The following exercise is suggested for guiding a leadership team though a strategic planning exercise.
1. Prepare for Spiritual Forward Planning
The planning group should first be led in a time of personal prayer that prepares them individually to be involved with each other and sensitive to God’s guidance as they seek to discern His will for the group. The following prayers, adapted from Setting the Church Free by Neil Anderson, can be used:
Dear heavenly Father, open my eyes to see Your truth. Give me ears to hear and a compelling desire to respond in faith to what the Lord Jesus Christ has already done for me. I confess Jesus Christ - crucified, risen and reigning - as my one and only Lord and Saviour. I renounce any past involvement with non-Christian religions or experiences. I announce that Christ died on the cross for me and for my sins and rose again bodily from the dead for my justification. I confess that the Lord Jesus Christ rescued me from the dominion of darkness and transferred me into His kingdom of light. I renounce Satan in all his works and all his ways. I announce that Jesus Christ is my Lord, Saviour, Teacher and Friend. I give myself fully to Christ to do whatever He wants me to do, to be whatever he wants me to be, to give up whatever He wants me to give up, to give away whatever He wants me to give away, to become whatever He wants me to become. I confess, reject, renounce and utterly disown every sin in which I have ever been involved. I announce that in Christ I have received redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I accept His reconciliation to the heavenly Father and welcome peace with God. As an expression of my faith in Christ’s forgiveness of me, I forgive every person who has ever hurt, abused or taken advantage of me. I let them off the hook and let God settle the score as the final Judge who metes out perfect justice. I open all the doors of my life to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Him to take control of every part of my being. I gladly accept the filling of the Holy Spirit into every part of my life. I surrender myself to live in union with the Lord Jesus Christ from this moment until I stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ and hear my name read from the Lamb’s Book of Life. Thank you, heavenly Father, for uniting me with the Lord Jesus Christ and with all those who truly belong to You and live under Your gracious reign. In Jesus’ powerful name, Amen.
After a time of personal preparation, lead the group in corporate prayer. An example follows:
Dear heavenly Father, open our eyes to see Your truth and our ears to hear what Your Holy Spirit is saying to our group. We acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of our group. We renounce any claim of ownership on our part. This is Your group, not ours, and You are the Head. We renounce any independent spirit and declare our full dependence upon You. We come together to discern Your will for our group. We renounce any and all desires or attempts to exert our own wills through arguing, manipulating or intimidating. You are light and in You there is no darkness at all. We choose to walk in the light in order to have fellowship with You and with one another. We ask You to fill us with Your Holy Spirit and guide us through these steps as we seek to plan our group’s future. Set us free to fulfill Your purpose for our being here. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Because we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies and because the Group is commissioned to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, we take our stand against the evil one and all his forces. We gladly submit to You, heavenly Father, and obey Your command to resist the devil. We ask You to ban the adversary from our presence so that we will be free to know Your will and to choose to obey it. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
2. Research the Group Context
This second stage focuses on context of the group: its history; the environment in which it is located; the ages of those who attend, various ministries that are currently functioning and its leadership structure. This can be done by brainstorming each of the areas:
A. Our Group’s History
B. Our Group’s Socio-political Environment
C. Our Group’s Economic Situation
D. Our Group’s Age Breakdown
E. Our Present Group Activities
F. Our Group’s Leadership Structure
3. Complete a SWOT Exercise
Once again a brainstorm with the planning team should be done to explore the following:
A. What are the Strengths facing our group?
B. What are Weaknesses facing our group?
C. What are the Opportunities facing our group?
D. What are the Threats facing our group?
It is important during this stage to remain sensitive to God’s leading and discern His view of the group, so this stage should be done prayerfully. Example prayers for each section follow:
Step One: Our Group’s Strengths
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for calling and choosing us as shepherds of the flock and servant leaders in Your group. Thank You for this group and what You have done through it. Thank You for the people who worship and serve You here. Show us what the living Lord Jesus commends in our group. Remind us of what we are doing right, and the strengths You have given to our group. As we wait silently before You, show us our good works that glorify our Father in heaven.
Step Two: Our Group’s Weaknesses
Dear heavenly Father, we have not fully utilized the gifts, talents and strengths that You have made available to us. We slip into patterns of thinking and acting that displease You. We fall short of Your best and of all that You intend for us. We ask You to open our eyes so that we may see our weaknesses as You do. We wait silently before You in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.
Step Three: Our Group’s Opportunities
Dear heavenly Father, as a group we contemplate the areas of ministry that You would have us engage in. As we look around help us to identify those opportunities that You would have us pursue - give us Your sight and vision concerning what we see. Help us not to rush ahead of You, nor to lag behind where You may be leading us. Give us discernment that will enable us to pursue those opportunities that You want us to tackle immediately and those that You will bring to our minds at a later stage. We wait before You as you reveal to us the open doors You have set before us as a group. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.
Step Four: Our Group’s Threats
Dear heavenly Father, as we wait before You, we pray that You will bring to our minds any corporate sins that we as individuals or collectively in the group has committed. Reveal to us where we may have harboured wrong attitudes. Help us to be aware of any outside attacks from people or the evil one which may be threatening our effectiveness as Your group. Help us to identify any threats which may come from the community around us or from society which influences us so subtly. We pray this is the almighty name of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. Amen
4. Discover a Vision for the Future
Have people brainstorm individually where they think the group should be going. One way to facilitate this is to get them to imagine that they left the group and returned in five years time. How would they like the youth group to be? Bring the members back and allow each to share the results of their reflection. Using a white board, flip chart or overhead, discover the common features of a vision for the future of the group.
5. Create a Mission Statement
This stage explores what the group should be emphasising in ministry with youth. Members answer the question, “What should the group be emphasising?” Then they answer the question: “Why does the group exist?” Then finally have them consider how they will put feet to the mission statement, ie. “We will do this by...?”
6. Identify Key Ministry Areas
The members must now identify the various areas of ministry that should be focussed on, ie. evangelism, discipleship, leadership development, caring, etc. These areas may already have been identified during the mission statement designing stage. A brainstorm can be used where members list the five key ministry areas that they consider important - they answer the question: “What are the key areas that will help us accomplish our mission?” These are then prioritised according to importance. By the end of this stage the group should have identified five key areas of ministry and have them prioritised.
7. Create Goals to Develop Key Ministries
An action plan should now be worked out that includes goals for each key ministry area with specific steps that will be taken. The question here is: “What needs to be done for each key ministry area to achieve success?” This stage has three steps:
* What must be done?
* Who will do it?
* When must it be done by?
8. Consider Commitment-Level Programming
This is the last stage but probably the most vital, here we put feet to our strategy. It is important to realise that youth are at different levels of commitment and therefore different level programmes are needed to address each level. Duffy Robbins, Youth Ministry that Works, speaks of (a) the Pool of Humanity - unchurched youth who do not attend the group, (b) Come Level - youth who come to the group for fun, (c) Grow Level - youth who will submit themselves to a Christian activity for the fun element involved, (d) Disciple Level - youth who take the initiative for their own spiritual growth, (e) Develop Level - youth who take the initiative for the spiritual growth of other youth, (f) Multiply Level - youth who find someone in the pool of humanity and help to lead them through the process.
It is my conviction that youth groups should avoid running one-event-fits-all type programmes. Instead we need at least three events that run continually to cater for the different levels and which seek to move youth through the process of spiritual development. For example: on a Saturday provide an event aimed at the Pool of Humanity - this must be in the community and aim to reach youth who will never darken the door of a church. The aim here is to introduce new youth to the group - not so much to Christ or the Gospel. Then set up a Friday night event aimed at the Come Level and provide events that unchurched youth will enjoy and want to come back for. Periodically provide an event with a Gospel message. Then provide a Follow-up event aimed at those who give their lives to Christ - to ground them in the faith. Two more events should be added, ie. a Bible Study event aimed at the Disciple and Develop Level youth and Leadership training to help youth at the Multiply Level.
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