Once you have your Assessment information, we can then begin constructing your Plan. To think of it this way, you’re trying to get from A to B. ”A” is where you currently are (your Assessment). ”B” is where you want to be (planting a church). Your Plan is the line connecting the two, basically revealing what needs to happen prior to planting a church.
The first piece of your Plan is your personal ILP
After reviewing your assessment information, we will then create a personal Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) that is tailored specifically for you. This will take into account your input, our input, and input from your assessment. For example, you may self-assessed a weakness in theology. So, part of your ILP may included course work in Systematic Theology. Other examples may include teaching opportunities, preaching opportunities, marriage courses, coaching, pastoral care, small groups, hermeneutics courses, and so forth. Your ILP will help you set goals and get an approximate time frame for launching the church.
The second piece of your Plan is your preliminary church planting strategy
Where you’re ILP is more focused on your development, your church planting strategy lays out the details for the church you are looking to plant. It’s the “Who are you going to reach, where are you going to reach them, and how are you going to reach them?” You need to begin to clarify the vision of the church you desire to plan and then develop strategies to implement to get there. This will include questions like:
How would you describe the person you are trying to reach? Is it more by location, age, ethnic group or common interest? Is your church going to be High Tech or High Touch? What is the strategy (or strategies) that would be most effective to reach these people? How do we get there? And so forth…
Things will change throughout the process and this preliminary church planting strategy will need to be updated frequently.