Strategies for Religious Institutions in Uncertain Times

The premise for this post is the reality that there are a number of strategic challenges confronting the church and religious institutions. Without considering and planning for the potential scenarios that may lie ahead, church leaders may not be effectively carrying out their strategic and fiscal responsibilities and could be placing their organizations at risk.

First, what is the primary problem? 

Second, what are some possible fixes? 

Once one prepares to visit possible issues in the church, one then has to revisit their current strategic foundation and stress test the strategy. Then it is time to act. Asking, “what now?” leads to developing a proactive plan and acting on it. Uncertainty is not an excuse for inaction. Whether you are focusing on your members, choosing to scale up (or down), grow or shrink programs, or restructure your operations, it is critical that you not only plan to act but actually implement your strategy. Remember inaction is a choice. 

So what is the primary problem? There are lots of opinions about the primary issues facing the church or religious institutions. 

Is it giving?

Is it membership?

Is it aging attendees? 

Is it the message? 

Is it the pulpit or leadership?

Is it the culture?

Candidly, we would argue, it makes no difference what the primary issue is if you have a strategy built around identifying noncustomers, i.e. the unchurched and seek to serve them. 

Trevin Wax stated in 4 Big Challenges Facing the Church in the West Today in August of 2018 the following: 

"The church is in crisis, as it always is. Such could be said of the church in the early centuries, during the middle ages, in the tumultuous time of the Reformation, and in our modern era. From the days when Christians were getting drunk at the table in Corinth to the brutal extermination of Christians today at the hands of Islamic terrorists, crises have been constant. Heresies strike from inside, persecutions from outside. The church is in crisis.

The church is also stable. “Upon this rock, I will build my church,” Jesus said. Like the parable he tells of the wise man, Jesus builds his house on the rock, and the gates of hell will not prevail against his people. Yes, there will be fallings away, false messiahs, heresies that ravage his teaching, moral aberrations that harm our witness, and persecutions that sweep over the landscape. The true church is always in crisis but always stable. We are in a spiritual battle whose outcome is secure."

So that having been stated, let's talk about some issues. 

Pat Robertson is quoted as having stated the biggest problem facing the church is unity. 

John Stonestreet stated in the Christian Post, "One of the most pressing challenges for Western Christians is to explore the implications of our civilization's transition to a secular age. As Charles Taylor has argued, Christian belief has not only been displaced from the default position, but is aggressively contested by numerous other options. Christianity is merely one option among many, and an implausible and unimaginable one at that. Thus, Christians have a unique opportunity to reimagine our social, cultural, and political witness so that it speaks with salience to our secular age."

Unity and relevance. They seem to this writer to be the underlying core challenges that all other symptomatic challenges fall under.