Effective Church Growth Planning
By: Tim Massengale

Henry Ford
	•	Most people credit Henry Ford with inventing the automobile, the truth is he didn’t
	•	Although he held many patents on various automotive mechanisms, the invention of the first self-powered carriage is credited to Nicolas Cugnot of France in 1771
	•	But history does credit Henry Ford with being a master of effective planning
	•	His assembly-line production completely revolutionized the auto industry by greatly reducing the time required to assemble a car
	•	He decided to pass on this savings to his customers, and in 1915 dropped the price of the Model T from $850 to $290
	•	That year alone he sold 1 million cars and soon after became one of the wealthiest men in the country
	•	Thomas Edison, who painstakingly worked to produce the first successful incandescent light bulb also believed in effective planning
	•	He said, “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with good planning.” 

Planning Effectively
	•	One of the biggest secrets of successful church growth lies in the ability of a pastor to plan effectively with his ministry leaders
	•	Two simple, but important aspects of effective church growth planning:
	•	First, schedule an Annual Planning Retreat
	•	Get away at least once a year with your key ministry leaders for an over-night, idea-intensive brainstorming session to solve problems and plan the coming year
	•	Second, ask each ministry leader to hand in a Departmental One-year Plan
	•	This is a simple written outline of their departmental plans and goals for the coming year
	•	The Monthly Planning Council
	•	It provides the means of accomplishing one of the most common weaknesses in church planning: the tendency to not follow-through once plans have been made
	•	Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12

How Often Should You Meet 
	•	In sports we see many examples of the need to plan
	•	A game plan is simply a series of steps which the team must follow in order to accomplish its goal of winning the game
	•	How often should a pastor plan with his ministry leadership?
	•	If a church is large enough to have several full-time individuals such as secretaries, assistants, youth director, music director, and so on, a pastor often meets weekly to organize the weeks activities
	•	The majority, probably over 90%, are fortunate if the pastor himself is full time, so a pastor will be planning with a volunteer staff of department heads
	•	Some pastors have tried to have departmental meetings only once per quarter
	•	Meetings are too long because too much is happening, and because of limited time, little or no actual planning is done and the meeting becomes nothing more then a calendar making session
	•	The best and most successful approach has been the Monthly Planning Council
	•	This once per month meeting is utilized for training, reporting, planning, and brainstorming on all facets of the church

Who Should Come 
	•	The Monthly Council is attended by all primary department heads
	•	This could be as many as twelve individuals
	•	This would include Sunday School, Outreach, Ladies Ministries, Music, Youth, New Convert Care, Men’s Ministry, Home Bible Study, Visitor Follow-up, Bus Ministry, and so on
	•	Spouses are not required to come, although if they wish to attend, they may
	•	The more people there are, the longer the discussion tends to be, and the greater difficulty you will have in arriving at any group agreement

Monthly Council Success.
	•	In the corporate world, business meetings are an important component of success
	•	Entire books are devoted to this subject
	•	First, be sure to provide a typed agenda at each meeting
	•	Each department should be listed and the topics of discussion should be listed
	•	The Monthly Council is usually held at the church
	•	Occasionally it is nice to meet at a restaurant (in a private area) or in a home
	•	This adds a different atmosphere that will break up the "rut" that can sometimes develop
	•	Discipline yourself to push the meeting to a specified time conclusion. 
	•	As you come to each department, the pastor should have the director quickly read his or her monthly report- the results, not the full report
	•	As each agenda topic discussed, detailed planning should be done- you should ask the director questions
	•	At the end of the meeting, the pastor (or secretary) should quickly read over the notes of the meeting to emphasize "what has been accomplished”
	•	By doing this, it accents the importance of the Monthly Council and underscores that their time that night has been well spent
	•	The growth and success of your departments, as well as your church, will be determined by the effectiveness of these monthly councils

In Conclusion 
	•	Solomon, a man truly blessed with wisdom, wrote "Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety" (Proverbs 11:14, NIV)
	•	He again wrote, "Without counsel, purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established" (Proverbs 20:18, NIV)
	•	It was by failing to listen to his counselors - and instead, listening to his heathen wives - that led Solomon to his own downfall
	•	By bringing the key leaders together, a pastor builds a team spirit into his directors
	•	And by helping his directors solve their problems, the pastor motivates them to accomplish more, and thereby see more souls born into the Kingdom of God