Video transcript
00:00 hello again small business professionals
00:03 small business owners and church
00:06 management professionals that’s what I
00:08 meant to say hey now I’ve got another
00:11 video I hear about strategic planning
00:14 for churches this will be the last one
00:19 of the soft skills as I put it other
00:24 ones in the soft skills category of
00:27 being mission statement and SWOT
00:28 analysis check out my channel to see
00:31 those let me also point out real quick
00:34 that there will be a link to my post on
00:37 the subject in the description and I
00:40 also like to put shortcuts you know in
00:43 the description because I can tend to go
00:46 on for a while and you know if you want
00:51 to jump to a specific part and then
00:53 gives you the ability to do that so hey
00:57 now let’s get into it so this video is
01:04 on strategy formulation in specifically
01:11 in strategic planning in general I kind
01:14 of molded them together because the way
01:17 I look at is strategy formulation is
01:18 like a piece of strategic planning
01:22 strategic planning to me includes the
01:26 videos I’ve made previously on like
01:30 mission statement and SWOT analysis but
01:34 in addition to that also capital
01:36 budgeting operational budgeting and
01:39 financial budgeting I’d also include in
01:43 their capacity planning but you know I
01:48 don’t have any content on that so the
01:54 time being that you’re on your own and
01:55 there you’ll I’m sure there’s somebody
01:58 somewhere that did address this capacity
02:00 planning for churches so we’ll start out
02:05 talking a little bit here about
02:06 strategic planning and then getting it
02:10 more into that actually
02:11 actual strategy formulation part of
02:14 things and a little later on so let’s
02:24 just start off here by thinking about
02:28 two different strategic plans
02:31 sorry I’m not enunciated agreat tonight
02:36 let me back up for a second and
02:40 apologize again and I know that’s not
02:43 you know really selling it when you
02:45 apologize for you on video but you know
02:49 for these soft skill videos mission
02:51 statements SWOT analysis strategy
02:53 formulation I don’t have a ton of like
03:00 you know visual material to accompany it
03:04 I could do it may someday do a
03:07 PowerPoint on those subjects but I don’t
03:12 know that that’s gonna really grab your
03:15 attention all that much more I mean
03:17 we’re all a little tired of powerpoints
03:19 aren’t we and you see my outlines up
03:21 there on the screen
03:22 so at least you kind of know what’s
03:25 coming up and if you see something bitch
03:27 thank you my board be more interested in
03:29 than the section that I’m talking about
03:31 a given time and go down in the
03:32 description click on shortcut jump
03:35 around you know as you see fit you know
03:37 there’s plenty of other people writing
03:42 on the subject of church strategic
03:44 planning and some very skilled and
03:48 experienced people so you know I I’ll
03:52 say you know this is not a definitive
03:57 look at church strategic planning or
04:00 strategy formulation it’s merely a
04:05 something to give you a couple ideas on
04:08 where to start
04:08 and how to go about addressing those
04:11 subjects so combine it with the other
04:13 great information that you get take the
04:15 best part of it take the best part of
04:17 something else combine it you know you
04:19 should be alright some
04:21 I am let me get back to my outline here
04:24 let’s consider two different strategic
04:26 plans okay so let’s say two churches
04:34 next door to each other okay
04:37 two different strategic plans first one
04:41 says they’re gonna put a handrail on the
04:44 steps for the elderly members of the
04:48 congregation that’s it
04:50 it’s our only plan for the upcoming year
04:52 there’s no budget
04:53 there’s no it doesn’t tie into any sort
04:57 of mission statement no SWOT analysis
04:59 anything like that they’re just gonna
05:02 put up a handrail because they think
05:04 that’s what’s needed okay and they do
05:06 that all right because it’s simplistic
05:11 and easy enough and they have a couple
05:13 volunteers over one weekend to get that
05:15 hammering put up that’s look at the
05:17 other church next to it this you know
05:20 they make a big production out of it
05:24 that’s not necessarily bad you know it’s
05:26 it’s planning it’s thinking about the
05:28 future of your church but they bring in
05:30 the pastor the elders consultants
05:32 members of the congregation and spend
05:35 six weeks poring over every step of the
05:38 strategic plan from mission statement
05:41 through SWOT analysis through strategy
05:43 formulation capital budgeting
05:45 operational budgeting financial
05:48 budgeting okay so they they give
05:49 everything it’s due time or anything
05:52 they think things through thoroughly and
05:54 have an outstanding plan when all said
05:57 and done but once the six weeks is up
06:03 and the new year comes it’s never
06:07 referred to again okay so which of those
06:11 two is the superior strategic plan well
06:17 I would say it is the first one because
06:19 it’s the one that got acted upon okay
06:22 all the thought in the world doesn’t
06:25 mean anything without action and this is
06:29 coming from a guy who is a proponent
06:32 of you know bringing in people to to
06:38 give differing opinions on strategic
06:41 planning giving it time giving it its
06:44 thought excuse me you know particularly
06:50 I’m a proponent of doing the capital
06:53 budgeting doing the operational building
06:55 that’s all great should be done but
06:58 again it’s all useless if no actions
07:02 taken because of it it’s it’s a waste of
07:06 time you know it it’s old it’s only as
07:11 good as the the actions that it leads to
07:13 okay so keep that in mind in terms of
07:20 the strategic planning going forward
07:22 when you watch my other videos when you
07:24 look up information from anybody else in
07:27 terms of I mean on anything you know
07:31 when it comes to reading a book you know
07:33 I’m I I used to think well just reading
07:36 a lot is great and it is potentially but
07:40 ultimately reading and learning a lot is
07:43 only as useful as the amount of variable
07:46 to apply okay I mean how much have you
07:48 read how much have I read that is a
07:51 distant memory it’s gone it’s you know
07:53 it’s it might be somewhere in there deep
07:56 down inside of my brain but you know I I
07:59 didn’t I never applied it to anything
08:01 you know so that’s something I’m working
08:02 on personally now is when I read
08:04 something you know I try to do my
08:06 homework and make sure it’s worthwhile
08:08 and make sure that I apply it one way or
08:12 another you know that may or may not be
08:15 completely practical all the time but I
08:17 don’t apply it because I want to learn I
08:19 want to commit it to memory I want to
08:20 commit it to habit you know I want if I
08:24 find something that’s worthwhile to read
08:26 that’s good to read I want I want to
08:28 absorb it okay so I would say the same
08:32 is true about strategic planning you
08:35 know if you make the commitment to go
08:37 forth with it and I believe you should
08:39 as I said before then you know I mean
08:44 throw yourself into it
08:46 okay absorb it lip take action upon it
08:49 right learn your lessons get your
08:51 feedback make your mistakes all those
08:54 sorts of things all right so you know
08:58 like I said I’ve given you a couple of
09:00 videos already and I have posts on all
09:03 of these except the financial budget for
09:05 churches which is coming soon I promise
09:07 as soon as I finish up the latest
09:12 spreadsheet template on activity-based
09:14 costing and going back I’m going to
09:16 write that darn financial budgeting for
09:20 churches Post I’m gonna get a video out
09:23 on it and I’m gonna have something the
09:28 post in a video for every aspect of
09:31 church strategic planning coming soon I
09:34 promise I am so you you know I’ve got
09:40 videos and all this you know I’ve got my
09:42 steps you know I’ve got my opinions on
09:45 how to approach things and you know just
09:50 as a reminder I touched on earlier you
09:52 know that starts with creating a
09:54 reviewing your church’s mission
09:55 statement performing a swot which
09:57 strengths weaknesses opportunities and
09:59 threats analysis of your church
10:01 formulating a strategy in particular
10:05 laying out goals to be med in for the
10:12 coming year for the coming years for
10:16 your church looking at any large-scale
10:19 projects your church might take on with
10:21 the capital budget again there’s the
10:24 analyzing your organization’s capacity I
10:26 don’t have closer videos on that
10:28 particular one but it’s worth worth
10:32 considering because you know your
10:35 capacity is the peak amount of demand
10:38 that you can handle you can’t have more
10:39 members than you have capacity for you
10:42 know maybe in this day and age with
10:44 virtual this and that and that might not
10:47 be entirely true but that’s that’s kind
10:50 of the good rule of thumb anyways beyond
10:52 that we’ve got the operating budget
10:53 which is a forecast of income and
10:55 expenses and then a financial budget
10:57 kasa the timing of cash flows that’s to
11:00 me comprehensive steps in strategic
11:04 planning okay now does that mean follow
11:10 those steps no question you know that’s
11:15 the only way to go about it no not
11:18 necessarily but I would say those steps
11:20 will give you if you legitimately go
11:22 through them legitimately commit thought
11:24 to them will give you a super
11:29 comprehensive review of your church its
11:34 goals your environment the reality of
11:39 money coming in and money coming out and
11:43 a number of other things it’s just a an
11:46 intense self reflective sort of thing
11:51 that might be uncomfortable at times but
11:53 will ultimately lead to your benefit it
11:58 just you know it’s it’s hard to picture
12:03 a situation where going through that you
12:05 would come out worse off than you went
12:08 in you know we need also say these these
12:15 steps are originally generated conceived
12:20 of in the for-profit realm you know the
12:23 the regular business realm or would we
12:25 call it not necessarily the not for
12:26 profit but they translate over just fine
12:29 you know that was something that I I
12:33 wondered as I got into writing these
12:35 posts making these videos you know what
12:39 how different would it be to and part of
12:42 the reason I chose to address churches
12:44 as kind of the first industry as I was
12:46 getting my website off the ground as I
12:49 was curious about how the how it would
12:57 all translate to the not-for-profit
12:59 realm in it translates just fine you
13:01 know there are a couple other things to
13:03 consider in frankly more so when we get
13:05 into the budgeting aspect of things but
13:09 a couple of things to consider they are
13:11 a little different than for a for-profit
13:14 business but you know really it’s very
13:20 very similar okay
13:23 so covered yeah I got the other videos
13:28 there okay so I’ll qualify this video
13:41 since I did the same for my mission
13:45 statement video and my capacity planning
13:48 video capacity planning no I didn’t do
13:53 that
13:53 sorry brain got scrambled there SWOT
13:56 analysis video so I don’t know this is a
13:58 mission statement video and I do this to
14:01 be completely upfront to be authentic to
14:03 let you know that I’m not trying to I’m
14:06 not trying to sell you anything I’m not
14:08 trying to pretend to be something I’m
14:10 not
14:11 I’m you know like I said just a guy who
14:15 is better skilled in the hard skills as
14:22 I put on the spreadsheets the budgeting
14:25 the numbers the quantifiable stuff okay
14:27 admittedly that’s my thing but created
14:32 these videos on the softer skills to
14:34 round out the whole the whole street
14:40 church strategic planning series I
14:43 wanted to cover more or less all of
14:45 those steps not just the the hard skills
14:47 because I thought it had something to
14:49 offer an effect and then on those issues
14:52 on those steps and I never pertained to
14:56 say no this is the way to do it
14:58 absolutely unequivocably you know I’m
15:02 right if you think different you’re
15:04 wrong I’ve never come off that way okay
15:08 these are after giving a lot of thought
15:11 the steps I would take to address these
15:18 qualifiable everyone to put in steps
15:21 mission statements swatter
15:23 says strategy formulation that you’re
15:26 doing right now so depending on I want
15:29 to get that out there I’m also not I
15:36 guess what I’m getting at with all this
15:38 and I might not have mentioned earlier
15:39 is I’m not a churchgoer per se I’ve been
15:42 to church I’m familiar with churches my
15:45 the remainder of my family goes to
15:47 church I’m been around people who are
15:50 regular churchgoers for many decades now
15:54 and I respect it now but you know I’m
15:58 not I’m not in the pews every Sunday so
16:01 if that bothers you and if you think
16:04 that I have absolutely no value to add
16:06 because of that then you know what to do
16:09 you might have done it already
16:11 you know check out another video or
16:15 whatever but you know I do think I have
16:18 something to offer I do think what I’m
16:20 saying is authentic and how I would
16:21 address it and I encourage you to hear
16:24 me out and take the ginn take the good
16:28 parts of what you hear I’m sure I have
16:30 something to offer so you know take the
16:33 take the best of what I have to offer
16:35 them and add it to the great stuff that
16:39 you’re already doing and you’ll be RI so
16:42 yeah that’s a little background about
16:47 where I stay in dead let me add to you
16:52 know for whatever it’s worth I’m not a I
16:56 have a pretty decent amount of education
16:59 but I’m not a big proponent of formal
17:04 education having been through it and
17:07 maybe just I don’t know I’ve learned
17:13 more on my own than I ever have from a
17:16 from a professor but I have you know an
17:20 MBA I am certified management accountant
17:24 okay and most people don’t know what
17:26 that is so if you’re wondering you think
17:28 I made that up but it may
17:29 but you don’t know what it is don’t
17:31 don’t beat yourself up about that most
17:33 people don’t but you know I can say this
17:39 about myself okay so if you are in
17:43 church management and you probably know
17:46 that a person can’t really understand
17:48 religious texts until they’ve read it
17:50 many times until they pondered them
17:51 thought about them debated about them
17:54 you know just reading it doesn’t do
17:56 anything and that’s that’s part of my
17:58 problem with a formal education you know
18:00 if you go and just sit through class
18:03 you’ll probably be alright most people
18:05 are gonna graduate just doing that some
18:07 people have to work harder than others
18:08 some people have to work less hard you
18:09 know we’re all a little different that
18:11 respect but if you just go and give it
18:13 the time you’re probably gonna be
18:15 alright that’s hell it’s not half the
18:17 battle it’s 80% of the battle just going
18:19 you know but to really learn something
18:22 like you probably have when it comes to
18:25 these religious texts you know to really
18:28 be able to speak knowledgeably about it
18:31 and to really you know just wrap your
18:35 head around it you have to immerse
18:37 yourself into it you have to you know
18:43 just dive deep get really down in there
18:47 and and challenge things and think about
18:51 them and decide how you feel about
18:52 certain things and maybe test things out
18:55 and all that and that’s what I’ve done
18:56 with a lot of this stuff particularly
19:01 the quantitative aspects the the hard
19:03 skills as I put them of strategic
19:06 planning I’m I’ve taken a time and
19:09 conceived of these hypothetical
19:12 companies and in situations and I’ve
19:15 tested and I have you know just ran my
19:21 head against the wall just several times
19:23 you know with the things I couldn’t
19:25 figure out I couldn’t make add up I
19:27 couldn’t make equal out together and you
19:31 know so I
19:34 I you know I give myself a hard time
19:38 about the soft skills but you know and I
19:40 think you know I do think I have some to
19:42 offer there but when it comes to the
19:43 hard skills I’m you know I know my stuff
19:48 I’m confident in that and I can help you
19:50 out in those so those hard skill videos
19:53 are coming like I said it’s operational
19:56 budget capital budget financial budget
19:59 okay so we take your intimate knowledge
20:02 of your church and add it with my
20:05 intimate knowledge of finances and the
20:09 quantitative side of things I’m sure
20:12 that I can help you in your church
20:16 address any problems that might fall
20:18 under that umbrella okay so you know
20:25 let’s get into the actual that’s a
20:29 little bit about strategic planning
20:32 let’s get into actual strategy
20:35 formulation okay so what is strategy
20:43 formulation how’s it how’s it different
20:46 from strategic planning and I’ll go back
20:49 to the analogy I made I know I made it
20:53 in a mission statement video I think I
20:54 made it in the SWOT analysis video and I
21:01 said the mission statement gives you
21:05 direction you know do you think about
21:09 north south east west north west south
21:11 west south east north west medicine team
21:15 twice but whatever you know a mission
21:18 statement helps point you in the right
21:19 direction you think about the 360
21:21 degrees there that make it an entire
21:23 circle helps you narrow down the
21:27 direction you want to go five degrees 45
21:30 degrees 180 degrees you know whatever
21:34 okay the SWOT analysis I would draw the
21:39 analogy then Maps the terrain for you
21:42 okay here’s the rivers
21:45 here’s the hills here’s the impassable
21:48 cliffs here’s an ocean
21:51 here’s freezing weather or the you know
21:56 the frozen tundra here’s the desert
21:58 those sort of things
21:59 that’s the terrain okay so then I would
22:03 say the strategy formulation is mapping
22:07 your route okay just like when you put
22:09 in your GPS and that blue line
22:13 highlights the roads you’re going to
22:14 take from where you are to where you
22:16 want to go that strategy formulation
22:18 each step of the strategic planning
22:28 makes clear the map okay and your your
22:34 direction you’re going and how you’re
22:35 gonna get there okay so you know what is
22:40 a requisite to planning a route dub well
22:50 you have to know where you’re going okay
22:52 I mean right now I live in Kansas and if
22:57 I just type in northwest Kansas into
23:00 Google Maps or Apple Maps or whatever it
23:04 may be I don’t know that I’m gonna get a
23:07 result because that’s it’s just not
23:11 specific enough okay I mean I can put in
23:13 a city and it’ll tell me you just take
23:15 me you know to the dead center of the
23:18 city but you know you think you have to
23:22 have you know a pretty clear idea of
23:25 where you want to go before you can plan
23:27 a route to get there okay so planning
23:31 the route in terms of strategic planning
23:34 is and strategy formulation is to
23:39 crystallize your vision of your church
23:42 okay this is the close your eyes let
23:46 your mind wander and what do you see
23:48 where is your church
23:52 you know what just what did look like
23:56 you know just what a what do you want to
23:59 see if it if if you had the opportunity
24:04 you know to wiggle your nose in your
24:10 church all of its problems would be
24:13 solved
24:14 it’d be operating exactly as you would
24:18 like what you know what would that look
24:21 like it’s your vision you know in five
24:23 years or so excuse me
24:30 so that’s destination and then we want
24:37 to talk about the landmarks that you’ll
24:40 pass on the way there those are the
24:42 goals that need to be met to get you
24:44 from where you are to your destination
24:48 okay you know I’m a big proponent of
24:52 keeping things simple or as simplistic
24:56 as possible complication has well
25:01 complication always tries to push itself
25:05 into anything we do okay where we’re
25:09 thinking creatures okay and we I mean I
25:16 know I do we think you just start to my
25:23 mind runs away with all these variables
25:25 things that go wrong and that and it
25:26 ends you know it’s great to plan and ifs
25:30 and buts and all that sort of thing but
25:32 you know especially if you’re just
25:34 starting out okay don’t want to get
25:38 overwhelmed don’t want to you know don’t
25:43 want to get burnout don’t want to say to
25:46 heck with it and you know and and first
25:49 of all not do any strategy formulation
25:50 but then if you do feel overwhelmed and
25:53 not take action on it talked about that
25:55 earlier
25:57 plans no good if you don’t take action
26:00 on it okay so there are within strategy
26:09 formulation three different strategies
26:12 that need to be considered three
26:15 different but complementary strategies
26:17 that you need to think about you might
26:19 be thinking you to sell three strategies
26:22 you know man one was gonna be enough of
26:25 a problem why do I have to make three of
26:28 them and that’s a perfectly logical
26:33 thing to think but stay with me or it’ll
26:37 kind of make sense here to understand
26:41 what these three strategies are and how
26:42 they all fit together so the first
26:45 energy is the one I’ve kind of talked
26:47 about so far that’s the overall strategy
26:48 Kay the this is known as the corporate
26:51 strategy in the business world it’s for
26:53 the entire company
26:54 okay the goals that your church as a
26:57 whole has to achieve to get from where
27:01 you are to where you want to be where
27:03 that vision is okay where that
27:05 destination is now a subset of that is
27:09 the competitive strategy okay and maybe
27:13 you think to yourself now well I’m a
27:16 church we don’t have competition I would
27:21 if that is what you’re thinking I would
27:24 urge you to rethink that okay because
27:26 from what I can see is an outsider
27:28 looking in there are two drastically
27:32 different views in terms of how a church
27:39 might address competition okay there’s
27:42 the the meta perspective I might call it
27:47 where a church things that as long as
27:51 somebody is a peace with God or
27:53 acknowledges Jesus as their Savior
27:58 or does any of those big picture things
28:03 then
28:07 it’s okay they might come here they
28:11 might go somewhere else but as long as
28:13 they’re they have these these big
28:15 picture tenants addressed as as long as
28:21 people you know are cool with these big
28:25 picture things then you know here
28:28 they’re what we’d love to have him here
28:29 but they go somewhere else that’s all
28:31 right you know they don’t necessarily
28:36 revolve around people just coming to
28:39 your church okay that’s the kind of meta
28:40 view the other perspective the other
28:43 extreme I should say would be the notion
28:47 that you and your church are basically
28:50 the one true way into paradise after you
28:57 die it’s the the one right way to live
29:02 you know in that case your competition
29:05 has every other Church that doesn’t
29:07 conform to exactly your your your same
29:11 doctrine okay
29:13 in either case both of you are gonna be
29:17 competing against anything else that
29:18 might keep persons from going to church
29:20 in the first place because the person
29:22 doesn’t go to church in the first place
29:23 they’re not going to come to your church
29:26 that believes that it’s you know the one
29:28 true the one true way okay so you my
29:35 point with this is you’re competing with
29:37 something whether you know it doesn’t
29:41 matter where you are you’re somewhere
29:43 probably between those two extremes your
29:45 church okay I would imagine most arm all
29:49 right but you know I’m not passing
29:54 judgment either way okay that’s you tell
30:00 you know I’m in absolutely no position
30:03 to tell you or your church how to what
30:06 to think in those respects okay like I
30:08 said I just use the extremes those
30:11 column as an example okay my goal is to
30:14 help you reach your goals whatever they
30:16 may be
30:17 and I make that illustration like you
30:20 said to help you understand that you
30:23 have competition okay so you have to
30:35 keep that keep that in mind as you move
30:38 forward and make your goals you you have
30:40 to have a competitive strategy to a
30:43 greater or lesser degree okay
30:45 the last of the three different
30:48 strategies is the functional strategy
30:50 okay
30:53 functional strategy is where you take
30:55 the overall strategy and break the goals
30:57 down into the departments in your church
31:00 okay so let’s look at our counterparts
31:03 in the for-profit world they will have a
31:09 corporate strategy but then have a
31:10 strategy for for manufacturing for
31:15 customer service
31:17 Stratton by strategy I mean goals okay
31:20 for marketing for sales for quality
31:24 control okay and all of those goals are
31:28 going you know achievement of those
31:32 departmental goals the functional goals
31:34 are gonna contribute to the achievement
31:36 of the goals by the organization as a
31:39 whole
31:40 so your church might be big small in
31:44 between but no matter how informal it
31:47 might be okay you have departments most
31:49 likely you have somebody that kind of
31:51 does your finance accounting you have
31:53 somebody kind of does operations so to
31:56 speak interaction with members so as we
32:02 move into the how-to portion of things
32:04 you can ultimately have to think about
32:07 what goals make sense for those those
32:09 smaller departments that are gonna help
32:11 your church as a whole reach its goals
32:14 okay so let’s get into the actual how-to
32:22 again this is just one way to address it
32:26 not the definitive way to dress it so we
32:30 talked about vision okay what is your
32:33 church look like in five to ten years
32:35 what do you picture what you know what
32:40 would make you feel like oh man we made
32:43 it you know its challenges are addressed
32:50 things are rolling good I mean you can
32:54 never Alton I don’t think then maybe
32:56 this apartment personality I’m a little
32:58 high-strung in that respect always
33:00 pushing to do more achieve more and that
33:04 but you know but putting in this is just
33:08 a thought exercise so you know what
33:10 would your church look like if you did
33:14 that if you you know if you took time
33:18 and thought about your vision and you
33:22 know what do you what do you seeing what
33:24 did what would it take to reach a goal
33:27 what has to happen
33:28 you can try working your way backwards
33:30 from that vision you can try to work in
33:32 your way forward from it and hopefully
33:34 as you kind of look at both you know
33:38 work your way backwards from the
33:39 destination work your way forward from
33:40 where you are hopefully you can start to
33:42 paint a picture of the goals that need
33:46 to be met in order to create that route
33:52 for you to get from where you are to
33:54 where you want to be you know I mean
33:55 think about it if you want a thousand
34:02 members in your church and currently
34:04 only have a hundred well you’ve got to
34:06 have 200 before you have 500 before you
34:11 have 800 before you have a thousand okay
34:14 things have to happen just in steps it’s
34:16 not tomorrow a thousand show up okay
34:19 that would probably frankly be
34:22 disastrous so it’s about thinking about
34:25 the milestones that have to be hit on
34:27 your way to achieving your vision
34:30 this should start to give you a little
34:32 idea of your path okay this is since
34:35 things are still a little big here but
34:37 it should start to hopefully you know
34:40 see a little little bit of that blue
34:42 line to lead you from where you are to
34:44 where you want to be you know in
34:49 particular the things you know what
34:52 happens tomorrow what happens next week
34:55 next month the theme the short term is
34:59 more under your control and it’s more
35:00 certain than the long term okay that’s
35:03 the case in whatever you’re doing
35:05 whether it’s strategy formulation or
35:07 forecasting you know when it comes to
35:12 making revenue or expense estimates for
35:20 capital budgeting operational budgets
35:22 know that okay so you know you want
35:28 probably more goals in the in the
35:32 short-term as in the coming year than
35:35 you do in year two three four five six
35:37 seven eight nine ten okay there’s you
35:43 know there’s any infinite number of
35:44 things that you could do to move
35:48 yourself towards that vision and you
35:51 don’t have the time and energy to do a
35:53 lot you don’t have the resources to do
35:54 them also so keep it simple and
35:57 achievable okay you know if you do your
36:02 little part keep in mind that the other
36:05 organizations out there that are doing
36:07 good in the world they’ll do their
36:08 little part and you know when you
36:10 combine all the little parts that you
36:14 know all the churches over the world do
36:16 then you know what what that can add up
36:21 to could be pretty significant okay so
36:25 with your goals I mean you probably
36:28 heard the old analogy about goals they
36:30 got to be smart I don’t even remember
36:32 them so you can we look that up here
36:39 it’s not not bad it’s not bad advice I’m
36:45 not cracking on it but smart means
36:48 specific measurable achievable relevant
36:53 and time-bound it’s good good rule of
36:55 thumb to to keep in mind when coming up
37:03 with goals okay you know you just I want
37:09 to I say this in every video and I want
37:12 to re-emphasize it you know just make
37:14 sure you’re dealing with reality don’t
37:17 don’t make pie-in-the-sky goals don’t
37:19 make goals I’ve worked for for-profit
37:22 companies they make goals they’re just
37:24 silly
37:25 I mean it’s just they’re they’re
37:26 arbitrary and they don’t you know they
37:29 don’t do anything to motivate anybody
37:30 they don’t you know it’s just going
37:33 through the motions it’s pointless it’s
37:34 a waste of time okay so so simple and
37:38 achievable okay focus on your strengths
37:42 from the from the SWOT analysis okay you
37:52 know if you have a car that’s meant for
37:59 met for speed then take those roads that
38:04 are long straight flat tops that you
38:06 know you can see the cops coming from
38:08 ten miles away right and you can take
38:11 that bad boy up to 150 I mean if that’s
38:14 your strength that’s your car if you
38:15 have the you know off-road vehicle or
38:21 that then take that that that can only
38:24 go you know 50 miles per hour tops don’t
38:27 worry about those take that take the
38:29 shorter route that can take the rough
38:31 terrain and and can handle it okay so
38:35 yeah keep in mind your strengths don’t
38:38 don’t fight yourself on your own goals
38:41 you know I’m saying so a couple of
38:44 things to keep in mind there
38:48 when coming up with goals based on your
38:53 vision another thing to do is put
38:54 yourself in the public shoes okay so
38:59 like it or not like said we talked about
39:04 so where’s the vision kind of addresses
39:08 the back up forcing it where the vision
39:10 kind of addresses the corporate strategy
39:13 all right putting yourself in customer
39:15 shoes is going to address the
39:17 competitive strategy the next section is
39:19 going to address the functional strategy
39:23 okay so when it comes to the competitive
39:26 strategy put yourself in the public’s
39:28 shoes okay you have to think about how
39:32 you’re perceived when you’re compared to
39:33 the alternatives alternatives might be
39:35 Church down the street or they might be
39:37 something frankly a little less
39:40 desirable okay a little less holy so to
39:44 speak but you know these temptations
39:47 exist if they didn’t everybody would
39:49 come to your church you’d have 7 billion
39:52 people there every Sunday I mean that’s
39:54 not the case there there are
39:56 alternatives now obviously there’s old
39:57 geography saying there it’s an extreme
40:01 example but you get my point
40:03 ok there are alternatives if people have
40:09 to make that decision
40:10 Sunday morning Saturday evening whatever
40:12 it might be Sunday afternoon to come to
40:19 find transportation and to come to your
40:21 church and make the commitment to stay
40:23 for 45 minutes an hour an hour and a
40:26 half two hours whatever it may be
40:27 okay so there’s competition so it just
40:30 helps to put yourself in your customers
40:32 shoes your member shoes your potential
40:35 members shoes and try to see things from
40:39 their perspective okay so you know that
40:46 the number of competitors depends kind
40:48 of where you are on that spectrum if you
40:50 take the the meta view as I said and you
40:53 know you’re really just competing
40:55 against temptations that would keep
40:56 people
40:58 from being religious or being spiritual
41:01 or something like that you know in the
41:03 end if your your your you feel as though
41:08 your church is the one way then you’re
41:09 gonna have a lot more competitors I mean
41:11 that’s just simple logic
41:12 you know you you’ve got a taller task on
41:16 your hands okay so think about what
41:23 makes your church different what it you
41:25 know again the for-profit parallel I
41:31 might draw as you know they always talk
41:34 about a unique selling proposition I
41:36 mean what’s your what what why you why
41:39 your church you know why why should
41:42 people to choose your church why do they
41:44 you know the the will probably come
41:47 from the do you know if you if something
41:51 doesn’t pop in your head right away you
41:52 know talk to your people solidify it
41:55 think about why you’re there you know
41:57 why you chose the work of this
41:58 particular church or volunteer or
42:00 whatever it might be you know you want
42:05 to you want to keep that in mind as you
42:06 make goals for a competitive strategy so
42:10 you know again does it also say there’s
42:15 a reason that these strategic planning
42:17 steps take place in the order that they
42:20 do because you want to think back to
42:22 your strengths and weaknesses from the
42:23 SWOT analysis which should my opinion be
42:26 done before this step okay about how you
42:29 set your church apart you know
42:31 weaknesses or things you want to avoid
42:33 strengths or things you want to
42:34 capitalize upon you know think back to
42:37 when you cross-reference strengths
42:38 weaknesses opportunities and threats
42:39 okay those are good ideas about goals in
42:43 terms of competitive advantage and you
42:46 think back to that I mean it had
42:48 everything from what the SWOT analysis
42:54 was your environment so you know you
42:56 want to if having considered your
42:58 environment the reality you work and you
43:00 want to make goals based on that you
43:02 want to make goals that are gonna set
43:04 yourself your church apart from other
43:07 churches based on the environment
43:11 you operate it okay so things from you
43:14 know your traffic and your signage to
43:17 the demographics of where you operate
43:21 out of to the culture of where you
43:26 operate up and all those things all
43:27 things to consider as you make those
43:30 competitive strategy goals so you know
43:35 keep in mind competitive strategy is a
43:37 subset of your overall strategy so don’t
43:39 make a competitive strategy the
43:41 contradict your overall strategy okay it
43:44 it it should just be a more detailed set
43:49 of goals that feeds from your overall
43:55 strategy okay because you can’t serve
44:00 two masters so to speak have a
44:02 competitive strategy that with goals
44:05 that have you doing one thing and
44:06 overall strategy has you doing a quickly
44:08 different thing okay you’re the the path
44:11 there’s gonna break off in okay or it’s
44:14 going to turn into a dead-end okay you
44:16 gonna have a fork in the road and
44:18 they’re both gonna be dead ends you get
44:20 to go back to the map analogy so the
44:24 final part here addresses and last part
44:31 the functional strategy so you got your
44:35 overall strategy you got your
44:36 competitive strategy you’ve got goals
44:38 for each okay it’s time to start then
44:43 thinking about what the departments
44:47 within your church what they can do what
44:50 they can achieve what they need to
44:52 achieve for those competitive goals and
44:55 those overall goals to be achieved you
44:58 know if your church is super small those
45:03 you know the the different functional
45:05 roles might be fulfilled by the same
45:07 people okay it that doesn’t matter you
45:12 know it again it’s more about the role
45:15 the number of individuals doing it okay
45:19 so that’s kind of a thing where you need
45:24 to
45:25 custom make it for for your church and
45:30 you know just again you might have
45:34 departmental goals if you’re not big
45:35 enough to have departments then it might
45:37 just being a goal for Sally who helps
45:41 out with the books a goal for Joe who’s
45:44 the pastor a goal for you know Bob who
45:50 does the outreach in a community or you
45:53 know whatever it may be just you know
45:57 it’s kind of breaking those goals down
45:59 and then the smaller more more tangible
46:05 chunks that just things that the
46:09 individual people okay because any any
46:13 organization any church is made of
46:15 individual people goals that those
46:18 individual people can say okay if I do X
46:21 Y & Z every week every day I can picture
46:25 achieving this that or the other in a
46:30 month in six months and then if I keep
46:32 doing it beyond their achieving this in
46:35 you know a year and then by achieving
46:38 that in a year that’s helped to improve
46:41 the church’s competitive position you
46:45 know whether it’s filling out or
46:49 somebody running your social media and
46:51 just doing doing something on there and
46:53 it all of a sudden helps set your church
46:54 apart that helps you achieve your goals
46:58 from your competitive strategy and you
47:02 know that coupled with other goals
47:04 achieved from your competitive strategy
47:06 can help you achieve an overall goal you
47:10 know an increase in membership a
47:13 stronger membership whatever it may be
47:16 I hope I’m painting that picture about
47:18 how you know you know it just all breaks
47:21 down to individuals day in day out it’s
47:24 a grind sometimes these sorts of things
47:26 but you know doing the right things
47:31 moving towards a goal achieving small
47:34 goals that compound in the big
47:36 goals and snowball to even bigger goals
47:38 which take you from where you are okay
47:41 to your destination your vision so kind
47:48 of wraps things up I want to emphasize
47:49 again you know try to keep this stuff
47:51 simple especially if this is your first
47:52 year doing this sort of thing you know
47:54 it you might be gung-ho about it if you
47:57 know if hear me talk about these sorts
48:00 of things get you gung ho then I’m
48:01 flattered okay but rein it in a little
48:04 bit keep a practical focus on you know
48:11 understand the first time around you do
48:13 this that you know it’s not gonna be
48:16 perfect you’re getting get better every
48:18 year that’s good okay you want to get
48:19 better at it every year all right so
48:21 don’t just keep it I just you know
48:25 that’s my advice to keep things simple
48:29 okay and understand that it’s through
48:31 failure really that we learn our lessons
48:34 okay
48:35 learn two things that we need to to
48:37 succeed so don’t you know don’t look at
48:40 that failure is the end of the road okay
48:43 just uh just a detour okay roads
48:47 washed-out there’s construction traffic
48:51 jam okay on the way so you know keep you
48:58 know just don’t let falling short you
49:01 know keep you from making big plans high
49:04 aspirations and that sort of thing if
49:06 you need to go through the steps again
49:09 these strategic planning steps I think
49:12 you’re gonna be better off and you’re
49:14 gonna be closer to those you know
49:17 everything that you do that I’ve
49:20 outlined I think will help you get
49:24 closer to achieving what you want to
49:26 achieve again if I were starting my own
49:29 church tomorrow these are the things
49:32 that I would do okay so that kind of
49:38 wraps up the main part of the video you
49:43 know I like to end my videos
49:46 with with a few questions
49:51 food for thought so to speak for the
49:52 comments before I do that I have to do
49:59 something that I’d love to do suck up my
50:01 pride and just ask for likes
50:07 subscriptions notifications comments are
50:11 good I guess anything that sends
50:12 positive feedback to YouTube that you
50:16 liked what you heard even if you’d only
50:18 like some of it it’s it’s free you know
50:21 you’re you don’t only have like so many
50:24 likes to give over your lifetime you
50:25 could like every video on youtube if you
50:27 wanted to you know like I said I hate I
50:32 hate to grovel but you know if you did
50:35 like something that you heard it’s it
50:38 does help it gives me positive feedback
50:42 to do more of this sort of thing and it
50:46 gives positive feedback to YouTube
50:51 Google whoever it may be that you know
50:54 hey get this in front of more people
50:56 that’s just the way the system works and
50:59 you know it’s not necessarily always the
51:02 best videos that get in front of the
51:05 most people okay you know thanks first
51:08 of all for even just watching the video
51:10 um you know this this YouTube video or
51:13 YouTube channels and it’s empathy and
51:15 and you know I’m thankful to have people
51:19 who watch it but yeah so any of that
51:22 stuff like subscribe you know because I
51:26 do have a lot more coming up you know
51:28 not just in church is just a lot of
51:32 great information coming up just for
51:35 business in general Alerts comments all
51:40 that so thank you in advance for all
51:42 yeah so yeah in the comments look what I
51:46 want to hear back from you guys is kind
51:48 of two things you know first of all
51:50 what’s your vision for your church okay
51:52 if you’re in church management great
51:54 what let me know what your vision is
51:58 for the church that you manage on the
52:02 flip side though – if you’re just a
52:04 member of a church what’s your vision
52:06 for the church that you’re a member of
52:08 okay I mean or what’s your vision of a
52:10 church in general how would you paint
52:12 your perfect church okay what you know
52:16 what would it do who would it serve a
52:19 bit would it be you know whatever
52:21 whatever comes to mind
52:23 whatever happens when clear your mind a
52:26 little bit close your eyes and think
52:27 about it and then on top of that another
52:30 thing I’d like to know from you guys is
52:33 whether it’s you know a church you
52:37 manage your church that you attend what
52:40 what’s one goal that would bring it
52:42 closer to that you know I think I don’t
52:49 have to list you have to go through a
52:50 whole strategy formulation process but
52:52 you know look giving this feedback could
52:56 give great ideas the people who are
52:59 watching this video five years from now
53:01 you know like my hope is this content a
53:04 little bit evergreen so it’ll be up for
53:08 a while and people you know that’s
53:10 beauty YouTube people keep searching for
53:13 it and if I get you know if we convince
53:16 YouTube that it’s good content they’ll
53:19 keep showing it to people and what you
53:22 put down in the comments now could help
53:23 inspire somebody one three five ten
53:27 years from the hundred years for me who
53:29 nothing was really so I’d love to hear
53:31 from you guys on that that’s all I got I
53:34 I didn’t even keep track of this time
53:36 keep track of time this time I just I’m
53:39 sure that this was long and appreciate
53:42 you if you’re still with me appreciate
53:44 you sticking with me this long and thank
53:48 you for that take care all right