want to do.  The logic of a plan may say to do one thing but the great deeds of history were often not very logical, they were daring.  We as Christian leaders need to leave room for God to do what only he, in his power, can do.

I agree that planning is useful and much good can come from it.  Paul’s planned second missionary journey led him to Timothy as an addition to his team, strengthened the churches that had been planted and added many converts in those areas (Acts 16:1-5).  Strategic planning does get results.  It just can’t, on its own, get all the results that God desires to give.  Any planning process used in Christian ministry must honour the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  Commit first to the mission God gave your ministry.  When God leads you in a different way than your plan lays out, follow God, not the plan.

I know firsthand God’s ability to orchestrate things so you end up doing something far more significant than you ever could have planned for on your own.   Just before God told me to withdraw my job applications, I had submitted my resume to CCCC.  Both my wife and my pastor saw the job ad and encouraged me to apply because they thought I was  a perfect fit for the job.  When I was told to withdraw my applications, I had not yet had any response from CCCC.  The Spirit let me know that I should leave this one application alone, and simply respond if they should call (which, obviously, they did).  The Spirit said, “Just sit back and watch what I can do.”  The rest is history.

I do plan, but I only ever regard my plans as default plans.  Plans that I will follow should nothing better come up.  I do my best to stay sensitive and receptive to the Spirit’s guidance each and every day.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

• before you need to,
• before you are desperate,
• while you are still strong,
• when there is still time for a new strategy to mature enough to carry the organization.

I’ve wondered why ministries sometimes die, since the mission of the church continues until Jesus returns and there is still lots to do!  Once a ministry has been established for a while, I think death must result for one of two reasons:

1. A ministry’s programs and methods are simply no longer relevant, or
2. Its leadership does not grow with the ministry and becomes increasingly not up to the task as the ministry outgrows them.

The good news is that both of these scenarios are avoidable.  If leadership is on the ball, there is no reason why a ministry should die.  But they probably will continue to die because we think we are so much smarter than the leaders in the case studies of organizations that have failed.  I’ve read How The Mighty Fall, and as I read about all the failures I thought to myself, “Okay, so I won’t do that” or “I’ll watch out for that!”  But I shouldn’t be so sure about not repeating their mistakes.  In Not for Free: Revenue Strategies for a New World, Saul Berman outlines the failures of many companies but then warns his readers:

Do not think that you and your colleagues won’t make some of the same mistakes as the media industry has.  Do not think that you are invulnerable to being blindsided by technology change, market change, or new competitors.  Do not think that it will not be difficult to innovate your revenue model as rapidly and as thoroughly as you need to.  Do not think that you have “plenty of time” to work things out.  Those are exactly the same mistakes that media made.  Too many of the executives thought they had more time, thought they had a good read of the market, thought they could wait for “better” ideas and options to come along.  They neglected opportunities, failed to invest in revenue innovation, stuck to their segmentations, pricing, payers, and packaging not because they were dumb or blind but because they were normal.  The easy path, the normal path, is to find all the reasons not to innovate your revenue models rather than seizing opportunities for revenue innovation.  Don’t be normal.  Don’t take the easy way out.  There are no second chances and the clock is ticking.

Berman was writing about the particular problem of consumers expecting services or knowledge for free.  What’s the issue in your ministry sector that has the potential to be a seismic shift?  Donors will support the ministry that does what they care about the way they think it should be done.  If you are still doing things the way the founder did them forty years ago, you are likely finding it harder and harder to raise donations because donors expect your methods to adapt to today’s methods and situations. Some anonymous person said, ““Even if you are on the right road, you will eventually get run over if you just sit there.”  You never arrive at a place in your lifecycle where you can camp for the duration.  You’ve got to keep moving!

Do you want to know how long your ministry will last? One clue is what your expectations are.  Ichak Adizes says in Managing Corporate Lifecycles that organizations will remain young as long as the leaders expect more than the results they are currently getting.  When leaders accept current results as the expected results, then the organization starts to age.

Determining where your ministry is in its lifecycle is important, because once you start on the downward trend it is very difficult to revive the organization.  In Stall Points, the authors say that once you have a significant downturn, research shows only a 7% chance of ever recovering to see moderate or high growth again.  If you wait until you plateau, it is too late to do very much.  The problem is that long before you hit your revenue peak the basis on which you were viable has already expired.  You’ve already used up much of the grace period to get something new going.  Are you still growing?  Well, sheer momentum will carry even a dead organization forward for a number of years before it finally expires and collapses!  There is no reason to delay jumping to a new lifecycle once you are solidly on the growth track of the first one.  You keep the first one going as long as it continues to grow, but when it is done, you have something else to go forward with.

Ichak Adizes has a free online assessment and a diagram of a corporate lifecycle to help you determine where you are in your organizational lifecycle.  It takes about five minutes to answer some questions and generate a graph showing where you are.  You want to be on the left side of the bell curve.  That side, because of its shape, is called the S-curve because it is the shape of an “S”.  There is a slow period of growth at the beginning of an organization’s life, then rapid growth as its products and services catch on, and then the growth flattens out as the organization matures.

There are also some leading indicators that can help you find where you are.  In Jumping the S-Curve: How to Beat the Growth Cycle, Get on Top, and Stay There, Nunes and Breene say there are three hidden S-curves that will flatten out well before the revenue curve does.  If you watch those, they will tell you when you are approaching the top of your revenue curve.  The three hidden S-curves are:

1. Relevance – over time you can lose your relevance either to your donors or your beneficiaries
2. Distinctive capabilities – over time you can lose your distinctiveness and become just another ministry
3. Talent attraction – people sense when an organization is past its prime and it becomes harder to attract and retain good staff

If you have reason to wonder about your ministry’s relevance, distinctiveness or ability to attract people, you need to take action!

Some leaders can only see one S-curve, and can’t conceive how to start something new (anything that is really new will always appear radical).  But if you only exist on one S-curve, you will end up simply trying to outdo other charities doing what you do, attracting donations solely on the basis of incremental improvements in cost or quality or both.  Perhaps who has the lowest overhead percentage!  This is not a long term solution.  It often ends up as though you are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  Nunes and Breene say when you compete like this, the future is bleak and can only end in organizational death.

A healthy way to think about your ministry’s future is to imagine that it has a shelf life and will expire unless it is renewed prior to its ‘best before’ date.  The key word here is ‘renewed.’  You can’t plan on the same old, same old taking you into the future.  The same mission, yes.  The same values, yes.  The same methods and assumptions?  No!!

An expiry date is stamped on everything you do. If you don’t watch the dates, there will come a day when your entire ministry will expire. Organizational longevity is dependent on keeping those expiry dates as far out as possible.  I wrote the following points in 1997 for a business column, and I think they have stood the test of time (I’ve adjusted them to suit charities):

• A truism I’ve used often is “Success breeds success.” We learn from our successes and each success generally opens the door to more opportunity. However, success also breeds potentially harmful attitudes, such as the feeling of invincibility.  You think success is a ‘right’ you’ve earned. You may even believe what reporters write about you.  The issue is that since you have been successful at a particular period and in a particular set of circumstances, you may now believe that success is an automatic, ongoing condition. When you enjoy success, make sure you understand what conditions and decisions led to success. If you don’t understand why you were successful, you won’t recognize when those conditions change and you will take a hit.
• Some leaders know what led to success and elevate that causal factor (a strategy or a program) to the status of a ‘sacred cow’. This is equally dangerous because it reduces your thinking to a set of limited options. The antidote is to recognize that for a particular set of conditions, the ‘sacred cow’ is the appropriate means to success but it may not be appropriate tomorrow. Identify your ‘sacred cows,’ let people know they are no longer ‘sacred’ and get your team to challenge their continuing effectiveness.
• Examine your strengths as well. Often the areas in which we feel strongest are the breeding grounds for our downfall.  Our strengths are assumed to be safe areas and therefore aren’t examined as carefully as they should be.
• Your ministry must maximize the fundraising value of its existing programs while developing their replacements that will attract future donations and grants.  Tomorrow doesn’t just happen, yet many organizations rest on their current successes without realizing it is only a matter of time until their current programs are obsolete.  Get people thinking both for today and tomorrow.
• Make room for new initiatives by abandoning old initiatives that have served their time.  Stay fresh.  Keep the real winners, but let go of anything limping along.  Treat the continuation of every strategy or program as a fresh investment decision.  No matter how good they’ve been, which ones will provide the best results for the future?  Support those.  Extend the shelf life of your ministry by developing the next generation of programs now while you still have cashflow.
• Re-examine current operations for potential improvement.  Over time you always lose efficiency.  Either people get sloppy or performance improvements elsewhere surpass you.  Keep your head up and look for ways to improve.  Always assume you can do better.  Make your equipment work harder and help your people work smarter!
• The easiest place to extend your shelf-life is to adapt to new opportunities in two areas: look for unmet needs your beneficiaries have and fill those; and find out why some people choose not to support your programs (so look for donors who have never given to you but who do give to similar ministries).

At CCCC we are checking our own “best before” date and beginning a process to find the next S-curve for us.  I’ll keep you posted as we progress.  I don’t know what the future holds for CCCC, but I really like what Peter Drucker said: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”  Rather than waiting for external forces to act on CCCC, we are choosing to ask Drucker’s question, “If we were starting today, knowing what we now know, would we do it the same way?” to re-design our ministry and, in turn, our future.  How about you?

New College, Oxford, is actually very old.  It was founded in 1379 but was the second college at Oxford named for Mary, the mother of Jesus, which is why it is called the ‘new’ college.  Like the other colleges, it has a great dining hall with big oak beams supporting the roof. These are about two feet square, forty-five feet long.

In the 1860s, the roof beams were found to be full of beetles.  The massive beams would have to be replaced.  But where to find wood of those dimensions in the nineteenth century?  It turns out that when the college was built, the board knew the beams would have to be replaced some day, and to ensure they would have the necessary wood to replace the roof beams, the college board bought some property at the same time they built the college and planted oak trees on it so they would grow and be ready over the course of several centuries.  This plan had been passed down from generation to generation for five hundred years!

When I heard this story, I thought that while it was amazing that anyone would think so far ahead to plant the trees, the really incredible part was that over all those years, none of the college’s leaders ever succumbed to selling the forest to raise capital for current projects.  They could have done so and said, “Let the future look after the future’s problems, and we’ll look after today’s.”  But they didn’t.  Their planning horizon spanned half a millenium.

How far out is my planning horizon?  Yours?  Are we setting our ministries up only for success during our watches or are we setting them up for our successors’ successes?

I attended an international convention once where a Japanese man gave a plenary speech about long range planning.  He said he had a 300 year plan for his family.  He said great things take longer than a single lifetime to be accomplished, so he had a plan for himself, his kids, his grandkids and on and on.  That seemed ridiculous to me, because who knows what will happen to any family over a 300 year period?  Will his kids have any kids?  He never said what the plan was, but how could it account for societal change, economic upheavals, personal choices, and technological innovations?

No one can predict the future and plan accordingly.  As Peter Drucker wrote, no one can foresee discontinuities, the game-changer inventions.  You can’t predict what has not yet happened.  What we can do is think about the future effects of events that have already occured and where they are likely to lead.  Drucker called this “the futurity of present events,” or to bring it to the level of management and leadership, “the futurity of present decisions.”

A decision to plant a forest in the present makes it more likely that in the future the wood would be available.  It doesn’t guarantee it will be; there could be a fire that destroys the forest only forty years before the wood is needed, but it has a higher probability of success in the future than hoping that an old forest will exist in five hundred years that will be available for harvesting.

Drucker said that to try to make the future happen is less risky (even though the outcome is uncertain) than coasting along assuming that nothing is going to change. The purpose of trying to make the future what you want “is not to decide what should be done tomorrow, but what should be done today to have a tomorrow.”  He says there are two strategies to follow.

1. The future that has already happened

There is a time lag between something that happens and its full effect, such as when the birth rate climbs or falls.  The change has already happened, but its impact has yet to arrive.  That will occur as the generation ages.  There are opportunities of the future based on what has already happened.  Leaders should be following demographic and societal trends, always asking “What does this change mean for us?”  “Has anything happened ‘out there’ in other countries or industries that might affect us?” is another good question.  And a final really good question is, “What are our own assumptions regarding society and economy, market and customer, knowledge and technology?  Are they still valid?”  Virtually every Christian ministry would benefit from addressing these questions and looking for opportunities in the future that are consequences of what has already happened.

2. The power of an idea

Drucker’s second strategy is “to impose on the as yet unborn future a new idea which tries to give direction and shape to what is to come.”  He calls this strategy “making the future happen.”  The question he says should be asked, in a business context, is “What major change in economy, market, or knowledge would enable us to conduct business the way we really would like to do it, the way we would really obtain the best economic results?”  For Christian ministries, I might rephrase the question as, “What major change in societal thinking or expectations would enable us to conduct our ministry the way we would really like to do it, the way we would make the most progress in achieving our mission?”  An example that comes to mind is The Truth Project by Dr. Del Tackett.  The problem that he is addressing is relativistic thinking that makes it difficult for people to accept a universal truth claim.  Tackett plants a seed, an idea, in the videos that he hopes will grow and shape the future in a way that will help people accept the Good News of the Christian faith.  So, thinking of your ministry, what seeds should you be planting today to create a more favourable future?  Sometimes ideas float around for several hundred years before they really take hold, so this really is acting today for a future result.

Both of these strategies hold lots of opportunities for Christian ministries.  Reflect on both as they relate to your mission and see what comes to mind.  I am doing this for CCCC and while writing this have a few ideas that came to mind.  Let’s put our thinking caps on!

Now, please DO NOT leave this blog before reading another post.  You see, the story I told you about the oak beams is not exactly true after all.  But that’s another story and the point of Truth in Storytelling.

Read the book for a fascinating explanation of what happened on Easter Island and Pitcairn Island, why there are no more Mayans and why the Vikings died out in Greenland, why the Dominican Republic and Haiti share the same island but are in such different circumstances, the real story behind the genocide in Rwanda, the disastrous conditions that exist today in China and Australia, and what all this means for our civilization.  We can avoid disastrous decisions if we learn from history.

Diamond says the factors that contribute to poor decision making are:

• Failure to anticipate a problem before it arrives
  • The primary problem is not thinking ahead of a decision’s consequences.  Australian settlers introduced rabbits and foxes to Australia with disastrous results that are still with us today.
    • Leadership Check: Decisions are usually made to fix an immediate problem (the Australians wanted some animals they were familiar with from home) or to exploit an immediate opportunity (“There’s gold in them thar’ hills!”).  Your analysis should go much deeper and:
      • Follow the decision through for its intended and unintended consequences.  What do foxes and rabbits eat?  How many rabbits will there be in a hundred years?  Are there any predators to control the fox population?  Ooops!  If you do “X”, what affect might that have on “Y” (public opinion, other programs, co-dependency relationships, etc.).
      • Speculate as to what might happen.  What if a bad economy results in fewer donations?  Do scenario planning and define the leading indicators for each scenario.
  • Some societies simply forget the past and have the ‘joy’ of discovering the consequences of the same bad decisions again and again.  It didn’t take too long after the oil crisis of 1973 before gas-guzzling SUVs were being sold.
    • Leadership Check: Know your history!  Why learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from others??!!  Find out about strategic leadership initiatives that others have tried and failed.  There are books about strategic failures, magazines such as the Harvard Business Review regularly analyze stories of success and failure, and an Internet search turns up lots of resource material.  Now, don’t take this too far and say just because it was tried unsuccessfully before you won’t try it again.  Make sure you understand why it failed, and then see if circumstances are different today or if a different strategy might fare better.
  • Sometimes we fail to recognize a potential problem because we use a false analogy to analyze the consequences.  When the Vikings landed in Iceland and saw the same kind of trees they knew from home, they thought they could harvest them the same way.  What they didn’t realize was that soil conditions were different, and once the trees were cut down, the topsoil blew away and nothing could grow again.
    • Leadership Check: Don’t be too quick to say “This is like that.”  Leaders make this mistake all the time, taking what worked elsewhere thinking it will work for them.  It might work, but are the situations similar enough that the strategy is transferable?  If you dig deep enough into a success story, you will often find there were a few key factors without which the strategy would not have worked.  Be sure those factors apply to you too before applying the strategy.
• Failure to perceive a problem when it arrives
  • Some problems are imperceptible, such as the amount of nutrients in soil.  The first few crops planted in Australia grew, but they sucked the last remaining nutrients out of the soil.
    • Leadership Check: Check your assumptions!!!!  Have someone who isn’t immersed in your ministry’s culture review the plan and tell you what they think your assumptions are.  We often mistake assumptions for givens.
  • Some problems are not seen because the managers are too far away.  They don’t know what is happening “on the ground.”
    • Leadership Check: This is why field visits are so important.  I make it a point when travelling to stop in and see as many of our members as I can.  It is why I want to hear first-hand from staff about their interactions with our members.  It is why I want to see selected raw data as well as the executive summary and report.  I’m not going to analyze the data again, but looking at it gives me a better grasp on what was said.  Leadership cannot afford to be isolated from the frontline.
  • It is difficult to spot a problem when it takes the form of a slow trend concealed by wide up-and-down fluctuations.  Global warming is a prime example.  When this happens, it results in “creeping normalcy.”  The change is so gradual people don’t notice it.  The change is only noticed when people remember long enough ago to say, “Didn’t that mountain used to have snow all year on it?”
    • Leadership Check: While year-over-year comparisons are helpful, don’t neglect decade-over-decade comparisons (or some other suitably long time frame).  For example, our membership retention rate at CCCC fluctuates up and down by about 0.75% each year, so the year-to-year comparison really doesn’t mean all that much.  What matters is that the records show that it has never varied outside the range of 94 to 97%.  So if it started falling by 0.3% each year, that wouldn’t be the end of the world because annually that is within the normal fluctuation.  But if the rate declined below 94%, that would be news.  But we’d only know that by paying attention to the longer term trends.  So keep a rolling average of say five years, or maybe ten years, to screen out short term fluctuations and uncover the longer term trends.  Then use a comparison of this year to five years ago to check for creeping normalcy.  Apply the same evaluation methods to your environmental scans.
• Failure to even attempt to fix a problem once it has been noticed
  • Some people figure they can personally profit at the expense of others, so they continue with bad behaviour (eg. polluting) that has immediate profits for them and leaves the problem for others to clean up.
    • Leadership Check: This is where politics enters the equation.  We normally think of “office politics” as a bad thing, but really it is neutral. In Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice and Leadership, Bolman and Deal define politics as “the realistic process of making decisions and allocating resources in a context of scarcity and divergent interests.”  It becomes bad when people start campaigning for the welfare of their department rather than the welfare of the organization.  As the organizational leader it is your job to set the terms on which the decisions will be made:
      • first and foremost, the good of the whole ministry takes priority over any particular component of it
      • just as important, all decisions must align with the organization’s values, and
      • the best choice is the one that best advances the mission.
  • People might continue doing something harmful (overfishing for example) because if they don’t do it, they  believe someone else will.  Since the resources will be depleted anyway, they might as well get what they can while they can.
    • Leadership Check: This should not be a problem for a Christian ministry, but you never know.  As a leader, you must always be sure that your decisions are to do what is right, not just for your ministry, but  for the benefit of the kingdom of God and the world that God is wooing.  Take the high road and be a model, a paragon of virtue.
  • We cling to values that no longer make sense.  Montana’s state government hasn’t been willing to deal with the problems caused by mining, logging and ranching because they are the pillars of Montana’s pioneer spirit and identity.
    • Leadership Check: Challenge everything about your ministry.  You don’t change for the sake of changing, but neither should you fossilize for the sake of fossilizing!  Previous leaders did what had to be done in their generation and you must do the same for yours.  So challenge the sacred cows.  Challenge conventional thinking.  The question is, “Does this still work for us today?”  It could be a cultural value, a program or a methodology.  Challenge them all and prove they are still working better for you today than any other alternative available to you.
  • We don’t like the people who have identified the problem, so we don’t take it seriously.  This is why it has taken so long to accept the reality of global warming.
    • Leadership Check: You don’t have to like someone to agree with them.  Forget who said it and focus on the value of what they are saying.  Is it a good argument?
  • A clash between short and long term motives can prevent people from taking action.  Politicians are unlikely to think beyond the next election.
    • Leadership Check: This is where the Christian concept of stewardship should be a vital part of your leadership.  It is not your ministry (even if it is named after you!).  You are a steward caring for Christ’s ministry, and as such you should be thinking very long term, certainly much longer than your presence on the leadership team.  When you “check out,”  what report will you give the Owner?  Will you be turning over an orchard with no trees in it because you used them all up or will you give back a rich, productive and valuable orchard brimming with trees for the next steward to use?
  • Crowd psychology can easily get otherwise rational people caught up in the excitement of the moment and lead to dangerous things being done.
    • Leadership Check: The best protection is to forget what the crowd is doing and check out the fundamental issue yourself.  Does it make sense?  A lot of ministries got suckered into the New Era Philanthropy ponzi scheme because they did what everyone else did and didn’t do their own due diligence.  The few major ministries that did not take part checked the so-called investment out for themselves and decided the underlying premise didn’t make sense.
  • Groupthink occurs when stress and the need for mutual approval lead people to suppress their doubts and critical-thinking skills.
    • Leadership Check: Groupthink is why you need a “devil’s advocate,” someone to do their best to promote a different decision.  You need to have real alternatives, not just an assumed single option.  You need to test your thinking with outsiders, or the board.  Every organization likely has cherished beliefs about itself that are no longer true or relevant.  If a decision seems too easy or too obvious, perhaps it’s because you haven’t thought deeply enough about it or tried hard enough to find real alternatives.  Do the work!
  • Psychological denial occurs when something is so painful to think about that you deny its possibility.  People living right below a dam often say they do not believe the dam could burst.
    • Leadership Check: Consult with people who are more removed from your situation.  They will be more objective.  If you are honest with yourself, what are you most afraid of regarding the continuing viability of your ministry?  What have you said will never happen?  Get it out in the open, because only then can you deal with it.
• Finally, the problem may not be solvable, it may be prohibitively expensive to solve, or our efforts may be too little or too late.
  • Leadership Check: I’m not sure what to suggest here.  Do you bail?  Do you keep plugging away regardless?  We never know what the true unsolvable barriers are until we try to break through them.  Some of the best inventions discovered or the best things people have done have been accomplished after tremendous effort and repeated failures.  Are you Don Quixote wasting your life tilting at windmills or are you Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb after 1,000 failed experiments?  (Edison said they weren’t failures; he was just finding many ways not to make a light bulb – there’s positive thinking!) Answering the Quixote/Edison question is what leaders get paid for.  As Kenny Rogers sang in The Gambler:

“You got to know when to hold ‘em,  know when to fold ‘em,
know when to walk away and when to run.”