Goal setting - taking responsibility for your church's future

Goal setting in churches is the delivery end of your Mission Action Plan. If you have prayed, listened to your community, brainstormed a small number of missional priorities - the final part of the process is to implement the priorities. This will mean breaking each of the priorities into actionable chunks and each will be a goal that can be planned for, resourced and implemented.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in church life in becoming a more mission-oriented church. In what may have seemed before as just 'going through the motions' of church life or 'maintaining the institution' you will now have a much stronger sense of direction, purpose and hope.

Find below some useful goal setting tips.

• Make sure you appoint a special team who will take responsibility for taking the missional priorities and breaking them down into achievable goals. They should report to Vestry every couple of months.
• State each goal in positive language rather than negative.
• Be precise - set precise goals, assign precise times and identify precise resources.
• Assign priorities - when you have several goals give each a priority. This will ensure you don't feel overwhelmed by having too many competing goals.
• Write the goals down - this crystallizes the goals and gives them more force.
• Don't confuse significant goals that will carry forward your mission with smaller operational goals that will probably happen anyway. Your goals should be challenging!
• Only set goals you can control - this will give you a sense of responsibility and power!
• Set realistic goals.
• Goal setting is a powerful process that enables you to think about your ideal future and motives you to turn your vision of that future into reality.
• Look for clues that indicate your vision is being realized - and don't forget to celebrate!