A friend who goes to my old parish is big into the importance of strategic planning. He has been using his expertise and training in that area to help the parish develop and hone its vision and mission, and to plan for the future for the glory of God. After working with him briefly on that, and doing some of my own thinking and reflection on the subject, I am more and more convinced that not only parishes, but also dioceses and provinces, need to take strategic planning more seriously. It is very simple: if there is no plan for anything - nothing will happen. Put another way, if you aim at nothing you will hit it. Making a strategic plan is saying: "This is where we want to be in X years, and this is how we are going to get there." Any serious business would have a plan, and let's face it: the church has a lot in common with a business.
I think one of the reasons continuing Anglicans have been so ineffective, maligned, and marginalized over the years is because of a lack of strategic planning and vision on the part of the leadership. Lofty but vague ideas such as "preserving orthodoxy" or "standing for tradition" are not good enough to serve as a strategic plan. A plan is more precise than that, and includes specific actions to be taken. Plans that need to be made, or concerns that need to be addressed with a plan, include: standards for parish catechesis; church planting and missions; ministrial credentialing; ecumenism and inter-church relations; development of educational and other resources (publications, etc.); fundraising; and the list could go on forever.
One of the things that mitigates against developing such strategies is a misunderstanding of our heirarchical form of church government. It is often wrongly assumed that a top-down form of government means that the bishop and the standing committee has to do everything, and have their hands in everything. When a diocese or province is small, that model works fairly well, and is probably essential. But as the church grows, those peoples' work loads soon become maxed out, so any further growth becomes impossible. Then things begin to grind to a halt, and no more progress is made. Establishing new committees to oversee particular initiatives, such as an education committee that would develop diocesan catechetical standards and resources, is a way to relieve the bishop and the standing committee from unneccesary work, and a way to make better use of our existing human resources. It is also a way to get more people (especially the laity) invovled in the church. Many hands make light work. This in no way undermines our biblical model of church government, but rather enriches it, and helps make us more faithful to St. Paul's teaching of the Church as a "body". The bishop, as chief pastor of the diocese, can be the figurehead, cheerleader, and facilitator of such a process.
I would like to see the bishops and standing committees of all continuing Anglican provinces develop a strategic five-year plan and vision for their Church so as to make better use of their time and resources, and to advance the Kingdom of God and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is ultimately a question of stewardship - how are we going to spend our time and money? Are we going to get the most out of it, or very little out of it? A plan would help us be more effective. It would also help us focus on ministering to people instead of squabbling with each other.
