A 3 - Year Strategic Plan for Church of God Scotland 2018-2021. As of 2020

  CHURCH                   

        OF                                       "for all people and all ages"

      GOD

SCOTLAND

                                                                    

 

                                                                               

Introduction

Creating a 3-year strategic plan for growth in Church of God Scotland-2018-2021. As of 2020.

Church of God Scotland had a plan to build a church that will be a true reflection of heaven in terms of diversity and demographics. The church observed that the church community in Scotland has become an aging population which is a true reflection of the Scottish wider society. It therefore seeks to make a difference by investing in leadership structure, intentional about ministry building, and resolute in engaging with community. The church takes cognizance of the impacts of certain external factors on growth or lack of growth looking at her strength, weakness, threat and opportunity. The three year triple steps was reviewed halfway to see how it is faring so far. 

Mission Statement              

The mission of the Church of God Scotland is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and with the love of God.

 

Vision Statement

·         To show and share the love of God with all through relationships

·         To nurture and equip them for victorious living

·         To replicate the growing diversity in Scottish society within church community

 

Practical Application

The church seeks to make the place of the church to the people go beyond christening and funeral by raising a workforce that will be relational.

To make faith relevant to day to day life and as a tool for overcoming life challenges by empowering people with spiritual knowledge and application.

To make the church multicultural, multiracial and across age groups which describes the contemporary Scottish society by reaching out to youths, families and migrant communities as well as the indigenes.

 

Core Values

Prayer- We believe in prayer as the highest priority of both local and ecumenical church.

Pentecostal Worship- We believe in Pentecostal worship that engages the heart, mind and soul.

Church Planting- We believe in training and equipping people to plant life changing churches.

Leadership Development- We believe in identifying and developing called individuals for ministry.

Care- We believe in the challenge of showing genuine care to one another and to the society.

Discipleship- We believe in developing faithful committed believers as part of great commission.

Education- We believe in education as a vital part of all phases of the Spirit-filled Christian life.

 

Core Competences

Global spread across 185 nations

Reputed for progressive, contemporary and culturally relevant message of the gospel

Mature and well-trained leadership

Vibrant, diverse and youth oriented cells

Relational and community friendly

 

Church Wide Strategies

Year One – Leadership training

Year Two – Ministry Team Building

Year Three – Community Outreach

 

Strategic Plan

 

1.      Prayer Ministry-

1.1  Establish and develop intercessory prayer groups comprising of both ministers and laity.

1.2  Organise a weekly prayer meeting for the church members

1.3  Organise a monthly healing meeting for the community

 

2.      Worship Ministry

2.1  Employ qualified music trainers to lead worship and train others

2.2  Establish a music school for training

2.3  Organise a biannual music concert

 

 

3.      Leadership Development

3.1  Provide a new leadership training curriculum relevant to Scotland by 31 January,2019

3.2  Train 20 new Small Group leaders in level One by 31 March,2019

3.3  Provide a one per quarter Level One leadership training annually

3.4  Provide at least two Level Two leadership training annually.

3.5  Provide at least two Level Three leadership trainings annually.

 

      4.      Care Ministry (Food bank)

      4.1.    Establish a food bank project for the needy in the community.

     4.2.    Establish a welfare fund for struggling families and fundraise to keep it going.

     4.3.    Organise a monthly visit to care homes to support the elderly 

 

5.      Discipleship

      5.1. Establish Believers Classes Christianity 101 Classes for new converts every Monday

      5.2  Organise Baptism classes for new converts

      5.3 Organise Marriage seminar fpr young couples.

 

6.      Financial Security and Management System

      6.1. To set up a standard financial management system

      6.2. To develop an accurate 2019/2020 budget that must be followed and monitored

      6.2. Increase Church savings by 20% every year

      6.2 To vote 10% of the church budget towards evangelism by the end of the year.

 

7.      Staff and Volunteer Development

7.1  To hire HR as part of staff team by November, 2019

7.2   To hire staff who are also skilled in playing musical instrument

7.3   To build a hub of volunteers that must be incentified by November 2019.

 

8.      Youth Empowerment

      8.1. Music training classes to be organized for youths by January 2020

      8.2 Drama classes and Choreography to be organized for youths by January 2020

      8.3. Bible reciting competition to be organized for youths by March 2020

 

9.      Communication and Publicity

9.1  Establishing or purchasing a database management system

9.2  Establishing distribution of monthly newsletter and fliers to University campuses

9.3  Set up an effective social media publicity team.

 

10.  Community Outreach

10.1. Organise a quarterly rally and evangelism outreach in city centres from June 2019

10.2. Attend University open days to meet and assist new arrivals.

10.3. Organise a welcome party for new University and college intake. 

10.4. Organise a summer barbecue gathering and sports day for youths and families.

 

 

COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIC PLANS

 

1.      Prayer Ministry: To bring healing both to members and the community

1.1  Establish and develop intercessory prayer groups   Measure: 0% Target 100%

for members and community.

 

Team Goals	Measure	Target	Start date  End date
Provide training for new team (Prayer Coordinator)	0%	100%	01/03/18 30/03/18

 

2.      Worship Ministry: To provide contemporary gospel music that appeals to all ages

2.1. To provide and establish a music training for all - Measure: 0% Target: 100% 

and organize music concert.

Team Goals	Measure	Target	Start date End date
Employment of a professional music teacher	%complete	100%	01/0418 30/0418
Organise biannual musical concert	%complete	100%	01/06/18

3.      Leadership Development: Create a leadership culture

3.1  New Scotland compliant leadership training  manual by    Measure: 20 trained Target 20

31/01/19 (Director of Education)

Team Goals (Director of Education)	Measure	Target	Start date End date
Provide a quarterly Level 1 training annually	% complete	100%	01/03/18 30/11/19
Provide 2 Level 2 training annually	% complete	90%	01/06/18 30/11/19
Provide 1 Level 3 training annually	% complete	90%	01/09/18 30/11/19

 

4.      Care Ministry (Poverty alleviation and Pastoral care).           Measure: % Target 95%

      4.1 "People do not care how much you know but how much you care ."

Team Goals (Welfare board)	Measure	Target	Start date End date
Establish a food bank project	%complete	100%	01/02/18 30/11/19
Establish a welfare fund for struggling families	%cpmplete	100%	01/03/18 30/11/19
Organise a monthly visit to elderly in care homes	%complete	100%	01/11/19

 

5.      Discipleship: Growing believers into maturity                Measure % Target 100%

Team Goals (Pastoral Team)	Measure	Target	Start date End date
Establish believers classes 101 for new converts	%complete	100%	01/04/18 31/05/18
Organise baptism classes for new converts	%complete	100%	01/07/18 30/08/18
Organise summer marriage seminar for young couples	%complete	100%	15/06/19 16/06/19

 

6.      Financial Security and management system   Measure % Target 100%

6.1 To develop an accurate 2018/2019 to follow   Measure Budget Target 100% completed

Team Goals (Finance/Administration Team)	Measure	Target	Start date End date
Update & analyse 2017/2018 budget for benchmarks	%complete	100%	1/10/18 1/11/18
Increase savings by 20% through cutting costs	%complete	95%	1/04/19 30/12/18

 

7.      Staff and volunteer Development                                               Measure % Target 100%

7.1 Have each Pastor and staff attend best practice conference annually

Team Goals (Leadership/Pastoral Team)	Measure	Target	Start date End date
To hire HR expert on staff list	%complete	100%	01/11/19 30/12/19
Hire staff skilled in playing musical instrument	%complete	100%	01/11.19 30/11/19
Build a hub of volunteers with incentives	%complete	100%	01/10/19 30/11/19

 

8.      Youth Empowerment                    Measure % Target 100%

8.1  To reach out and empower youths to harness their strength

Team Goals (Youth Director)	Measure	Target	Start date End date
Establish music training classes	%complete	100%	15/01/20 15/03/20
Establish Drama and Choreography classes	%complete	100%	20/01/20 20/03;20
Organise a bible reciting competition with prizes	%complete	100%	01/02/20 28/02/20

 

9.      Communication and Publicity       Measure % Target 100%

9.1 Implement dissemination of communication and distribution of newsletter

Team Goals (Staff and volunteers)	Measure	Target	Start date End date
Purchasing a database management system	%complete	100%	01/04/19 30/05/19
Distribution of monthly newsletter/fliers on campuses by collecting newsletter samples to determine contents	%complete	100%	01/08/19 30/08/19
Set up an effective social media publicity team to set up fb, twitter, Instagram, snapchat accounts	%complete	100%	01/03/19 30/03/19

 

      10.      Community Outreach                                                          Measure % Target 100%

10.1 Taking the church to community by reaching people of all ages.

Team Goals (Mission and outreach Pastor)	Measure	Target	Start date End date
Organise a quarterly rally and evangelism outreach in city centres from June 2019	%complete	100%	01/06/19 24/12/19
Attend University open days to meet/assist new arrivals	%complete	100%	08/09/19 15/09/19
Organise welcome party for new University intakes	%complete	100%	28/09/19 28/09/19
Organise a summer barbecue gathering and sports day for youths and families.	%complete	100%	20/07/19 20/07/19

About Church of God Scotland

The Church of God Scotland is a protestant, Pentecostal Church brought to Scotland over fifty years ago. The Church is a member body of the Church of God, with headquarters in Cleveland Tennessee, USA.  The Church of God was founded in 1876 and it is a Protestant Pentecostal movement with a mission of ministry to the world. The Church of God has a global membership of over 7 million spread over 185 nations.  www.churchofgod.org

The Church of God Scotland has a membership strength of over one thousand in 17 different congregations across Scotland. It comprised of people of various age groups, various classes and from many different nations, languages and races including indigenous Scots. The church is spread   Motherwell. The church’s differentiation is to reach across all ages since Scotland is known as an aging population with a 50% increase in over 60s projected by 2033.  https://www.ageuk.org.uk/scotland.   And the church population is declining due to the elderly who constitute greater number of church goers in Scotland.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39613631. Church of God Scotland aims to address this problem by making intentional effort towards reaching the young people and middle aged without necessarily neglecting the elderly.

The church is headed by an administrative national overseer who is being assisted by two district overseers, one oversees the Central Belt of Scotland while the other oversees the North. There is a board of trustees that sees to legal and regulatory matters and an executive council that plays advisory role.

Church of God Scotland SWOT Analysis

Key Performance Indicators

Peter Drucker claims, “What is measured improves”, but how do we measure spiritual qualities or results?

In the last decades, faith based and non-profit organisations have gained recognition by governments and wider society and regarded as service providers  https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/57082. Non-profits are expected to conduct their services in a professional manner with high productivity due to high demand in their services but they are increasingly facing declining resources (Bouek, 2017). For such resources to be deployed efficiently the strategic plan helps to set benchmarks as key performance indicators to be used to measure and show how the organisation has conducted its activities during the plan period.

As internal benchmarking the Church of God congregations spread across Scotland  will be studied while for external benchmarking other denominations like the Baptist church and Destiny Church Glasgow will be used. Reports from the Baptist Union or Evangelical Alliance which serve as hub for Pentecostal Churches in Scotland will be consulted.     

The number of people reached by the church through her activities in a month is the factor to be measured periodically. The goals of the church to reach people of all age and races with the gospel and reflect diversity are used as benchmarks broken into key performance activities. The actual activities of the church will be compared with the benchmarks set to determine the efficiency of the church in such activities. This serves as a monitoring mechanics to help to identify deviations and correct them at the right time. This will also give a competitive advantage by using the mechanics to measure the performance of the established Scottish churches which serve as competition  to the church .Since the church ‘s revenue generation depends largely on donation and faithful giving of members the key performance indicators would serve as a safeguard and provide accountability which will encourage the donors.

 

 Limitations

As promising as the strategy looks the church is not however unaware of the challenges involved. The plan is huge in terms of cost, the process is complex due to human factors involved and there is no guarantee of a 100% success rate. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stevens_Maleka/publication

 Conclusion

Strategic planning is very important to non profits especially faith based organisations due to their dependence on donations and contributions from members and other well meaning members of the society. The plan is hoped to help Church of God Scotland accomplish its mission through systematic implementation of the set objectives. By following the set plan the church will be seen as an organisation that subscribes to best practice and recognised by charity regulators OSCR, HMRC and other established bodies as a credible organisation.