Strategic Ministry Planning 
A Step-By-Step Guide from Someone Who’s Been There

by Dr. Jeffrey W. Steed, M.Div., MBA

A strategic ministry plan can provide crucial guidance to a new church or to an existing church that desires fresh renewal.

What follows is an outline with brief descriptions for the practical sections of the strategic ministry plan for a local church.

Vision: Where does the Church need to be going in its ministry?

This is a long-term look at the direction of the church’s ministry. When developing the church’s vision, mission and goals, leaders need to seriously consider the church’s five purposes for existence. The following should be the foundation and very evident in its planning process:

• Worship (1 Corinthians 14:26) 
• Evangelism (Acts 8:1-4) 
• Fellowship (Acts 2:42) 
• Discipleship (Acts 2:42) 
• Ministry (1 Peter 4:10) 

Mission: How is the church going to get there?

The mission provides a list of practical items from a general standpoint that will enable the church to “flesh out” the vision.

Goals: What steps need to take place to achieve success?

Goals seem to be those specific, detailed steps that can be used to measure within a designated time period whether the organization is successful in accomplishing the practical items of the mission and ultimately the vision.

The Description of the Church: Discuss some of the history and current information related to the church. Also, consider how the community potentially perceives the church and its role within the community.

The Focus Markets: Discuss whom the church is focusing upon with their promotional/ marketing efforts currently and the desired markets in the future in which they believe that they should be specifically serving. Consider the reasoning why the church is prospectively focusing upon these specific focus markets.

As a side note, a focus market could be the community in general. However, the more specific the focus market, the better the church is able to design its ministries to help serve this population segment.

The Location: Discuss how the geographical location of the church serves the vision, mission and goals established.

The Organization: Develop an organizational chart with brief descriptions of responsibilities, along with the name of the individuals responsible for such tasks.

Include within the chart:

• Staff leadership 
• Teams/Committees 
• Deacons 
• Elders 

The Local Churches: List and discuss other churches of all faiths within a specified mileage from the church. Include in the discussion their focus markets, if known or if the information can be obtained. Focus markets are those a church seeks to target with their outreach/marketing efforts for the sake of ministry.

There can be multiple focus markets. A summary of the focus markets within the geographical area can be important for evaluating unique focus markets currently being addressed for the community, as well as those not being addressed.

For visual evaluation purposes, a map could be included with the specified mileage/ radius boundary. Within the boundary, a plot of the churches might be a helpful part of this section of the strategic ministry plan, or at least referenced in the appendix.

The S.W.O.T. Analysis: Include a S.W.O.T. analysis, which includes a list and brief description of the church’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses focus more on the internal workings of the church. Opportunities and threats address situations outside of the church’s control.

Also, one very important part of a S.W.O.T. analysis is to discuss the conversion of weaknesses to strengths and converting threats to opportunities.

A church survey can help research the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Also, two planned focus group meetings should be organized, with the meetings consisting of small-group leaders and committee/team leaders (with individual staff members facilitating subgroups). The first meeting will help gather additional data/ thoughts concerning the church’s survey results. The second meeting will be held after the completion of the strategic ministry plan is developed to discuss the thoughts of the plan. The plan will be distributed to the focus group prior to this meeting for their review.

The Marketing Strategy: For every focus market developed in Section 5, the church must focus on three of “the four P’s” of marketing:

1. Types of Ministry Offerings. For the specific focus market being addressed, what does the church provide in the way of ministering to help serve this selected focus market? Potential new ministries and methods should be considered to help connect to the focus markets for the sake of serving them as a church. Additionally, ministry offerings that don’t help achieve the vision, mission and goals — along with helping to accomplish the overall strategic ministry plan — need to be seriously considered in relation to their retirement.

2. Place of Ministry Offerings. Discuss how the ministry offerings are or will be offered to the focus markets. For example, consider how the church offers new and/or existing ministry offerings to this focus market, whether outside the church in the community, at the church building, or wherever most appropriate. Consider if the method for distributing the ministry offerings is logical.

3. Promotion of Ministry Offerings. What method will be used (newspaper, mail-outs, TV, Internet, radio, billboards)? What will the content of the promotion communicate? Should a professional Christian marketing consultant or firm be hired to assist with the promotional efforts? For every focus market, the leadership needs to develop a customized marketing strategy addressing the types of ministry offerings for that focus market, where the offerings will be offered, and how they will be promoted.

The Implementation: The next step is to list the various steps to be executed by specific parties, including volunteers and paid staff. Include the primary steps for implementing the plan with a tentative timetable for initiating and achieving each step. These steps should include the launching of additional ministries as needed.

The Finances: A strategic ministry plan needs to include financials, such as projected income statements and projected cash flow statements, that reflect the proposed plan, including ministry portfolio changes, overall marketing efforts, and other steps for implementation. This section helps take a look at the financial feasibility of moving forward with the plan. If additional funds are needed beyond the church’s operating budget, proper planning for obtaining such funds should be included within the plan.

Parting Advice: Being strategic in its ministry helps keep a local church freshly focused on that fulfillment and focus. The local church is God’s chosen venue for advancing His overall Church, His Bride.

Jeffrey W. Steed is vice president of the Arkansas Baptist Foundation and Christian Ministry Services. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., and a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. Steed also has an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington. He is a preacher as well as a teacher on the adjunct faculty at Central Baptist College in Conway, Ark. To contact Steed, e-mail jeff.steed@abf.org. Footnotes have been omitted by the publisher.