MISSIOLOGY

ASSINMENT
Write a strategy to accomplish your
mission in your church as a preacher
in parish church

Submitted to: GIRMAY G/ TATIWOS

Submitted By: Elias Defalgn

ST. FRUMENTIUS ABBA SELAMA KESATE

BERHAN THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE

DECEMBER, 2019
STRATEGY TO ACCOMPLISH MISSION OF OUR CHURCH AS A PREACHER IN PARISH CHURCH

Accomplishing and fulfilling a church’s mission requires taking the time to develop a strategy, planning the
steps to get it done and management of the process. Implementing church strategy takes focus!
Managing the process requires identifying who needs to do what, by when and holding them accountable
for what they are responsible for doing.
A strategic plan is only as effective as the goals that are written to implement it. And, goals are only as
effective as the people who are responsible for completing them. It is leadership’s responsibility to make
sure it gets done.
The first step is to write a church vision, mission, and values statement. This step is important because it
clarifies why the parish church exists (mission) and what it is trying to accomplish (vision). It also
articulates the guiding principles (values) by which it operates and makes decisions. This is arguably the
most important step because it sets the direction for the church.  Without clarity of vision, any organization
is susceptible to steering off course.
After the vision, mission and values are written, a church strategic plan can be developed.  The plan simply
maps out the necessary steps to achieve the parish church’s mission and vision. This kind of plan can be
both short term (3-6 months) or long term (1-3 years). There was a time when strategic plans went as far
out as five or ten years, but because of rapidly changing conditions, shorter-term plans seem to be more
common. The first step is to identify the outcome – what it is you want to accomplish in three years.

MISSION
The mission of the church is to go into the world and make disciples by declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ
in the power of the Spirit and gathering these disciples into churches, that they might worship the Lord and
obey his commands now and in eternity to the glory of God the Father.
The mission of our parish church is to claim Christ gospel, teaching and spreading the orthodox faith.
The great commission is not just a good idea. It is not a suggestion. It is not even a request. It is the final
mandate of the Lord to His Church just before He ascended back to Heaven. He plainly commanded,  “Go
ye therefore, and teach all nations…”  The word teach  here means to make disciples. We are to evangelize
the entire world. This is done by the preaching of the Gospel. Christ died for the sins of the whole world.
We have good news for sinners. Missions is not a program in the church. The mission program of the
church is missions.
As in every other activity of the parish church, the key person is the preacher. Since the preacher is the key
there are some necessary ingredients. He must have knowledge of the needs of the world and thus a
burden for the world. He must have an unselfish spirit concerning the finances of the church and the
members of the church. A great missions church will give a large percentage of their total offerings to
missions.

The first organized missionary is found in the thirteenth chapter of Acts and the first missionaries were the
most prominent leaders of the church, Paul and Barnabas. The pastor must regularly preach on missions
and regularly have missionaries in the church and before the people. Missionaries must be considered and
respected as a vital part of the total ministry of the church.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The SWOT analysis is organized
into internal and external factors. An examination of the Strengths and Weaknesses identifies what we do
well and where it needs to improve. The external environment identified the outside forces that could pose
Opportunities or Threats for the parish church over the next five years.

A church doing a SWOT needs to provide an honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses. Often
people don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings so everything becomes a strength. If worship isn’t inspiring or if
sermons seem repetitive and lifeless, call it out as a weakness.

A SWOT related to facilities, resource distribution, leadership or church demographics. Looking at strengths
and weaknesses simply says what you do well and what you might not do as well as you’d like. It’s
information that can help during the planning process.

A second barrier is doing a SWOT is focus. While it comes into play more with setting objectives, most
churches find it difficult to focus. Each parish churches do not have to be all things to all people. Want to be
the spiritual home of all those who are around, but that’s impractical. Individual churches have different
strengths and weaknesses that may or may not play into the needs of those in the community. Churches
also have limited resources, so focus allows us to play to our strengths, make changes where we need to,
and use our resources more effectively.

Commitment is also another essential factor if the church is going to make the plan work. Having a core of
dedicated people is great, but unless the church as a whole gets behind the planning committee’s work,
you may create a great plan that sits on the shelf. Be sure to build in opportunities for people to contribute
to the plan in order to build internal support for the process.

Planning is a process; it doesn’t stop with a document. A plan should be dynamic and change as
circumstances change. This shouldn’t be a once-a-decade “cookie-cutter” exercise. There isn’t one solution
to the ills of a church; there are many, but, often, people limit the opportunities they are willing to consider.

Strengths
 Our church is on a high-traffic road
 Most of our members have been with the church for a long time
 Our church is welcoming to newcomers
 Our church has a good reputation in the community
 A rich and lengthy history
 The capacity to accept a lot of new members
Weaknesses
 Church membership is declining
 The church has low attendance from children and young people
 A reluctance to challenge the status quo
 Antiquated technology
 Lack of a strategic plan
 The inability to budget effectively
Opportunities
 The population of our geographic area is growing
 Local youths who need church services
 Offering services at different times than Sunday morning
  The internet and social media
 Hosting community events in otherwise unused facilities

Threats
 Our church has large proportion of older population
 Laws and regulations that inhibit actions
 Competition for new members
 An anti-religious culture/environment
 Economic hardship in the community

Church Strategic Plan

Once the SWOT Analysis is done by brainstorm or visualize what that future state looks like one can
proceed to create a timeline for completion of objectives and determine how many weeks, months or years
it will realistically take to complete the objectives. This is done by thinking through the high-level action
steps needed to complete the tasks involved.

Long Term Three Year Strategic Plan

Timeline
Strategic Objectives
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Reduce operating budget by 5%      
Grow volunteer base services by 20%      
Increase church membership from 5000 to 10000      
Establish Three new special preaching program for member
(የንስሐ ልጆች ትምህርት)      

Once we’ve identified what it is we want to accomplish (this should line up with the mission/vision) the next
step is to start mapping out what it will take to get there. This detailed planning can be put in the format of
an action plan.
An action plan is merely a written document outlining the objectives (goals), action steps, responsible
person(s), possible team members, the due date for each action step and implementation status.
Mapping this out creates a visual that is easy to see at a glance for what needs to be done, by whom and
by when.
Strategic Responsible
Action Steps Team Member Measured By Due Date
Objectives Person
Sibkete
Securing finance / Completion
Wro Almaz wengele Meskerem 5,
budget by due date.
committee 2012 
Identify teaching Mr.Yemanebirhan
Preacher and Completion
topics /thematic T. & Dn . Meskerem
Ass. Preacher by due date.
areas Yohanes 20,2012
Prepare teaching
Mr.Yemanebirhan
guidelines / Preacher and Completion
T. & Dn .
Research Ass. Preacher by due date. Meskerem
Yohanes
Curriculum 30,2012
Mr.Yemanebirhan Sibkete
Completion
Identify preachers T., Ato Yonas & wengele  Meskerem 10,
by due date.
Developing / Dn . Yohanes committee 2012
Improving Schedule places Sibkete
regular Ato Yonas & Dn . Completion
and time for wengele  Meserem 30,
preaching & Yohanes by due date.
preaching committee 2012
discipleship
program Advertisement and Ato Yonas & Dn . Sibkete Completion
announcement to Yohanes wengele by due date. Tikimt 30,
the members committee 2012
Discipleship— Preacher and Completion
training preachers High level Guest Ass. Preacher by due date. Hidar 25,
and Christian Theologian Yekatit 30,
leaders. Ginbot 10
Make Selected
preaching available
through a variety of
Completion
means Eng. Ermias G. Volunteer’s
by due date.
(web-postings, You- Starting from
Tube videos & Tahisas 30,
webinars) 2012.
This cycle is repeated annually. Once the parish church has some direction for what it wants to accomplish
during the next twelve months, the priorities can be shared at management level. This step ensures that
there is a person or group of people with responsibility for completing those goals.