How? July 28, 2009
Posted by Dan R. Dick in Church Leadership, Critical Thinking, The United Methodist Church.Tags: Church Leadership, Planning
5 comments
In strategic planning work with both conferences and congregations it is common practice to focus first on “who we are, why we’re here, and what we need to do” before moving on to “how.” Getting to “how” to do things is the bane of successful planning — too often we start strategizing tactics before we really understand what our real work needs to be. However, there are five key “how” questions that must be answered, reflected on, and evaluated for 
congregational effectiveness. They are:
- How do we set priorities?
- How do we cultivate leaders?
- How do we make decisions?
- How do we communicate?
- How do we evaluate?
Unless we understand the answers to these “how” questions, we have very little real chance of success of improvement. They offer a snapshot of our current reality, and provide vital information for ways we can improve the processes within the local church.
