How to Do a ‘SWOT’ Analysis

Orginally published on Tuesday, January 23, 2007 at 12:47 PM
by Todd Rhoades

A majority of churches do practically nothing to develop tangible, strategic plans. Or they limit planning to a staff or board retreat every year or two, with results that rarely get enacted upon. That’s not a negative commentary—just what our research reflects from pastors’ descriptions of their strategic planning experiences.

Richard Hughes and Katherine Beatty from the Center for Creative Leadership, one of the top corporate training companies in America, have written a book called Becoming a Strategic Leader. Over the next four weeks we’ll be talking about this book in Leading Ideas, focusing on concepts that we as church leaders can use to implement practical plans toward health and growth.

One of the most important steps of any strategic plan involves analysis, commonly referred to as SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Leadership teams (not just one individual such as the pastor) should consider and write down responses to each of these four angles.

Strengths: What assets does your church bring to its people, as well as the community? What does it provide that’s unique from other churches around you?

Weaknesses: What programs or structures seem to be ineffective in your church? What aspects of your community put you at a disadvantage?

Opportunities: What internal or external elements might give your church a competitive edge in the next two to three years if you took advantage of them?

Threats: What present or future conditions in your community might reduce your ministry’s impact if you don’t intentionally work to address them?

In order to analyze these four elements in your church, you may want to develop a SWOT team that comes up with an original list; then go one step further and seek feedback beyond the team. Include a couple people from each of the following categories: ministry leaders, board members, committed but non-leading church members, and if possible, one or two fringe folk. This exercise is a starting point for establishing the next steps in the strategic planning process. (This article is the first in a four-part series based on Becoming a Strategic Leader, Jossey-Bass.)

SOURCE:  Rev!  Magazine

Alan Nelson is the executive editor of Rev! Magazine (www.rev.org), the author of a dozen books, and has been a pastor for 20 years. You can reach him at . You can subscribe to the Rev! Weekly Leadership Update here.

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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