Putting it all together (mapping)

Now we know what our vision and values are, we can have a look at planning a strategy for identifying goals that will help us to realise them.

The leader’s map is an activity or tool that can help us to put everything we’ve learned so far into one place.

Start by defining your current position. We did this using the growth curve and thinking about Dunbar’s number. Who makes up our community, both in terms of members and in our wider (geographic) community?

What is your big aspiration (or vision)? This is where you are heading. It could be to see as many new disciples in your area or for everyone to know the love of Christ. It can be bold, but keep it simple, memorable and inspirational.

What are your values or (golden rules)? These define who you value and the ways in which you want to act and behave. If your vision is for everyone, then your values have to be for everyone. Your values will steer your culture.

The next step is to define some goals that will help you to achieve your vision. These will be ‘SMART’ (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound). Each goal will be the thing you work towards such as ‘Increase the number of people reading the Bible daily from 10% to 70% by the end of the year’, or ‘arrange more one to one meetings between the church leader and newcomers to increase the number of newcomers staying more than one month from 5% to 50%, by the end of summer’. These goals will help you realise your vision and can be measured with facts and stories.

What are your next steps? Knowing that you will realise your vision through your goals will lead you on to the next steps. In our example here, having more one to one meetings with newcomers will require invitations and maybe a coffee budget.

The two wings in the diagram represent those things that can change the map as you go along. There will always be risks and opportunities.

Risks are those things that can hold you back from reaching your goals. It could be a resource such as buildings, finance or people, or an external risk such as legislation or a pandemic. With any risk, we can choose to avoid them (normally by not doing an activity), transfer risk (insurance or bringing in others) or mitigate (reduce the probability of the occurrence or the impact).

Opportunities are potential activities that could be attractive to us. However, some opportunities can distract or take us away from our goals and overall vision. With any opportunity, weigh it up against your vision and values. Are they in alignment? Do you have the resources to carry them out? If the answer to both of these is yes, add the opportunity into your planning.

For example, your vision may be to make new disciples in your neighbourhood and your goals may be to increase your contact with schools. An opportunity may present to go into the local school once a week to lead an assembly. Similarly, a funding opportunity may present to run football classes at a nearby park. Which one of these opportunities may be for your vision?