NJLC Strategic Planning for 2025: An Introduction
“The wise store up choice food and olive oil, but fools gulp theirs down.”
One of the roles of the Congregation Council Treasurer is to encourage and assist the Council and Congregation in long-range planning. This is one way a congregation avoids “gulping down” their resources and preparing for what God has in store for us. As the shop-worn trope says, “if you fail to plan you plan to fail.” Of course, we know that God provides for our needs, but one of the ways that happens is to give us foresight and tools to address the challenges, near and far, which are always present.
This short essay is the first in an occasional series where I will discuss the strategic planning activities of the Congregation Council for 2025. Our goal is to keep you updated on our thinking and engage you in conversation about where we are going and how we might get there. New Journey has an important role in spreading the Word of God and he has blessed us with time, talent and treasure to undertake that task.
Why should a congregation engage in planning? What are the challenges which need to address? What tools should we use in addressing challenges? These are three underlying questions which this and subsequent essays will begin to address in the hope of building consensus about our future.
Why should a congregation plan? That seems self-evident. As parents, husbands and wives, citizens, and faithful Christians, we peer into our own crystal balls to attempt to be ready for whatever comes. We know that there are both positive and negative events which happen to all people, and we instinctively attempt to anticipate what we will happen in either good times or bad times to come. We plan. We pray for God’s guidance. We understand that plans sometimes do not work out. Another trope: “Humans plan. God Laughs.” But we do the best we can with the tools we have.
What are the challenges which need to address? This is an important question facing the ELCA and New Journey Lutheran Church. Much of what I will discuss is grounded in the important work of practitioners and scholars across various faith communities and particularly the initiatives being studied at the Luther Seminary. The seminary’s work in “faithful innovation” is important and frames my own thinking about the future. Both Pastor Beth and I would be happy to recommend a reading list a link to their blogs about innovation. But the four challenges I see do not necessarily represent a comprehensive list nor necessarily the views of Luther Seminary scholars or others who are working on these issues.
Church membership and participation are declining, particularly among younger people.
I will not hit this too hard, as it is a topic covered in depth elsewhere and probably very familiar to most of us at New Journey. The implications are, of course, massive. Who will take up the work when we have left the field? How can an aging congregation continue to make a difference?
Churches are facing intense financial pressure to move beyond exclusive reliance on tithes and offering.
Again, this is obvious. We see so much to do but lament about how limited our resources, particularly financial, are to do that work. Inflation seems to be a permanent condition. Political disagreements cast doubt on how government and other institutions will choose to address lingering political and social issues of particular interest to members of faith communities.
There is a looming shortage of newly trained pastors, and the changing dynamics of pastoral leadership will exacerbate the problem.
The Pastor has always been the piston which drives the engine of the church. But the job keeps getting harder and the incentives, particularly the extrinsic ones such as salary and benefits, do not seem to keep up particularly when more and more responsibilities are heaped on the pastor’s plate. What is the future for congregational leadership? What are the responsibilities of a congregation to “share the load?”
The importance of the church as a force for good will only grow the future and requires us to be able to quietly listen to what God is telling us even when the cacophony of voices compete for our attention.
How do we cut through the chatter of our televisions, cell phones and social media to hear what God might be whispering to us about how we might fulfill his wishes? McLuhan observed many years ago that the “medium is the message.” How can our spiritual practices help us to be ready to hear God’s voice?
What tools do we have to address those and other pressing concerns? That is an open question and one which the Church Council and Congregation (as well as the faith community generally) need to explore. That will be subject of subsequent essays, (assuming, of course, that you have stuck with me this far!).
The difference between a “budget” and a “mission plan”
Why is an endowment important?
What support do we need to provide for our staff colleagues? Why is compensation philosophy necessary?
How do we address? the relationship between our physical space and our mission priorities?
What is the “mixed ecology model” and how might it inform the future of New Journey?
As always, the Pastor and members of the Council are anxious to engage you in addressing these and other issues facing our congregation. We hope this begins with a dialogue and not a lecture. These are ideas which are inherently tentative rather than written in stone. I look forward to the conversation.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Bartanen, Congregation Council Treasurer