Customer Reviews

Advanced Strategic Planning: A New Model for Church and Ministry Leaders

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Malphurs asserted that the typical church in North America is aimlessly adrift (9). Such aimlessness is the result of churches and their leaders failing to do the hard work of thinking through their mission and developing the strategies necessary to accomplish that mission. Three reasons primarily account for the lack of strategic planning: lack of understanding of the need, unfamiliarity with the process, and the deemphasizing of strategic planning within the business community. Historically, strategic planning in the business world adhered to a static model; that is, planning assumed business forces would not change significantly enough to alter the strategic plan. The reality was different from the assumptions and company plans ended up lying on a shelf unused. Malphurs desired to provide church leaders with a concise and workable model for strategic planning. His model comprised a seven-step process that takes into account the many forces influencing the ecclesiastical world. Malphurs accomplished his objective in a well-organized book free from the techno babble often found in similar works.
Critical Analysis of Strengths and Weaknesses
The book's title is somewhat overstated. Advanced Strategic Planning is really the basics of strategic planning. Malphurs's principles are very elementary. An advanced book would assume some level of prior understanding of the process. Instead, Malphurs gave his readers a detailed primer on the subject. That said, Malphurs did an excellent job of succinctly outlining the planning process. He began with a discussion of the church and leadership's readiness to commit to the strategic planning process followed by ways to stimulate creative and strategic thinking. Additionally, as a prelude to the planning process, Malphurs detailed the dynamics of organizational development and change.
Several issues of concern come to mind regarding the preparatory process. One, Malphurs identified five attitudes among pastoral leaders that characterize resistance toward change (19). However, he failed to note that some pastors are not wired for strategic thinking. Some by nature are implementers and some are dreamers. Most pastors understand their calling only in terms of ministry activities like preaching, teaching, evangelizing, hospital visitation, etc. These are the things that excite many pastors, not strategic planning. Second, Malphurs alluded to the time necessary to lead the church to determine its mission, discover its values, capture a vision, and develop a comprehensive strategy. He noted that it could take as long as five years just to get a church's lay leadership on board with the pastor's strategic thinking mindset. Unfortunately, most pastors do not stay longer than three or four years. For example, this reviewer is the forty-fifth pastor in his church's 155-year history--an average pastorate of 3.4 years. Conventional wisdom suggests that the church does not fully accept the pastor's leadership until the fifth year. Additionally, a pastor's peak effectiveness does not begin until year seven. A pastor in his or her fifties simply will not have the longevity to see the process to fruition.
Perhaps the book's greatest strength is that it challenges church leaders to think critically about its mission, its congregational makeup, its visions, and its values. The instruments in the appendix are valuable, but they presume a well-educated congregation. An inner city church comprised mostly of high school dropouts living on subsistence wages is less equipped to undertake such a rigorously intellectual analysis. For those churches with congregants able and willing to embark on the journey of self-discovery, Malphurs provided some excellent tools.
This reviewer did take exception to Malphurs's disparagement of bivocational pastors. He wrote: "I question if part-time is better than no-time. It may depend on the circumstances. My pastoral experience has taught me that pastoral ministry is a full-time venture. Part-time ministry most often results in a maintenance ministry at best. Rarely do part-time pastors lead growing ministries" (164). With all due respect, this reviewer's pastoral experience has taught him otherwise. Malphurs should not treat bivocational ministers as the redheaded stepchildren of Christian ministry nor should he suggest that their churches have less potential than one with a fully supported pastor. Does he suggest closing bivocational churches since "no-time" is better than "part-time"? Over one-third of Southern Baptist pastors are bivocational. This reader wished Malphurs had dealt more graciously with bivocational ministries and provided guidelines for greater success and faithfulness within the scope of their limitations.
Finally, Malphurs's chapter on evaluation focused primarily on the quality of ministries and capabilities of staff. He should have more forcefully prompted his readers to evaluate how the church itself has changed since the planning process began. If the whole process takes five or more years to accomplish, the demographics of the church could have significantly changed. Key influencer could have moved, retired, or died. New members bring their own new distinctiveness to the church. The needs and expectations of the church change as it reaches certain membership milestones. A church with one hundred worshippers that grows 10 percent per year will have over 160 worshippers in five years. New members bring a new dynamic that leaders must continually evaluate.
Subsequently, the church's values may change to reflect that of incoming members. Malphurs refers to values as constant (81), but that assumes that those coming into a church already share those values or will buy into them--a false assumption. For example, a rural church in the 1960's may have valued homogeneity, but forty years of cultural change accompanied by exurbanization can cause a church to value diversity.
Evaluation of Author's Success
Malphurs achieved his objective. He skillfully outlined a systematic process to help churches and their leader develop an intentional strategy for accomplishing their mission. The flow of his argument is logical, his illustrations helpful, and the appendices useful. He forcefully made his case for a more thoughtful reflection on the mission, vision, goals, and strategies of the church. He admirably urges leaders to lead with vision and intentionality.

As a consultant to churches in the area of strategic church planning and leadership development this book is one of the best on the subject. If your church wants to get re-focused and re-energized for ministry a comprehensive planning process is a must. This book will help guide you through the process. Malphurs suggestions for facilitating planning sessions, i.e. storyboarding, workouts, etc., is worth the price of the book. See our web site for a strategic planning bundle with recommended books and resources for faciliting a planning process in your local church.

I've read some of the negative reviews listed for this title, and I must strongly disagree. Malphurs' work here is the best treatment of strategic planning for churches I have found to date. In place of the term "advanced" in the title, a better word would be "comprehensive." Nonetheless, Malphurs here provides a handbook addressing church planning that is unrivaled today in breadth and insight.

As a pastor of twenty years, I wish this book had been available when I first started in ministry. I hope this title is now offered in many seminaries, because its content would be a gold mine for young, soon-to-be church leaders. Pastors, church staff members, and lay leaders, this volume is a must-have. In my opinion, it is required reading for anyone involved in church leadership.

Aubrey Malphurs, author of many books on parish leadership and strategy, is a professor of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary and is also the president of the Malphurs Group (a training and consulting firm for churches). "Advanced Strategic Planning" is a book that seeks to assist a congregation to move from a stage of stagnation and plateaued growth to a period of change and revitalization.

Malphurs's introduction lays out his belief that all institutions essentially operate on a bell curve (aka "sigmoid curve" or "s-curve"), that an institution begins and experiences rapid growth in virtually all dimensions, then begins establishing routines, the routines entrench themselves and become a source of comfot to those in the organization, then the institution declines and dies. Malphurs argues that institutions (and especially the church) should, as soon as they recognize plateau, should re-invent or re-structure themselves to experience a new period of significant growth. This necessitates the re-invention and re-structuring of countless aspects of church life and organization. "Advanced Strategic Planning" takes a church through the change process in a step-by-step manner.

Throughout the book, Malphurs draws upon his wealth of experience as a pastor, interim pastor, professor, and consultant to take a church through the strategic revitalization process. He addresses many pitfalls and stagnation traps, reasserts the importance of following through on the process, and pastorally encourages the church leaders to carry on. He stresses the distinctions between values, missions, and functions in a helpful way. Most valuable for this reader, he spends much time defining and showing the importance of communicating a vision.

The unhelpful aspects of this book are few, but include the following: Malphurs gravitates toward writing for the larger, wealthier parish and tends. The result is that smaller, financially strapped congregations may not get as much out of this book. Also, my parish operates a day-school and I had trouble applying some of Malphur's advice to my particular situation. However, these criticism are (admittedly) minor and should not detract you from reading this book.

I recommend this book for pastors, parish leaders, and others in a position to move their religious-based organization form stagnation to revitalization.

Professor Malphurs' book is a helpful guide for those needing church consultation from a conservative, Evangelical perspective. The book lays out a basic four-fold method for strategic planning: mission, vision, goals, and objectives. I find the format helpful in laying out a plan to implement a successful strategy for whatever a local church might seek, whether it is a new direction in ministry or a new church building program for an expanding congregation.

The book has helpful insight into local church life expectancy and also hits home with how to arrive at a consensus in light of the general politicking that goes on in every congregation to one degree or another. Malphurs' discussion of decision making, church patriarchs, board member dynamics, and other similar observations are certainly worth the price of the book for any person currently in, or planning on, a ministry career.

The book also engages with Scripture frequently, though theological methodology is normally not a strong suite for any `practical method' book. However, I think Malphurs does well enough in his explanation of Nehemiah to use the book as a guide for a Christian church strategic planning session. I don't think you have to do any sort of biblical gymnastics to come to that conclusion, though the rebuilding of the temple by the post-exilic covenant people to worship YHWH in the Promised Land doesn't simply transfer right over either. However, that being said, I don't think he stretches it too far and I appreciated the biblical engagement and foundation.

In conclusion, I really believe this book is strongest in the areas of brainstorming and creativity for the leadership/pastoral staff of a local church. Though many churches won't need the consultation the book frequently encourages, it is full of helpful ideas for a local congregation to be purposeful and formal in its declaration about what it is and where it's going, with a foundation in the Scriptures. I think Malphurs' book certainly succeeds in multiple areas, as well as its grand scheme, and is well worth a careful reading.

The title of the book suggests a multifaceted tactical plan that promises an innovative approach to church structure. It focuses on the aspects of a church's mission by examining issues such as preparedness, the life cycle of the church, core values, the church's purpose for existence, the surrounding community, direction, plan, church crisis and stalemates, and evaluating effectiveness. The author injects thought provoking questions throughout the book in an effort to guide readers through the process of launching the church in a certain direction. It emphasizes that the process is a collaborative effort between the pastor and the congregation. The interesting feature of the book is the contingencies chapter-"how will the church handle pleasant and not so pleasant surprises?" (187). Churches encounter various situations so it is best to have a plan in place. For instance, if the senior or only pastor resigns, the church must have a way to continue with services. They should have someone to step in temporarily while they search for another pastor. The worse thing that can happen is for the church to be in disarray. An example of a "good contingency" is receiving a large sum of money. The church should have a plan in place for what will be done in case they receive an unexpected donation. Strategic planning is to plan for the future. Another interesting information from the book is the analysis of the environment. To illustrate, the social environment includes the mobility of the population (does the majority have automobiles or do they travel via public transportation?) (119). The "Readiness for Change" inventory contains the factors necessary for organizational change, but prayer is missing (214). Before any change takes place, much prayer should be devoted by church members.

Malphurs does an excellent job of laying out the strategic planning process step by step and in great detail. I really appreciated the fact that he takes into account things like church patriarchs/matriarchs and other church dynamics that are often not addressed practically in ministry books. He almost makes the process seem easy, and maybe it is, IF you are starting a new church or are in the very early stages of a church plant. However, much of the material seems practically impossible to implement in a "plateau'ed" or "downward spiraling" church that has been around for 100 years. The principles are easy and make sense IF you have 100% support of the congregation. That's pretty hard to do in most of the churches I've been in that need strategic planning the most. That's no fault of Malphurs; the book itself is a great book.

I have to admit I did not purchase Malphurs book because the title grabbed me or I was enthralled by the subject matter. This was part of a group assignment with a growth team of other pastors. However, I only wish I had read this book twenty years earlier. This is a tremendous aid for pastors and churches. I would highly recommend each pastor, staff member and ministry team leader or committee chairperson reading a copy. I believe it would help churches refocus or perhaps really focus for the first time on their purpose and how to sustain continual progress, maturity and growth.

Aubrey Malphurs' book Advanced Strategic Planning (already in its second edition) offers sound, practical advice to pastors seeking to chart out a strategic plan for healthy growth. As professor of pastoral ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary, Malphurs has experience teaching pastors to think strategically, and this book serves as a textbook for students who want to avoid the plateaus and valleys of church life. Malphurs is also the president of a consulting organization that helps identify weaknesses in churches and pushes them to implement changes that might help them grow again.

There is much to be commended in Malphurs' book. He recommends the adoption of mission and vision statements for churches. He helps churches discover their core values. He understands that churches will look different in varying contexts. He communicates the value of professionalism and excellence in ministry undertakings. He offers helpful instruction for evaluating the ministry, and he affirms the necessity of church discipline.

Malphurs' book is very practical. Malphurs does not seek to back up every practice he condones with biblical support. He is clearly pragmatic at times in areas he believes the Bible does not specify a certain procedure. One glaring exception is his advice to avoid putting older men and women on leadership teams or committees. How that follows Paul's advice to have the older mentoring the younger is beyond me! But aside from that, Malphurs does offer good, helpful principles for thinking strategically in churches today.

I recommend that pastors take Malphurs' book, glean insight from his experience, and begin moving their churches forward with a strong sense of God-given direction.

PROS: Malphurs' book illuminates some standard truths about strategic planning. Christian leadership involves more than simply being a good person with noble intentions. Many well-meaning pastors do not know how to lead. If you struggle with knowing where you are headed or how to get there, this book will help you.

CONS: Christian leadership also involves more than the ability to incorporate standard business practices. Effective ministry must have a supernatural element. Vision, power, and results must come from God. It is in this area that the book fails. The principles of this book play well in most college business classes, but they seem incomplete when applied to the church.

RESULT: The book promises more than it delivers. The complete title is ADVANCED STRATEGIC PLANNING: A NEW MODEL FOR CHURCH AND MINISTRY LEADERS. It is not advanced. Nothing in the book was new to me, and it falls a little short when applied to the church. It is a very good book on STRATEGIC PLANNING. If this is your weak area, buy the book. If you are good in this area, do not expect new insights.