New Journey Lutheran Church Strategic Planning for 2025:
Differentiating “Mission Plans” from “Budgets”
This is the second in a series of short articles presenting the current philosophy of the congregation council and their strategic planning activities. Last month’s discussion provided an overview of New Journey’s strategic planning activities. These efforts are influenced by the work of scholars and practitioners at the Luther Seminary and elsewhere that can be described as the “pivot in posture” movement. The goal of this approach is to position congregations and the church at large to meet current and future challenges to the health of organized religious practice. There are four aspects of pivoting.
A pivot from “fixing” to “discerning.” Rather than emphasizing identifying remedies for problems facing the church or perceived weaknesses in existing mission programs, congregations would pivot to devoting more time and energy to listening to God and their communities to discern what programs and activities they can pursue to fulfill God’s promise.
A pivot from “membership” to “discipleship.” Rather than emphasizing “bodies in seats on Sunday” congregations would pivot to emphasize “boots on the ground to fulfill God’s mission.”
A pivot from “one size fits all” mentality to a “mixed ecology” approach to congregation organization and activity. This approach would emphasize “church” as a verb, “how will we act to ‘church’ our community and spread God’s word,” rather than “church” as a noun, “we go to church services on Sunday morning as our primary means of worshiping.”
A pivot from “pastor led” to “lay led.” This would change the orientation of the pastor as the “piston” which drives the engine to a role of assisting the congregation in fulfilling those purposes determined and managed by the congregation within the theological and practical frameworks of their church.
Obviously, the pivot approach will be different for every congregation and will be neither quick nor easy to implement. As always, “treasure, time, and talent” will be fundamental to the process of moving forward the congregation. One crucial element is the approach a congregation takes to use “treasure” to plan their mission programs and their infrastructure spending needs. Three years ago, the New Journey congregation council began the transition to implementing a “mission plan” rather than a “budget.”
The differences between mission plans and budgets are summarized in the following chart:
Mission Plan versus Budget
The outcomes of New Journey’s foray into using the mission plan approach have been, so far, successful. Using this approach New Journey has transformed the Pastor’s position from half to three-quarters time; implemented a Communication Coordinator position; expanded mission-centric activities among other changes; and doing so while successfully balancing income and expense. This is not to say that there have not been challenges but so far New Journey has demonstrated faith and willingness to go down this path.
Please consider this a conversation starter. I am happy to share additional resources if you are interested in the Pivot discussions and happy to expand on any of the points in this essay.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Bartanen, Congregation Council Treasurer