The Ministry Playbook

Pastors and church leaders wage daily battle with the tyranny of the urgent as they are bombarded by the needs of others. They must also tirelessly engage the culture to demonstrate why the church is relevant. In light of these challenges, churches, like successful businesses, need intentional game plans for staying on focus and producing meaningful fruit. Henry Klopp offers a book that is the product of fourteen years of training church leaders to embrace strategic planning. The Ministry Playbook offers a step-by-step outline that can be used by any church in developing its own unique game plan. It provides biblical evidence of strategic planning and discusses the barriers of apathy, resistance to change, and declining financial resources that face any ministry. The Ministry Playbook also helps pastors understand new challenges related to leading churches in a post-modern era when much of the culture is unchurched. Klopp's tools and methods are field tested, practical, and can be easily grasped by the strategic planning novice. His framework of strategic planning helps leaders to apply long-term vision and build foundations that ensure congregational health and vitality.

This is another one of my favorites when it comes to resources for strategic planning. I was particularly interested in the organizational structure as it relates to "generalists" and "specialists" on a church staff and how they serve together to meet the needs of the growing church.