I’ve used this simple tool to capture the essence of strategic planning. Feel free to use it with your team. You might also find this tool helpful as well.

Dave Berry, one of the funniest guys on the planet once wrote, “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be: meetings.”

I’m not sure if he’s 100% right, but he’s close. Meetings, and extended ones like retreats, often don’t achieve their intended purpose.

My latest church pastor’s retreat, however, was probably the best ever in the 40 plus staff retreats I’ve either held or in which I’ve participated in 30 years of ministry.

The church where I’ve served as lead pastor for 7 years employs about 20 staff, including part-timers. Four, including me, make up the pastoral level and we get away once a year for our planning retreat.

As I reviewed this most recent retreat, in contrast to previous ones, I realize I’ve made some dumb mistakes in the past. My biggest ones include these.

1. Packing too much into the retreat (which has ranged from 1-3 days). I once handed out about 20 different documents for review and study.
2. Talking too much. At times I’ve talked/taught so much that I left little time for thorough interaction.
3. Going too long. As the adage goes, “The brain will absorb only what the butt can endure.”
4. Not including R&R.
5. Including other leaders too late into the planning process. In one church I asked our elders to join us after we had completed our planning. They ended up not being on the same page and the pastors felt like our retreat was a waste of time.

Each November I bring an annual “vision” message to explain the big picture for the coming year and hopefully motivate buy-in.

Related posts: Strategic Planning for Dummies

When I was a kid, one of my favorite toys was an Etch A Sketch. If you’ve never played with one, it works like this. You turn the two white knobs in different directions to create a line drawing like the one in the picture. That was cool enough for us kids like me who lived in the pre-internet era. But the coolest part came when when you wanted to start a new drawing. A quick jiggle of the screen and the drawing would ‘magically’ disappear ready for a new picture.

What does an Etch A Sketch have to do with planning? It’s a phrase I coined during my recent trip to Nicaragua.

In six days our team held three 1-day training conferences in different locations in the country for over 325 pastors and their wives. Being a meticulous planner, I had created a well-designed schedule for each day. The only problem? My view of time didn’t sync with how the pastors and wives viewed it nor did it sync with how the three local pastors who sponsored the events viewed it.

I was literally forced to change our daily schedule every hour, sometimes as often as 5 times in an hour. For a recovering obcessive-compulsive, I was ticked. I had diligently prepared this schedule. We had lots to accomplish to finish at five each day. The speakers had prepared talks to teach. Our worship team had practiced songs to sing. But the people didn’t show up until anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half late. And they took really long breaks. Early on inside I was yelling, “What’s wrong with you Nicaraguans! Don’t you wear watches?”

But God graciously moderated my inner voice and attitude and I realized I could learn a lot from how the Nicaraguans treated time.

For me, time has always been a commodity I didn’t want to waste. I always felt that I waste time if I’m not always accomplishing some task or goal. I’ve also believed that people who are perpetually late aren’t stewarding their time wisely. Although the two previous statements are often true, the culture I’ve experienced in my five trips to Nicaragua has helped me become less ‘uptight’ if sometimes my time passes without any appreciable accomplishment.

I believe these Nicaraguan pastors, as a whole, value relationships over tasks, perhaps more than we do in the United States.

If you are a pastor, you are a busy guy or gal. I know because I am one. It seems there’s always more to do in ministry than time to do it.

But for me, I hope my Etch A Sketch planning experience will help me savor the relational moments that may show no immediate accomplishment. Perhaps Jesus had this thought in mind when he gently admonished Martha with these words.

… only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. (Luke 10.42)

Related posts: Strategic Planning for Dummies

For more Help and Resources for Pastors, visit Pastor Stone’s main site.

In a recent post, Strategic Planning for Dummies, I suggested a simple visual that can simply explain strategic planning.

I’ve used the tool below with that visual to help actually implement ministry plans. I hope it helps you.

Ministry Event Plan tool for blog

Strategic planning can sometimes be difficult to explain. This diagram has helped me easily explain the process.

The outside circle represents the process of strategic planning.

• Plan what you want to do
• Train and communicate to those who will carry out the plan
• Execute the plan
• Review/evaluate what you accomplished

The three questions to evaluate how well you are doing are these (the triangle):

1. What? (do you have a clear target, goals, mission?)
2. How? (do you have simple and effective systems in place to accomplish your goals?)
3. Who? (are you using unified teams of people to accomplish your goals?)

Here’s the diagram.

Related posts. Strategic Planning for Dummies, part 2.