Every church needs an overarching objective. I believe it is a good practice to set a new overarching objective every year, perhaps even more often if you have a set time, criteria, and goals and accomplish those in a shorter time frame. An overarching theme or objective is determined by the church leaders by answering one question; “If we could only work on one thing (objective) for the next year (nine months, six months, etc.) what one thing would that be?”
Answering this question and narrowing to only one main objective will require discussion with the right people in the room. It may require more than one meeting. In one church when I introduced this concept to the church leaders (staff & deacon chair), we listed several ideas on a tear sheet and let each person give reason for why that should be our overarching theme for the remaining seven months of the year. Everyone left the meeting with the assignment to contemplate and pray for direction of which of the seven or eight ideas to select as our overarching objective.
When we came back together the following week, there were two of the ideas on everyone’s mind. We realized the two were actually connected and by working on either one, we would also be developing the other. We concluded our discussion by choosing one and then began strategizing how to effectively implement improvements in this area throughout the organization of ministry.
Before proper strategic planning can take place though, your overarching theme needs to be turned into a goal – an overarching goal for the entire ministry organization – not only the pastor and staff. I refer to the Overarching Goal as the “OG.” In the book Turnaround Journey Calvert City Community Church begins their turnaround journey by selecting families as their overarching theme. The theme of families can take on a very wide spectrum of ministry and thoughts of what “family” includes. So before the team can proceed they must develop a goal for ministry to families for their church. Since it is to be an overarching goal it must be strong enough to support the fulfillment of the Great Commission and broad enough to be executed by all ministries within the church.
An Overarching Goal (OG) based on an overarching theme must include the theme as well as other elements of a goal. When setting a goal you need a “from here to where by when” (here + where x when=goal). In other words you must first determine where you are today, currently in regards to your goal relating to your theme. If your overarching theme is spiritual maturity for your congregation you need to have an understanding of where your people are at today. That is your from here.
Next you need a to where. Where is it you would like for your people to be at the end of your timeframe? Realistically, what should you expect from your people in the area of spiritual growth? TO determine a fitting to where, you must first determine a way to measure such growth. Is it measurable. If not, then you need to rethink your theme. Once you have a style of measure you can set your to where.
Your by when is simply selecting a date to accomplish your from here to where. I There are many other built in calendar dates a church can use as well. Example: Easter, the start of the new church year, or school start or finish dates.
The strategic planning dies not end with the setting of an Overarching Goal. That is the beginning point. If you want to implement for true Great Commission success begin with setting an overarching Goal. For more on this and the other steps for effective strategic planning and implementation pick up your copy of Turnaround Journey and contact George Yates at SonC.A.R.E. Ministries.
Life is a journey and your church is on a journey. Why not set the next leg of your church’s journey on course for a more productive and effective beautiful journey.