About Augustana :: Strategic Plan

To: Augustana Church Council

From: David Stark, Changing Church Forum

After working with the strategic planning team, the staff, and the congregation over the past 10 months, we are excited to present to you our new Strategic Plan. Countless hours of work by all the parties have brought us to this place today. Let me review some of the highlights of the journey.

We began by looking closely at the internal and external situation at Augustana, currently. To understand the congregation, we had over 200 participants fill out the congregational survey. This was followed by taking a look at the existing mission and vision statements so that our new strategic plan would take the best from the past into the future direction of the church. The internal diagnostics also included a description of every ministry, currently, as well as major leadership functions of the church. We then turned our attention to the external environment. Using a nationally respected tool that focuses on demographic data within a certain radius of any church, we compared where the people are living now who attend with the top lifestyle segments in the community around us. The strategic planning team then narrowed the scope to five lifestyle segments around us that are most likely to be interested in Augustana’s ministry in the future. Examples of those segments include: “Working Urban Families,” “Young Suburban Families,” and ”Suburban Mid-Life Families.”

With all of this rich input, we began the planning phase by creating a vision frame work for the future. There was a great deal of back and forth with the staff and the planning committee, as we wrote and rewrote the mission statement until it represented the best of all minds together. We also created a new set of core values that apply to the next season of mission and ministry at Augustana. From this foundation, the staff began to create strategies for each of the core values that represented things they are currently working on as well as objectives and goals that will lead us forward. At this point, with the oversight of the strategic planning team, it was time to set realistic timing on the goals and objectives we have committed to over the next five years. It is important to note that the strategic plan is a living document that evolves and changes based on resources available. The timeline will be evaluated every six months to ensure timelines are realistic.

                                                            David Stark

AUGUSTANA CORE VALUES, STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE

Be inspired, challenged and empowered to be God’s people in the world through Christ-centered worship

Map all the entry points for visitors to the church, and summarize what is happening currently to welcome them here by February 2012.
Have a welcoming team visit four other churches in the area to specifically talk to the staff and lay people about how they welcome people in their churches, and then make a list of recommendations to be reviewed by the Council by April 2012.
Administer an evaluation of the worship service in the Fall of 2012:
• Benefits and growth areas of using the Narrative Lectionary
• Weekly bulletin inserts allowing for reflection on themes and texts for the week
• Worship theme coherence over a series of sermons
• Graphic elements utilized in the worship tools
• Theme verse for the year, and its impact on people
• Testimonies that have been presented to the congregation, and their ministry and motivational impact.
Take the staff through an evaluation of the meetings every 6 months with these special focus items:
• Bible study at the beginning of the staff meeting and the themes.
• Advance guidance from the pastors about upcoming sermon themes, and development of other programs for alignment with these themes.
• Thematic nature of the worship, and its effectiveness in people’s lives.
• Input, in advance, by the staff of special emphasis of their program areas that align with the worship themes.
• The power of invitational announcements, and their impact.

Discover and learn all that a personal relationship with Christ offers

Offer high quality opportunities for members to experience a significant connection to God by offering a variety of educational and spiritual growth events (both group and individual) helping members connect their faith with daily life. Opportunities will be evaluated annually.
Implement participant evaluations at the conclusion of all activities and events with one of the questions being “Did this event help you to connect your faith with your daily life?” Evaluations will be implemented by December 2011.

Connect people in all phases of life through active participation in a dynamic Christian community

Brainstorm the possible teams, with the whole staff, that will be needed to live out the Strategic plan over the next 3-5 years, and start 1-2 of these by November of 2011.
Review the baptism, new member, confirmation, and marriage processes with a focus on integrating people into the congregational life by June of 2012.
Prepare a set of action steps to be implemented in one of these areas that will enhance the processes to actually incorporate a higher % of people into the life of the church.
Create a leadership development process and curriculum by September 2012 for use by all program ministries within the church that they will implement at some point over the next two years.
Develop events that focus on the expertise of lay people in the congregation to lead projects or learn skills that will enhance the lives of members at Augustana by October 2012.
Develop one new event that utilize music, art, and crafts for whole congregational involvement, with the whole staff by December 2012.
Research and explore Small Group ministry at Augustana by 2013.
Schedule a yearly review for identification of new leaders by the staff during May of each year.

Glorify God by caring for and serving others through compassionate outreach

Evaluate the current demographics of Augustana members and create opportunities to make people feel more comfortable being in service to others, and that builds relationships with members of the community by August 2012.
Create educational opportunities for the leadership of Augustana, that are built from research about lifestyle segments around the church that are most open to Lutheranism by October of 2012.
Create a white paper on the feasibility and strategic validity on investing of a Family Center at Augustana,
and present this to the Council by May of 2013.
Write an action plan for the next three years that provides Augustana members opportunities to make people feel more comfortable being in service to others, and that builds relationships with members of the community.

Be ridiculously generous in all things reflecting God’s generosity to us

Start offering Financial Peace curriculum to targeted audiences in September 2011, and expand to the whole congregation in January of 2012.
Online pledging available by October 1, 2011 and evaluate yearly as part of Stewardship planning.
Credit card payment available by October 1, 2011, and evaluate yearly as part of Stewardship planning.
Map the major segments of the congregation, with detailed descriptions about important aspects of their lives by January of 2012.
Create an age and stage strategy for approaching different lifestyle segments in the congregation by October of 2012.
Pastors incorporate stewardship in their preaching at least 6 times a year.

Support and expand our local, national and global partnerships
Develop a communication plan to celebrate, motivate, and engage the congregation in every aspect of the mission trips that are sent out by March 2012.
Strengthen partnerships to move beyond financial giving, to serving with time and talent by October 2012.
Explore five new possible local partnerships in the community that will excite the congregation to engage in
service by May 2014. Recommend 1 or 2 partnerships for involvement of Augustana by September 2014.
Continue to offer missions trips to Guatemala annually and Tanzania, triennially (every three years.)
Evaluate mission offerings yearly, looking specifically at these components:
• Trips themselves – frequency and impact
• Quality of preparation and commissioning people before they embark on the mission
• Communication after the trip that includes sharing widely the stories of impact and learning on the mission itself.
Promote and recruit the congregation for engagement in all aspects of mission, which is evaluated by the following metrics yearly:
• Number of people engaged in mission
• Impact of mission on other aspects of the church
• Number of people outside the church who joined us in local ( or other mission)
• Offering some form of mission every month.

Honor God by ensuring that all we do is Gospel-based and relevant
Develop a faith story workshop or curriculum by June of 2012 to incorporate in all the ministries at least once a year.
Evaluate the newsletter on an ongoing basis with special focus on incorporating monthly scriptures and themes.