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Strategic Planning: Shaping Holy Conversations
Strategic Planning is about discernment and dialogue.
What should we do? When should we start? Who should be involved? These are common questions for congregations. Without a clear sense of a shared identity, purpose, goals, and strategies, plans may never get off the ground. Conflict and competition among groups can erupt. Energy can wane. Frustations may simmer.
Holy Conversations™ is Alban’s approach to strategic planning. It is based on the insight that before making plans to do things, congregations need to engage in discernment and dialogue around three core questions:
• Who are we?
• What has God called us to do or be?
• Who is our neighbor?
In this approach planning is conversation, because it truly is dialogue. And conversation is holy because, at its best, it is about a people’s understanding of their identity as a faith community, their sense of purpose, and their relationship with God – Who are we? What has God called us to do or be? Who is our neighbor?
Drawing on the work by Gil Rendle and Alice Mann, this seminar will help you to choose a planning process in a size and shape that fits your congregation.
We will cover how to build a planning team and design a planning strategy that incorporates both modern organizational techniques and ancient methods of discerning God’s will in religious community.
You will leave knowing how to assess your congregation’s life and ministry; gather congregational and community data; develop statements of purpose, mission, and vision; and present and implement a bold and flexible plan for ministry.
Rev. Dan Hotchkiss, Alban Senior Consultant, is a sought-after writer and speaker. His areas of special interest include strategic and financial planning, congregational governance, clergy leadership, and social justice ministries. Dan has published more than 50 articles, including "Faithful Finances," a monthly column for the Clergy Journal. Alban published Ministry and Money: A Guide for Clergy and their Friends in 2002. Dan is currently working on a second book tentatively titled Ministry Together: The Art of Governance in Congregations.
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