Video transcript
00:00 how’s it going small business owners and
00:04 church professionals this is Chris
00:07 Charles with spreadsheets for business
00:10 comm and this is the accompanying video
00:16 for my post on conducting a SWOT
00:21 analysis for your church it’s the second
00:27 in the series that focuses on strategic
00:31 planning for churches and it’s another
00:35 one like my previous one I focused on
00:40 mission statements that is on in the
00:43 soft skills as I put it
00:47 most of what you’ll find on spreadsheets
00:50 for business comm is of course about
00:53 spreadsheets you know conducting the
00:57 SWOT analysis isn’t necessarily a
01:00 spreadsheet centric sort of thing
01:04 so it’s there’s no spreadsheet in this
01:09 one so I’ll apologize in advance for the
01:11 kind of dull background this might be in
01:14 the type of video you’ll just want to
01:16 put on in the background I don’t really
01:19 have much visually to put in there to
01:26 spice it up it’s just mostly gonna be
01:28 audio so I admit that that’s probably a
01:33 touch boring I mean I could have put
01:35 together a fancy-pants spreadsheet I
01:38 guess but in the interest of getting
01:41 this done and getting it out and you
01:43 know ultimately arms not fancy-pants
01:45 spreadsheets are a fancy-pants
01:47 presentation slideshow that’s what I was
01:50 looking for could have done that but you
01:55 know ultimately the value in this is in
01:57 the audio so you might be wondering well
02:04 okay if your spreadsheet if you’re gonna
02:08 spread sheet on the brain if your
02:09 website is
02:11 around spreadsheets then why do a post
02:14 on in a video on SWOT analysis and
02:19 that’s a good question and kind of like
02:21 a touched on in the mission statement
02:23 video because there are other elements
02:27 of strategic planning that involves
02:31 spreadsheets involve them heavily
02:33 capital budgeting for the church
02:36 operating budget for the church
02:38 financial budget for the church those
02:42 all build upon the softer points of
02:50 strategic planning specifically mission
02:52 statement SWOT analysis and strategy
02:59 formulation is the other one so they you
03:05 know these this video and post serves to
03:09 kind of round that out fill in fill in
03:13 the blanks kind of paint a complete
03:14 picture of what takes place during
03:17 strategic planning so you know since I
03:20 covered the the harder skills if you
03:24 will the spreadsheet and number
03:28 crunching and all of that I wanted to
03:30 like I said paint a complete picture by
03:32 covering some of the softer skills
03:36 heading out there will be a link to this
03:40 post on the website in the description
03:43 and it’ll kind of serve as a reference
03:48 if you know you want something in print
03:52 to refer to if you think back to
03:56 something in the video that I mentioned
03:58 and maybe you wanted to touch on again
04:00 it might be easier search for it and
04:02 print you know some of them the link
04:04 will be like I said in the in the
04:07 description there okay so let’s get into
04:13 a little bit of what a SWOT analysis is
04:14 and I’m gonna do my best to kind of push
04:18 through this this is a
04:20 it’s a big post it’s a complex topic
04:23 it’s you know it could go on for a while
04:26 and if you’ve seen in my other videos
04:29 you know that I’ve got no problem
04:32 rambling on about these subjects but you
04:37 know I’ve got a lot say on the matter
04:41 and you know I’ll try to but I’ll try to
04:43 keep it focused keep it moving here and
04:45 get this bad boy done under an hour okay
04:50 so a SWOT analysis what is a SWOT
04:52 analysis and if you can probably read it
04:54 in description
04:56 it’s about s wo T and that is an acronym
04:59 and that stands for strengths weaknesses
05:02 opportunities and threats okay s wo t
05:08 alright and what it does the point of it
05:12 is to paint a picture of the environment
05:15 that your church operates in so you’ll
05:19 hear a SWOT analysis referred to
05:22 sometimes as a situational analysis okay
05:26 the same thing it’s just taking time to
05:29 commit thought to your environment okay
05:37 understanding what your internal
05:40 environment is you strengths some
05:42 weaknesses your external environment
05:44 your opportunities and threats and how
05:47 all those interact will help you should
05:51 help you in your decision making over
05:54 the coming year okay so you know where
06:01 to even start with a SWOT analysis
06:09 start with thinking about you can start
06:13 with strengths and weaknesses or
06:14 opportunities and threats but you know
06:16 sometimes it’s easier to wrap your arms
06:21 around things that are within your
06:22 control and that’s the strengths and
06:24 weaknesses okay and when you’re thinking
06:31 about your strengths and weaknesses it’s
06:36 not a time to let yourself off the hook
06:41 it’s not a time to you know put on your
06:46 rose-colored glasses you if you want
06:49 this whole exercise to be effective
06:50 you’ve got to be painfully honest with
06:54 yourself okay so don’t list things you
07:01 think should be your strengths or wish
07:03 were your strengths and ignore things
07:06 that are your weaknesses you know you’ve
07:10 got a ultimately to put to make this
07:15 whole strategic planning process worth
07:18 your time you know you’ve got a deal in
07:21 reality so you’ll want to focus you know
07:25 once the SWOT announced has done focus
07:28 on your strengths and control your
07:32 weaknesses okay so the other side of the
07:35 coin is or excuse me opportunities and
07:39 threats these things outside of your
07:41 control be and you’ve been done so to
07:46 speak
07:48 you could probably be a little more a
07:54 little more in touch with reality when
07:59 listing your opportunities and threats
08:03 but you know don’t also when you’re
08:09 thinking about these you know don’t
08:13 don’t let political correctness or
08:15 stubbornness or you have your blinders
08:17 on or anything you know be be forthright
08:20 about
08:21 with real opportunities in your external
08:24 environment armed with the real threats
08:25 are okay so what I’m getting at kind of
08:31 in the intro part there is just be
08:33 prepared to see things as they are and
08:42 communicate things as they are because
08:44 you and your team that are doing this
08:47 SWOT analysis don’t really stand to gain
08:49 anything by fooling yourself or by you
08:54 know pretending really reality something
08:57 different than what it is okay so we’ll
09:04 get into how kind of a strategy for
09:09 doing the SWOT analysis I’ll make the
09:12 point like I did with the mission
09:14 statement excuse me that you know
09:19 whatever gets the job done its job done
09:22 you know this is looking at this video
09:25 and the post as a guide and an idea of
09:29 where to start they you know build on
09:32 that in whatever manner serves your
09:36 church best okay it’s not a you know a
09:41 strict step one through whatever process
09:44 that I promise is the only right way to
09:47 do a SWOT analysis now I mean whatever
09:49 works works and you know it’s sort of
09:55 thing every year
09:56 we should do it you’ll get better at and
09:59 more efficient at it but before I get
10:06 into that let me also qualify myself
10:11 briefly in terms of you know
10:16 Who am I to give you advice on how to
10:19 manage your church and you know as I
10:22 kind of hinted at earlier I’m more of a
10:25 numbers guy okay that’s that’s my
10:29 strength what I’m good at
10:31 it’s when my website revolves around and
10:34 you know so I don’t manage a church I’ve
10:39 never done a SWOT analysis with the
10:43 church and I don’t go to church on a
10:47 regular basis I have been to church I
10:49 think churches certain valuable purpose
10:53 and for the most part are a valued part
10:59 of society so I’m not coming from this
11:03 from some sort of weird angle or
11:05 anything okay I go to my website my my
11:11 post my free downloadable workbooks
11:16 spreadsheets okay all free so I’m not
11:20 trying to again pull something over on
11:24 you here by talking about something I
11:28 don’t know anything about you know what
11:30 what I did do when writing my post and
11:33 in making this video is give a lot of
11:38 thought to how I would do it so it’s
11:40 authentic in that respect anticipating
11:44 on my site is something I’m strive for
11:46 so you know not not trying to be a
11:53 charlatan or anything here you know I
11:56 here’s the thing it you know I I make
11:59 these videos for a for churches these
12:03 strategic planning videos because
12:05 there’s a demand for them based off of
12:07 what I found looking on the Internet
12:10 okay so it’s no different than I made
12:15 the point in the mission statement video
12:18 that if I were a or I might not never go
12:23 to like a nail salon or a women’s
12:26 clothing boutique to shop okay and I
12:29 wouldn’t start those types of businesses
12:31 because that’s just not what I’m into
12:34 but but nevertheless you know these a
12:36 lot of the things that I’m going to
12:37 cover in this video and
12:40 the soft skills and strategic planning
12:42 in general are applicable doesn’t matter
12:46 the industry you know the the thing is
12:48 and part of the one of the other reasons
12:50 I chose churches was because it gave me
12:52 the opportunity you know most of my
12:54 education training experience in that is
12:57 in the for-profit realm okay this gives
13:00 me an opportunity to look at things from
13:02 the not-for-profit perspective and I
13:06 thought that was a good opportunity for
13:07 me to learn something and kind of look
13:10 at things from a different point of view
13:12 you know because churches not not
13:15 everything’s about the bottom line okay
13:18 there’s a greater good to be served so
13:23 to speak so you know it was a great
13:25 opportunity for me to dedicate a lot of
13:28 thought and research to these sort of
13:30 things and again I’m not giving any any
13:33 advice that’s inauthentic tonight you
13:35 know if you’ve had me start a church
13:39 tomorrow these are the steps I would
13:41 take to do a SWOT analysis okay so let’s
13:44 get into it here first thing you’re
13:54 probably going to do is again like the
13:57 mission statement or brainstorming it’s
14:03 okay this gets the gears turning and
14:07 your brain gets you and your team that’s
14:13 doing a strategic planning and the right
14:16 frame of mind okay the right mindset so
14:21 really I think you know you can use some
14:26 of the tactics that I outlined there in
14:29 the mission statement video like I said
14:35 if you do a quick search online for
14:41 brainstorming techniques let’s bring
14:43 that up here
14:47 pardon my ancient computer and slow Cox
14:54 internet web connection disappointing
15:04 hang on you can search for brainstorming
15:08 techniques and you’ll get a multiple
15:12 multiple multiple of results that will
15:20 give you ideas of different ways to
15:21 approach brainstorming so you know yeah
15:24 there’s these the old fashioned lists
15:26 the first thing to come to your mind
15:28 no ideas are off the table it’s fine and
15:31 good there’s resources out there for
15:34 different techniques ok so let’s see so
15:49 ok so you get all that kind of down on
15:51 paper and then you want to start
15:58 consuming kind of information ok so
16:03 you’ve got you have a bunch ideas down
16:05 for your strengths of weaknesses your
16:08 opportunities and threats and you know
16:15 it’s time to start gathering some
16:19 solidifying those kind of vague ideas ok
16:25 here are a couple ideas that I have on
16:30 what it might help you to gather in
16:33 terms of strengths weaknesses
16:39 opportunities and threats there are
16:43 several different well I mean really an
16:47 infinite number of different things that
16:51 might qualifies a strength weakness
16:53 opportunity or threat again this is just
16:56 kind of an idea kind of get the
16:59 I get the gears turning and everything
17:01 to get you help give June the right
17:05 mindset so for instance you can start
17:11 with traffic count okay your church is a
17:16 piece of real estate okay what is the
17:20 most important thing in real estate
17:22 location okay so one of your strengths
17:28 or weaknesses might revolve around
17:30 simply the number of people that pass in
17:32 front of your church any given dating
17:35 okay most metropolitan areas that I’ve
17:44 found keep traffic count information
17:48 okay what that is is basically where the
17:52 Department of Transportation or
17:53 something similar similar counts the
17:56 number of vehicles that drive in front
17:58 or on a particular stretch of road in a
18:02 given day well day week month whatever
18:05 it might be
18:06
[Music]
18:08 let’s look at an example here we need to
18:12 search for one like we look for traffic
18:16 count what’s kind of a midsize it’s just
18:25 a single this big city not really
18:28 midsize bit you look here that’s just
18:35 not gonna work with me is it
19:04 that’s Google or what apologies for the
19:08 delay let’s see okay there we go so we
19:14 look first result was Missouri
19:16 Department of Transportation traffic
19:18 volume maps st. Louis district okay it’s
19:22 2016 it’s a couple years old at this
19:24 point well let’s see what they got here
19:27 I just pulled this out at random okay so
19:31 here we are we got us a PDF and Kenneth
19:38 and this one here scroll over you can
19:43 see we’re in the st. look a st. Louis
19:45 metropolitan area and it’s got data now
19:50 this one’s kind of on the like the
19:55 highways state highways interstates and
19:58 that sort of thing but gives numbers and
20:05 I bet there’s kind of a key somewhere
20:07 here the traffic volume and truck volume
20:13 for each of them so you can see in red
20:15 and black respectively so I said I
20:19 literally just pulled that up at random
20:22 and I did that to make the point that
20:24 this information is out there so your
20:27 your particular city I mean if you’re in
20:29 the real small town maybe not but you
20:32 know if you’re in at least a decent
20:36 sized metropolitan area you can find
20:40 this sort of information okay
20:44 so what what’s that tell you you know I
20:47 mean it’s basically you want to
20:49 understand what your visibility is to
20:51 passersby
20:52 okay if you’re getting heavy traffic in
20:55 front of your church that’s an
20:56 opportunity to reach people with a limit
21:01 call them just the marquee or whatever
21:04 or you know if you have a little better
21:07 technology out there a you know like a
21:11 LED like a display same thing input
21:15 video or
21:17 you know some sort of advertising
21:18 something so that’s a big billboard on
21:25 your property that’s a big opportunity
21:27 to reach people but more of a strength
21:29 excuse me not an opportunity
21:31 okay opportunities in external this is
21:33 under your control so hey I’m there’s
21:37 one idea another thing is to track your
21:41 church attendance okay and the point of
21:46 doing so is to gather data okay so you
21:52 just want to know how many people are
21:55 attending maybe you have a rough idea
21:56 maybe it’s small enough where you know
22:02 really well how it can fluctuate from
22:03 week to week but you know this this just
22:08 gives you an idea of the number of
22:10 behinds the chip put in the pews okay so
22:16 soft Lord exists for this depending on
22:18 the sophistication Church probably even
22:20 needs software but it’s just a matter of
22:22 accurately you know counting how many
22:25 people are you getting in getting an
22:27 idea you know the of your of your
22:30 customers okay in this case for your
22:32 church you know the people that attend
22:35 or your customers kind of so on the same
22:38 token you can do a church census alright
22:43 and what that is and it just might sound
22:45 a little intrusive and in a certain
22:48 sense that it is but you know like I
22:50 said if if the members are your
22:53 customers okay these are the people that
22:55 you’re serving the better you can
22:58 understand them the better you can serve
23:00 them okay and then what they need and
23:03 and again it it depends on your church I
23:06 mean if you’re you’ve got a tiny little
23:09 Church you might know in a small town I
23:12 come from a small town you know you
23:13 might know everybody’s family tree and
23:18 you know business that extends well
23:21 beyond church and and all that neck you
23:25 know might know they work
23:27 they live all those sort of things okay
23:29 you know in that case maybe an official
23:33 census wouldn’t make sense but other
23:35 instances where you’ve got you know a
23:38 lot of people that you know that you you
23:45 might recognize faces but not know
23:47 circumstances of or so many that you
23:50 don’t even recognize any but just a tiny
23:54 few amount of faces you know so since
23:58 it’s what it sounds like it’s like a
24:00 census that the government does today
24:02 you know you’re just basically getting
24:05 demographic information you know and you
24:07 don’t have to be intrusive with it you
24:12 know it depending on the culture of your
24:15 church the information together might
24:19 you know might be real high level or a
24:22 little more personal to to do a point of
24:26 course so depending on just things age
24:30 professions you know family size contact
24:37 information this is a good opportunity
24:38 to get that contact information I mean
24:41 look you might not ever use it you know
24:43 and I mean you probably not the type of
24:45 church that once put the hard sell on
24:47 people and exactly I don’t think you
24:48 should be but to have contact
24:51 information is valuable a to let if for
24:55 no other reason to let members should
24:57 know you know you’re doing a fundraiser
24:59 you’re doing volunteer opportunities
25:02 they you know things that they would
25:03 want to take part in potentially but
25:06 might not know about unless you market
25:07 it to them so you know none of this has
25:10 to be Shady or you know underhanded or
25:14 anything like that so the the challenge
25:18 you might run into with doing a church
25:21 census is how to get people to fill it
25:22 out you know and that’s just a my
25:28 opinion a matter of being the right
25:30 amount of pushy okay just general
25:33 reminders that you know during service
25:36 that you would appreciate if people
25:38 would fill
25:39 would complete these returned them to
25:41 you you know you don’t want to be
25:44 obnoxious of course but just you know
25:46 just reminder over a several week period
25:49 you know and you get what you can not
25:51 everybody’s gonna turn it in not
25:53 everybody’s gonna participate but you
25:55 just keep your your information in check
25:58 now once you have that information
26:00 depending on the size of your church it
26:03 might be a pretty high volume of
26:04 information okay so so then you’ve got
26:07 an issue of what what to do with all
26:10 that alright and you know you can use a
26:14 database you know access you can even
26:17 use Excel potentially depending on how
26:19 much information you talking about and
26:21 and I love Excel but you know it it’s
26:25 not a it’s darn close but it’s not a
26:28 cure-all for everything excuse me but
26:33 there suffer out there called CRM
26:36 software customer relationship
26:38 management and it’s meant to happen
26:41 handle this type of data okay so that’s
26:44 an option to if you want to make that
26:46 investment again I’m thinking along the
26:51 same lines from a church you know
26:57 attendance tracking and census would be
27:01 a a survey okay
27:14 and you know of course what a survey is
27:18 and it’s just basically getting feedback
27:22 from your customers do you members and
27:26 this can help to maybe confirm or
27:32 debunked information that you
27:35 brainstormed initially in the SWOT
27:39 analysis okay you know the things it
27:45 kind of serves as a reality check you
27:47 know particularly if the survey is
27:51 allowed to be filled anonymously you
27:56 know and I was can be done online can be
27:57 done in person it’s kind of up to you
27:59 with the best manner to collect that
28:01 information is but anyhow you know
28:06 really think through if you do that what
28:08 the the questions in your survey should
28:11 be make sure they’re pertinent you know
28:13 don’t don’t make it too terribly long
28:16 don’t make the questions trivial keep it
28:19 to 10 or 15 tops I would say you know
28:22 you don’t want people to get tired of
28:24 doing it and then just you know yeah
28:28 yeah yeah their way through it okay so
28:31 there’s uh there’s no shortage out there
28:35 of ideas for survey questions again a
28:44 simple search on the handy-dandy
28:48 internet will give you plenty ideas as a
28:55 starting point and you know also refer
28:58 to those the things that I said that
29:00 shut it down with your brainstorming at
29:03 the beginning of the SWOT analysis okay
29:10 here it was quick search first years old
29:14 you know plenty of resources out there
29:17 and you know there’s there’s no no shame
29:20 in
29:22 building off of someone else’s work you
29:25 know they a lot of a lot of great
29:29 information there so you know whether to
29:33 do the surveys and the census as a paper
29:44 or online kind of up to you it’s kind of
29:48 up to your congregation
29:51 you know what suits them what makes
29:54 sense for them and you know that’s
30:00 really kind of an individual subjective
30:02 sort of thing so gathering information
30:07 digitally is tends to be more efficient
30:10 you know otherwise you’re probably going
30:13 to be inputting it in to a digital means
30:17 but if you gather it like paper copies
30:21 but you know again that kind of depends
30:25 size of the church nature of the
30:28 membership those sorts of things so the
30:33 other way to get an idea of to do a
30:38 little scuttlebutt as it’s called in the
30:43 investing community is to do good
30:45 old-fashioned talking okay talk to you
30:50 family talk to the leaders in a church
30:52 talk to the people aren’t lead isn’t
30:54 working in the church talk to the
30:56 membership talk to if you’re part of a
31:00 network of you know church management
31:04 talk to them okay
31:06 you know up the ladder down the ladder
31:08 sideways everything just you know get
31:11 get these topics out on the table and
31:15 you know people God uh you know
31:21 obviously different perspectives and
31:23 they you know it could help you come up
31:25 with ideas you might thought about maybe
31:30 put a you know a strength weakness
31:32 opportunity or threaded
31:34 active those sorts of things so it’ll be
31:39 afraid to do that so we’ll talk a little
31:42 bit now about ways to get you thinking
31:49 okay these are these are ideas and they
31:51 kind of play not ways to get you
31:54 thinking like ideas if this is kind of
31:57 your first time doing a SWOT analysis to
32:01 and you don’t know where to begin these
32:04 are some ideas that I gathered from
32:06 doing a little research on potential
32:08 strengths weaknesses opportunities and
32:10 threats okay this is not an exhaustive
32:12 list okay you know you don’t have to go
32:15 through these bullet points and say
32:18 answer these questions and then you’re
32:20 done yeah you did you SWAT it on us no
32:22 this is just things to think about okay
32:26 so let’s see let’s actually copy this up
32:37 here so here’s an idea for possible
32:47 strengths okay you talked a little bit
32:52 earlier about the traffic you churches
32:54 on a high traffic road okay
32:57 membership is stable or growing would be
33:02 a strength and most of the members have
33:04 been with the church a long time you
33:07 have a pool of retired members with time
33:11 on their hands and hopefully a
33:14 willingness to help with skills that
33:16 could help the church your church is
33:21 welcoming the newcomers okay it’s
33:28 probably hard to grow membership if you
33:32 Church is considered like closed off or
33:35 cliquish sure or that but that you know
33:40 fairness might be what you’re going for
33:42 you know maybe you want to screen people
33:46 out you only want a certain type into
33:47 your church you decide these things a
33:50 lot of this you know this is why we do
33:52 the mission statement before the SWOT
33:53 analysis because you what you consider a
33:58 strength is going to depend in large
34:00 part on what your mission statement is
34:02 you know strengths are going to serve
34:03 your mission statement weaknesses are
34:07 going to help are going to contribute to
34:11 you preventing you from achieving your
34:14 mission okay but I guess these are just
34:19 ideas as far as possible strengths Kate
34:21 Church has a good reputation in the
34:23 community strong sense source of
34:26 donations for better or worse money’s
34:30 got to keep coming in the door okay you
34:33 know in order to keep the lights on and
34:35 doors open you know great leadership
34:38 that’s always a strength because the
34:42 opposite is certainly a weakness so you
34:46 know a self-sufficient attitude rich and
34:50 lanky history could be considered as
34:53 strength you know there’s a lot of
34:54 social proof there in terms of your
34:58 church that you know you’ve longevity
35:04 and this doesn’t mean that you know well
35:07 if your new church there’s no hope
35:09 obviously because new churches spring up
35:10 all the time they also disappear a lot
35:13 over time but a you know history kind of
35:18 gives you like I said that social proof
35:20 it kind of for you know like it or not
35:25 proves you’re worthwhile this because
35:28 you’ve been around that long okay for a
35:30 long time in a sense of family church
35:36 members who speak the same language as
35:37 locals in the community you know Church
35:40 revolves a great deal around
35:42 communication right I mean that’s
35:45 communications almost the product really
35:48 you know you’re you’re communicating
35:54 thoughts on you know higher power and
35:59 everything
35:59 you know I’m trying to I’m usually not
36:03 the type to like walk on eggshells but
36:05 there are a lot of different churches of
36:07 a lot of different nature something you
36:09 know I don’t want to say well churches
36:12 just revolve around the Bible churches
36:14 just revolve around you know this
36:17 religious text that religious checks
36:18 whatever but any on well I’m getting at
36:21 is a you know speaking the same language
36:23 so you know what whatever it is whatever
36:26 your church is about it you know viana
36:32 it’s about communication because the you
36:34 know the greatest written text or you
36:39 know spoken word in the history of
36:43 religion doesn’t mean anything if it
36:45 can’t be conveyed to anybody
36:47 okay so whether you’re you know English
36:53 speaking Spanish speaking whatever you
36:57 know it’s that strength to be able to
37:00 reach the community to reach the people
37:02 you do want to join a church okay
37:04 next one’s quality mission statement and
37:07 like I said I have a mission statement
37:10 video that I made earlier that covers a
37:15 lot of things to think about when
37:17 drafting mission statement and like I
37:19 said I would recommend doing so before
37:21 you do SWOT analysis and frankly if you
37:24 want new members and higher donations
37:29 and a better reach and you know you need
37:35 the capacity just to accept new members
37:37 okay if you’re filled to the brand got
37:40 people hanging from the rafters at every
37:42 service you know that’s that’s gonna be
37:46 tough to to build membership in there so
37:50 that’s some idea about some ideas about
37:53 some possible strengths move on next to
38:00 potential weaknesses
38:06 okay if church membership is declining
38:14 okay that’s weakness this membership
38:18 equals less reach equals less donations
38:22 you know it’s a general rule of thumb
38:25 unless again unless you have a very
38:29 specific member type of member in mind
38:34 be believing not coming back it’s
38:37 generally gonna be bad low attendance
38:41 along the same lines low attendance from
38:42 children and young people okay I mean
38:46 over time obviously the children become
38:49 you know adults the young adults become
38:52 middle-aged adults become old adults you
38:55 know
38:55 it’s a lot of people attend church where
38:57 their parents did their family does and
39:02 if if you’re losing the kids and the
39:06 young people you know it might not
39:09 impact you so much this year next year
39:14 excuse me from a long-term standpoint
39:18 you know it’s something that you can
39:20 have to plan around them you know maybe
39:23 the welcoming process that your church
39:25 is is lacking you know there’s there’s
39:29 not a kind of a I don’t want to call it
39:31 an orientation to make it say no to
39:33 formal or that and maybe you do have
39:35 some a formal like that but you know
39:39 something that kind of makes the new new
39:42 members feel like part of the church
39:44 community okay if you got a congregation
39:48 that’s inflexible and stubborn that’s
39:51 rarely a strength usually a weakness
39:54 whether we’re talking about churches or
39:56 anything else in life you know a low
40:00 turnout when you’re doing community
40:02 outreach you similar to the one earlier
40:06 and you’re not doing a great job of
40:08 inviting people okay you’re not getting
40:10 the word out you’re not letting people
40:11 know that they’re welcome
40:14 and right growing membership that sort
40:17 of thing is going to be tough
40:19 members that aren’t getting value okay
40:22 if they’re just coming out of obligation
40:25 fillings you know feeling like it’s a we
40:32 wouldn’t call it a burden almost you
40:34 know an obligation and that’s gonna give
40:38 you trouble you know probably sooner
40:43 than later you know a reluctance to
40:46 challenge the status quo could be a
40:51 weakness volunteers that are work too
40:53 hard you know because you have low
40:56 turnout for volunteer efforts so the
40:59 people that do volunteer their time and
41:02 and do their best to do something to
41:06 help the church are getting burnout morn
41:09 down kinda you’re you’re asking too much
41:12 of them and a couple other things
41:14 antiquated technology shortage of
41:17 handicapped facilities lack of a
41:19 strategic plan okay so you know I’ll
41:23 obviously be covering that like I said
41:25 and the posts are up the videos are
41:29 coming and you know strategic planning
41:35 and there are also a bunch of other
41:38 great resources out there not just
41:40 spreadsheets for business okay so you
41:44 know your if you’re like me you’re gonna
41:48 try a couple of different things try to
41:50 take the best of what you find and
41:52 that’s great that’s what you should do
41:54 so take the best of what you find for me
41:56 take the best of what you find from some
41:58 of the other big names out there in
42:01 terms of Church management Church
42:04 strategic planning and you know yeah
42:06 give yourself the best odds for success
42:08 another one that kind of relates to
42:10 something that I do do well do do is an
42:15 inability to budget effectively would be
42:17 a weakness okay you know churches have
42:21 greater callings than just profit but
42:24 like I said it’s you know
42:28 there are still bills to be paid and
42:31 that is just the reality of the world we
42:34 live in and you know you got to plan
42:36 accordingly so I can definitely help you
42:39 out with that one now here’s a look at a
42:42 couple of opportunities that you might
42:44 consider now opportunities again or
42:49 external not internal these things
42:51 outside of your control but they could
42:54 still help you okay
43:00 population of your geographic area is
43:04 growing okay more people in the area
43:07 equals more opportunity for growing
43:10 membership local use that are need of
43:13 church services for whatever reason
43:16 maybe you know because they they’re at
43:21 risk or you know people that they’re you
43:28 know they could use your help you know
43:31 whether it’s something to do after
43:32 school something on the weekends that’s
43:36 another opportunity you’re near a
43:38 college you’ve got people for instance
43:40 young people that are probably away from
43:44 home so away from the church they might
43:46 have grown up going to and are in need
43:48 of you know what your church can offer
43:53 okay
43:55 another opportunity is members with
43:57 influence in organizations throughout
43:59 the community okay you know c-level
44:02 executives people in management
44:05 positions people on boards of directors
44:08 it’s you know basically people that are
44:11 people in government that are powerful
44:13 and you know that can only serve as an
44:17 opportunity doesn’t mean you need need
44:19 to exploit the power you know but you
44:25 know can’t hurt right so another
44:31 opportunity would be offering services
44:33 this one might be considered as strength
44:35 it since it is kind of near control but
44:37 offering services at different times in
44:39 Sunday morning
44:40 okay more flexibility on your part means
44:45 probably more opportunity to give people
44:49 in the doors and in the pews the
44:53 internet and social media of course
44:54 represent an opportunity and in hosting
44:57 community events and otherwise unused
44:59 facilities a lot of churches have a
45:01 bunch of square footage okay
45:05 you know community that’s kind of a
45:07 vague term but you know like for
45:11 instance one church something always
45:14 took my kids to whenever little was like
45:16 a trick-or-treat Street kind of thing
45:19 that they did at my watch church and it
45:25 was great God
45:26 you know again it’s not all that
45:29 different from a for-profit business to
45:34 give people in a dorm you know
45:35 opportunity to market to them again
45:37 don’t have to be pushy marketing but
45:39 just give opportunity from the seat what
45:40 you’re about increase the likelihood of
45:43 them wanting to join the ranks of the
45:44 membership okay look here then at
45:52 possible threats
45:55 okay you know I’m about 45 minutes
46:00 a little over so keep grindin alone you
46:09 know if you’re in a smaller town older
46:11 population you know the kind of United
46:15 States anyways as increased urbanization
46:17 people move into bigger towns smaller
46:20 towns older population means you
46:23 unfortunately everybody passes away
46:25 eventually more of a longer-term
46:28 consideration but as a threat laws and
46:32 regulations that inhibit actions can I
46:34 mean if you know as time goes on the
46:41 United States in my opinion gets more
46:45 there’s more as bigger differences in
46:50 the cultures of particular parts of the
46:53 United States
46:54 it’s okay and laws are enacted that to
47:02 reflect those different beliefs you know
47:06 people different beliefs select
47:09 different elected officials and have
47:11 different laws these laws might inhibit
47:16 actions that you want to take that you
47:19 feel contribute to achieving your
47:22 mission so if you’re in an area where
47:26 laws and regulations will do that that’s
47:29 a threat that’s a problem because you
47:32 know if I run a kickboxing gym you know
47:40 where I’m at and you know some buffoon
47:45 of a governor gets elected and outlaws
47:48 kick boxing gyms well I can take my
47:50 expertise move across state lines open
47:54 kickboxing gym not quite as easy with
47:56 Church you know it’s a you know you you
48:00 get customers and you get them long term
48:02 certainly that’s one benefit of churches
48:04 flipside is you know it can’t just pick
48:07 up shop typically and then can move I
48:12 can tell move a state away so other
48:17 threats are competition for new members
48:18 okay every church wants new members I
48:21 would assume and you know so there’s
48:25 competition you’re you’re competing
48:27 against the church down the block across
48:28 town you know that’s a that’s a threat
48:34 is kind of touches on what I said
48:38 earlier an anti religious culture and
48:41 environment it would obviously be a
48:43 threat and you cannot hardship in the
48:46 community okay when times are tough and
48:51 people are having trouble making ends
48:53 meet you know contributing the church
48:57 will probably fall by the wayside you
49:01 know behind rent bills car payments
49:03 those sorts of things but not just the
49:05 dollars just the
49:07 you know some people might cling to
49:10 church and no circumstances other people
49:11 might pull away from it so again the
49:15 economic hardship it is typically going
49:18 to be a threat it’s just not good for
49:21 business whether it’s a for-profit
49:22 business whether it’s a not-for-profit
49:23 business so let’s talk a little bit here
49:28 once once you’ve got you know so we’ve
49:32 talked about let me back up for a second
49:34 sorry
49:36 brainstorming okay information to gather
49:42 you know to come up with your strengths
49:44 weaknesses opportunities and threats
49:47 ideas for you for strengths weaknesses
49:50 opportunities and threats okay so with
49:52 those three things hopefully you have a
49:54 pretty good list now you’ve got all four
49:57 quadrants well-thought-out and you know
50:02 a comprehensive list for each one of
50:06 those four factors now you want to think
50:12 about how those factors interact and how
50:14 you can exploit those interactions so
50:17 exploit sounds bad you know but in this
50:24 case you just you’re you’re positioning
50:26 yourself as best you can your church as
50:28 best you can in light of your strengths
50:31 weaknesses opportunities and threats
50:34 okay so just think about what it means
50:41 where these interact you’ve got
50:43 strengths and opportunities okay and
50:48 this is where the stars align okay
50:51 you’ve got an opportunity and it
50:54 interacts with something you’re good at
50:55 that this is this is the low-hanging
50:58 fruit so to speak you want to take
51:00 advantage of these opportunities for
51:04 example might be do churches on a
51:05 high-traffic Road and the population of
51:09 your area is growing okay so you’re in a
51:12 good location you’re gonna have more and
51:15 more people driving by your church every
51:19 day every week every year excuse me you
51:24 want to make sure that your signage and
51:26 your marketing is effective okay you’re
51:28 appealing with the people passing by
51:31 another one might be your church is
51:33 welcoming the newcomers and your
51:38 opportunities the host community events
51:40 and otherwise I need four sell unused
51:41 facilities you could offer those
51:44 facilities at a reduced price to members
51:48 okay
51:48 that’s a benefit of being a member of
51:51 your church okay so you’re welcoming in
51:54 that respect by having those facilities
51:59 available and at a reduced price of
52:01 people are members and you’re in revenue
52:05 from otherwise unused facilities okay so
52:10 the next interaction we’ll talk about is
52:13 strengths and threats okay threats are
52:17 bad but if you know the strengths to
52:20 offset them you can temper neutralize
52:25 the threat to a certain extent so let’s
52:26 say you’ve got a pool of retired members
52:29 with skills that could help the church
52:31 and there’s economic hardship in the
52:33 community those retired members could
52:36 put on workshops for the community
52:39 members okay and these workshops could
52:42 be anything
52:42 well there is budgeting whether it’s
52:46 somebody you know retired member from
52:48 the financial services injury how to
52:50 deal with late payments how to deal with
52:53 creditors those sorts of things you’re
52:57 leveraging the knowledge of the retired
52:59 members to help those who are suffering
53:01 from the economic hardship another one
53:04 is the capacity to accept a lot of new
53:06 members competition for new members okay
53:09 the threat is the competition its chance
53:12 for you to set your church apart from
53:14 the others okay you don’t want to you
53:20 know having way too much capacity could
53:22 be a problem obviously a weakness but
53:27 it’s any it could be it
53:30 you know a selling point for people who
53:33 are in an otherwise overcrowded church
53:36 to come to yours and not feel over
53:40 credit and maybe you have it a place
53:41 where it’ll feel more more personal okay
53:44 next interaction is weaknesses and
53:47 opportunities okay well you know in this
53:56 case the weaknesses can be preventing
53:57 you from capitalizing on opportunities
53:59 and that stinks because opportunities
54:03 are you know sometimes a rare thing and
54:06 you want to be able to capitalize on
54:08 them but you know so what do you do if
54:11 the opportunity isn’t something that
54:14 plays to his strengths of yours rather a
54:16 weakness okay so let’s say the church
54:18 has low attendance from children and
54:20 young people and you have local use or
54:23 need of church services what’s going to
54:25 happen local users are gonna attend
54:28 church somewhere else probably so in
54:36 this case you know you’re you’re looking
54:43 at how the two things in turn the
54:45 weakness and the opportunity and
54:48 unfortunately not able to exploit it so
54:55 you want to since you you were honest
55:00 with yourself and recognize this
55:01 weakness okay you’re you have an
55:06 opportunity to fix it so you want to
55:09 think about then what can you do to make
55:13 your church more appealing to children
55:15 and young people okay because you’ve got
55:19 demand and local youth that are in need
55:22 of church services but you know for
55:25 whatever reason you know since you’re
55:27 honest with yourself and admitted your
55:28 your weakness that you’re in essence
55:31 driving children in people way so it’s a
55:33 chance to reflect on what’s causing that
55:35 and maybe the survey can help with that
55:37 maybe they’re talking with other members
55:38 too
55:38 with that and address the issue so you
55:41 can turn your church from a place that
55:44 has low attendance from children and
55:45 young people innocent driving away to a
55:48 strength where you know it is a
55:55 appealing place or you have programs
55:57 that are appealing to young people and
55:59 you can take advantage of that
56:00 opportunity where local youths are in
56:03 need of church services okay
56:07 another interaction of weaknesses and
56:10 opportunities sorry I’m going to wet my
56:15 whistle there our members aren’t getting
56:17 value from the church and the
56:20 opportunities internet and social media
56:22 so you have the ability there to provide
56:25 extra value to members and non-members
56:27 okay the social media is a you know with
56:37 with the internet and the you know
56:41 advent of internet and social media you
56:43 have that opportunity to you know if
56:46 you’re followed on you know Twitter
56:47 Facebook whatever social media to reach
56:50 your members not just Sunday morning
56:54 okay they repeatedly throughout the week
56:57 daily multiple times daily okay so yes
57:04 that’s that’s no good that you you know
57:06 you’ve acknowledged to yourself
57:08 potentially that members aren’t getting
57:10 value from the church but this
57:13 opportunity of the internet social media
57:15 gives you a chance to you know to change
57:17 that to come up with a strategy via the
57:19 you know via the internet social media
57:22 to start adding value okay to think
57:25 about how you can add value outside of
57:27 church you know the other six days of
57:30 the week theme you know whether it’s
57:33 through inspirational messages whether
57:35 it’s through showing how other people
57:38 are getting value from church okay so
57:42 you know I think the the big key there
57:45 would be to be authentic you’ve heard me
57:47 talk about authenticity earlier I was
57:49 talking about myself and talking about
57:50 my circumstance
57:51 and you know what what kind of led me to
57:54 make this video to make these posts and
57:58 yeah just definitely don’t don’t go
58:01 boilerplate here you know I would
58:05 definitely you know think about what you
58:09 would want to see in terms of social
58:11 media if you find yourself in this
58:13 situation and you know try to put
58:16 yourself in the other you know the the
58:19 person who might not be getting value
58:20 from churches shoes and I think you’ll
58:23 attract a lot more people than just you
58:26 know kind of recycling wore-out talking
58:28 points okay so the last intersection
58:31 we’ll go over is weaknesses and threats
58:33 okay this is you know this is a bad be
58:38 threat on the horizon you’ve got no
58:40 answer for it and never see now that I’m
58:44 not gonna make my hour unless one I
58:47 promise so you know but hey everybody
58:54 has weaknesses the the key is to
58:57 neutralize threats try to shore up those
58:59 weaknesses so let’s say you’ve got a
59:01 reluctance to challenge the status quo
59:03 in your church and you’re in an anti
59:05 religious culture or environment it’s
59:08 time to come to terms with reality in
59:10 that case you know there’s this might be
59:24 kind of a touchy one you know cuz
59:28 because maybe there are people in your
59:30 church that are like well this is what
59:32 it means to be our religion or our
59:35 churches or culture this is what we vote
59:37 this is what we’ve always done sort of
59:39 thing but you know you’re in an
59:40 environment that is a hostile in a lot
59:45 of respects so it might be a situation
59:48 where it makes sense to tweak you don’t
59:53 have to tweak your overall message you
59:54 don’t have to obviously go against your
59:56 mission or that but perhaps work in one
60:04 way
60:04 a little bit of a flexibility to try to
60:07 find some common ground okay with the
60:09 the people in your community okay dish
60:12 you know because if it’s if it’s an anti
60:15 religious culture environment I mean
60:16 they then they obviously are hostile
60:20 towards you so it’s an opportunity to
60:24 find some common ground in a case like
60:27 this and it gets tough situation did but
60:31 you know meet people where they are I
60:34 mean you know a good example of that to
60:36 me is volunteerism I mean nobody is
60:39 going to think poorly of a church I’m a
60:44 having a right mind anyway so some
60:46 people will not everybody’s in the right
60:47 mind but I can I think poorly of a
60:49 church that volunteers you know that
60:54 gives may get presents for kids at
60:57 Christmas that you know feeds the
61:00 homeless gives the homeless clothes and
61:03 coats those sorts of things so it’s just
61:06 a matter of you know but maybe these
61:11 things have never been done in your
61:12 church and you know this is new and this
61:15 is gonna cost money and time and effort
61:17 where you know what I mean that’s the
61:18 old status quo that this isn’t who we
61:20 are this isn’t what we do and most
61:23 churches do volunteer work obviously but
61:25 like I said it’s just kind of an example
61:27 that you know you’ve got a you know if
61:31 you’re dealing with with stubborn people
61:32 in your organization like that you know
61:34 claim this is not who we are but you
61:35 need to you know you need to change who
61:39 you are who you appear to be a little
61:43 bit to function in a hostile environment
61:47 and you know you’ve got a you know
61:54 you’ve got a deal then with the Stuber
61:57 people that are holding you back from
62:00 doing that another one is the inability
62:04 to budget effectively economic hardship
62:07 in the community you need to practice
62:10 what you preach
62:11 you know if the community’s suffering
62:14 for me
62:15 my hardship due to their own creation or
62:20 from the economy in general but you’re
62:24 over here to run in your church and and
62:26 it’s struggling so you’re you know
62:28 you’re conveying to your members that
62:32 you know we need donations cuz you know
62:36 that donations probably gonna go down
62:40 during economically tough times but you
62:43 know but if you haven’t planned around
62:47 that you know by budgeting you know and
62:52 spreadsheets for business can help you
62:54 with that
62:54 all three fascist facets of budgeting
62:56 capital budgeting operational budgeting
62:58 financial budgeting you know you’re
63:01 gonna come off is it’s gonna be a tough
63:03 sell when the times are tough for people
63:05 and because you’ve managed your finances
63:10 and effectively you’re there asking them
63:14 for money the individuals so this one is
63:19 preventable that weakness the inability
63:21 to budget effectively so you know the
63:28 the beauty of numbers and in finance you
63:32 know in particular is that their reality
63:36 numbers don’t lie Megan you know there
63:38 are tricks and games when you play with
63:40 them but you know one’s always one fives
63:43 always five tens always ten you know so
63:47 finding out that kind of wraps up like I
63:51 said how the factors might interact and
63:53 it’s time for me to wrap this video up
63:56 because I’ve been going for an hour and
63:59 five minutes or so here it’s a like I
64:03 said it’s a lot of information to cover
64:04 I did get through it as quick as I could
64:07 it probably sounds like a but a lot of
64:10 trouble but it’s one of those things
64:11 connecting the mission’s thing once
64:13 you’ve done it the first time the first
64:15 time is the toughest okay if you’re
64:17 starting from scratch
64:18 give it once you’ve done it you can kind
64:20 of build off opportunities and threats
64:21 gonna carry from your to your strengths
64:23 a weakness is gonna carry it from year
64:24 to year and
64:26 it’ll get easier but you know I think
64:29 it’s a worthwhile exercise because just
64:34 what you’re gonna learn about yourself
64:35 which can learn about your environment
64:37 okay you can have a better grasp on
64:40 reality this is gonna help when it comes
64:42 to getting grasp on reality in terms of
64:44 doing your budgeting in terms of your
64:46 your strategic planning the goals you’re
64:48 gonna make there it there’s really no
64:51 downside to doing it even if you can’t
64:54 get anybody else in your church on board
64:55 and it’s just you sitting down one
64:57 afternoon and and brainstorming and
64:59 thinking about a couple of things I
65:01 addressed here and a couple of things
65:02 that some of the other gurus and the
65:05 church management arena might have come
65:08 up with it there’s no downside now the
65:12 only potential downside is you had to
65:13 drag on and become a big convoluted mess
65:16 you know and argue over well this is a
65:20 strength this isn’t a strength weakness
65:22 not a you know that it can’t in that
65:24 respect but as long as you you know I’m
65:26 a big fan of time limits and deadlines
65:29 and just have it done by this day
65:30 because again you’ll be able to revisit
65:32 it again next year it’s not set in stone
65:36 it’s a dynamic thing life’s dynamic
65:39 teaching planning is dynamic you know
65:42 there’s really no good reason not to do
65:46 it okay so that being said if you’ve
65:52 stuck with me this long an hour-plus man
65:55 you’re a trooper and I appreciate it of
66:00 course and you know if I had the ability
66:09 to get likes and subscriptions to the
66:12 people who watch my videos from start to
66:14 finish I would do that but that’s not
66:17 the way YouTube set up so you know look
66:21 if you if you like some of what you
66:23 heard if you think that there’s some
66:28 good some good ideas in here some things
66:32 that other people might be able to use
66:35 you’ve got a you know the game is if I
66:41 don’t get likes and subscriptions
66:42 YouTube’s gonna think I’m worthless and
66:45 they’re gonna bury me okay so if you
66:48 found something that you liked heard
66:50 something you liked
66:51 and was it a lot visually and again I
66:53 apologize for that just kind of the
66:57 nature of the the video most of my
66:58 videos I’m gonna be in the spreadsheet
67:00 clicking back and forth showing how my
67:01 equations work that sort of thing but if
67:03 you like like what you saw I like in a
67:06 subscription is a great way to give a
67:09 free tip to me to let me know that let
67:15 YouTube know that so if you did do that
67:18 or do that at some point in the future
67:21 again thank you very much and as far as
67:25 comments go I like comments you know a
67:29 couple of things that I’d love to hear
67:30 from with you guys is what other
67:32 information you think is worthwhile to
67:34 gather okay when you’re in the midst of
67:37 doing your SWOT analysis
67:38 you know I touched on a bunch of them in
67:41 terms of you know the traffic count
67:44 census survey those sorts of things what
67:49 else what what’s gonna help you you know
67:52 besides just thinking of it what what
67:55 information is out there that would help
67:57 you get a better grasp on your church’s
67:59 strengths weaknesses opportunities and
68:00 threats and the other thing that I’d
68:03 love to hear from you guys on is the
68:09 ideas you know I gave bullet point lists
68:13 possible strengths when uses up to these
68:15 threats you know what are some other
68:17 ones that I left off you know you you
68:21 guys probably know more than I do miss
68:25 respect you know again I did a lot of
68:27 research one to come up with a pretty
68:28 good comprehensive list as a serve as a
68:30 jumping-off point that maybe you’ve done
68:32 a SWOT analysis before with your church
68:34 in the past and there are things that I
68:36 left off that you think that every
68:39 church should consider in terms of
68:41 strengths weaknesses opportunities or
68:42 threats so leave all that in the
68:44 comments below
68:45 again thank very much for your time
68:48 take care and I will talk to you later