In my years as an AV integrator and consultant, I have come across many churches and pastors who have never heard of master planning. While this term is certainly becoming more common place now, in the past it was not unheard of for a church to upgrade the same technical system multiple times before they were sold the correct solution for their particular use case.
Master planning, of course, goes well beyond the scope of technical system upgrades and encompasses everything from physical plant and structure, upholstery, and landscaping to culture, online presence and evangelism.
This means that your master planning should incorporate much more than simply your immediate needs, but rather should be a long-term project that is built on the foundation of your vision over the next 10-15 years.
Of course, this means there is deep discussion and prayerful consideration about what that vision should be before embarking on a master planning journey. Too many churches and leaders fail to fully go through his process before allowing their enthusiasm about change and upgrades to carry them blissfully down the road towards happiness before slamming into the wall of reality when lack of funding, the inevitable setbacks and obstacles creep up, and the church loses faith in your leadership.
As the old adage states, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” While it seems a trite saying, it is absolutely true. It’s important to understand that you don’t want to get bogged down in analysis paralysis, either. Approach the Father in prayer and wait for an answer; once you have that answer, you can then begin your discussions about vision, which will inform every subsequent discussion on your journey. After all, if a change doesn’t support the vision and mission, one must ask whether it’s really necessary.
The truly fun part of a master planning journey for me is the dreaming stage, where you toss around solutions and ideas of how to improve and what could be done to make your church better. This process and these solutions are particular and unique for each church; for example, a rural church of 30 people is not as likely to be as interested in growing a large online viewership as a church in the city. The sky is the limit for your dreaming and discussion, however, it’s important to keep a rein on these discussions so as not to get too carried away with ideas that are irrelevant or unnecessary. Just because you could do it doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Again, everything is filtered through the lens of mission and vision. It may be the most amazing idea ever, but if it fails to support your mission and vision, it’s a bad idea. I should note that sometimes the vision needs to be adjusted to support a great idea; however, this is rarely the case and thus we should always look to mission and vision to stay on track.
Part of this discussion is to determine where you’re at now and where you want to be in the timeframe you have determined. That may be 2 years or 10 years, but once you have a destination, you can work backwards to establish how you will break up the expenditures over that period of time in order to make it more palatable to your members and into “segments” that are more realistic to accomplish. For example, I know of a church that established a “renew” campaign over five years that aimed to raise $1 million and was quite comprehensive; it broke up the project into segments based on parts of the church. The Fellowship Hall got new carpet, new audiovisual and new lighting, then the carpet and upholstery in all the hallways was replaced along with new tile entry ways. The sanctuary was next with new audio, projection and lighting systems, then the pews and chairs were re-upholstered, the carpet was replaced to match the rest of the church and the stage was changed from aggregate concrete to tile and re-shaped. This would be a good example of breaking up your master plan into smaller and more manageable pieces that can be tackled linearly.
When you have determined the segments you need, the sequencing of those segments is also very important. Generally, I recommend you start with segments that will have more immediate and positive impact, such as in tech upgrades, we tend to start with projection and speaker systems as those can address more immediate needs of being able to hear clearly and see clearly. Maybe we upgrade the lighting because live streaming is a priority and improving lighting is always the first place I recommend to upgrade before cameras.
Perhaps your church needs to change the flooring first as it is well worn and stained and is a sore point with church members. If you can include feedback from your members in your planning process and then prioritize the larger set of complaints and fix those issues, the amount of continued buy-in and financial support you will receive for the rest of the master plan will be substantially better than if you simply do your own thing.
You need buy in from your membership because they are the ones providing the funds that allow changes to be made. Sometimes there are very vocal individuals who like to make demands based on their own preferences; these people like to act like the majority but they often are not and as such, you need to be careful not to allow their “noise” to disrupt or derail the changes that actually need to be made.
You will want someone to oversee the entire project, as well, other than yourself, too. You already have enough on your plate as pastor and in order to increase buy in, your “project champion” will also be someone who is passionate about these changes and preferably has some project management experience. If you don’t have anyone in your church that meets that criteria, you might consider investing in someone to get some project management training to help your project stay on time, within budget, and on track. The larger the plan, the more complex the management and strategy and the more moving parts. For larger churches, you may wish to “hire” a project manager that can take that part over for you so you can stay focused on ministry.
Once your plan starts to get implemented, you will want to find ways of getting regular updates to keep your finger on the pulse of the project. The regularity of these updates can also help you and your planning committee to address issues and changes more quickly. There will be problems, delays, issues, circumstances, etc. that crop up, guaranteed. As they say in the military, “No plan survives first contact.” So it is with master planning; you don’t want to be “married” to your plan to the point where there is no flexibility to make changes when an obstacle occurs. Chances are, the contractors you will work with know of a better way to accomplish something. However, contractors also like to take shortcuts that can lead to sub-par work, at best, and downright dangerous and unsafe situations, at worst. This truth is not limited to trades contractors, either. We once visited a church who had just gone through a lighting upgrade that resulted in the image below; 6 17lb. LED ellipsoidal spotlights yoked straight out horizontally with no safety cables. These lights were mounted above the main entry/exit doors to the sanctuary. Should one fall and hit someone, it would more likely kill the person than seriously injure them.
As I like to say, “Trust, but verify.” It’s ok to trust your contractors, but verify they are doing the job correctly and to all relevant codes and regulations.
Master planning doesn’t have to be a process of confusion and fear, trepidation or worry. When it is approached correctly, it helps your church not waste money (good stewardship) while getting good value and a long-lasting set of upgrades and solutions that ultimately help your church be more effective at winning souls for the Kingdom and that is, after all, what our ultimate mission and vision should be, right?
Master Planning Process Breakdown:
1.) Pray
2.) Establish your unique mission and vision
3.) Establish where you are now vs. where you want to be
- Reach out to key stakeholders and get feedback on issues
- Understand difference between wants and needs
4.) Decide on a realistic timeline to reach where you want to be
5.) Work backwards from goal to decide what “segments” are necessary to reach goal
6.) Work out sequence of segments based on highest priority and most positive impact
7.) Choose project manager or project champion
8.) Cast vision and project to the church at large
9.) Begin first segment, once accomplished, celebrate that milestone
10.) Work through all segments, in sequence, and don’t be afraid to adjust, as needed
