Every church uses specific strategies to fulfill their vision. These strategies include programs, events, resources, services, technologies, outreaches, ministries, and groups. At the same time, churches are notorious for launching strategies without regularly evaluating their effectiveness. They send countless satellites into space without retiring the ones that no longer work. This constant activity drains the church of valuable resources, time, and focus. Leaders have to focus by differentiating between opportunities and distractions. And they have to courageously assess the effectiveness of their current strategies to determine whether or not they still work.

After you employ a strategy, a set of assumptions naturally form in our minds. The primary assumption is that the strategy still works. But if you’re not careful, your assumptions can actually kill your growth because of a failure to measure a strategy’s real effectiveness. To measure long-term effectiveness, you must answer four strategy questions. These questions form The Strategy Pyramid:

PURPOSE: Is the strategy fulfilling the purpose for which it was created?

At the base of the pyramid is the question of purpose. Every strategy is initiated as a solution to a problem or a need. Meeting this need or solving this problem is the essence of its purpose. However, strategies also have a tendency to drift from their purpose, especially when their design produces a different result. Here’s the danger: If you’re not careful, the strategy’s unintended result will become its new purpose, and the original problem or need will be quietly ignored. It takes a wise and discerning leader to differentiate between the two.

RELEVANCE: Is the strategy working with your target audience?

Some strategies worked twenty years ago, maybe even five years ago, but changes with your audience have deemed the strategies irrelevant. When external change outpaces internal change, you run the risk of maintaining a strategy whose shelf life has expired. Study culture, technology, and changing dynamics with your target audience. Then determine how relevant your current strategies are in this new reality. Don’t compromise your church’s values. Embrace integrity and innovation.

SUSTAINABILITY: Is the strategy sustainable in it’s current design?

Sustainability refers to the people, money, and energy necessary to keep the strategy in play. When strategies burn through volunteers, cost large amounts of money, or continually drain emotional, mental, and physical energy, you’re walking in a danger zone. Unsustainable strategies are not long-term solutions. They require big adjustments or viable replacements.

SCALEABILITY: Does the strategy have the ability to grow with the church?

The tip of the pyramid is directly tied to a strategy’s capacity to scale to new heights. Some strategies work great in smaller environments, but as the church grows they are less effective. What worked great at one size may actually impede growth at another. As a leader, don’t let your emotional connection to an idea place a growth cap on the church. Learn to retire strategies with low scaling capacity, and embrace fresh strategies that will help you grow to a new level.

Question: Which of the four questions is most revealing for the current state of your strategies?

This article was adapted from my book, Creating Your Churches Culture