Dynamic Church Inventory
More and more churches are realizing the importance of thinking and working more strategically. Some have chosen to adopt the models and activities of other effective, growing churches, but have experienced mixed results. Cool Strategies believes every church needs to identify its own, unique God-given purpose, so our planning process places to no preset expectations on what your church should look or function like.
Any action planning process, to be most effective, must begin with a comprehensive evaluation of your current situation. This has traditionally been an extremely expensive and time consuming part of the strategic planning process. It also has been a source of anxiety and confrontation to those involved.
A Different Approach
Cool Strategies, however, offers a revolutionary tool and process for collecting information, prioritizing issues, and action planning. Your process depends on your situation:
Senior Pastor Consultation
For Smaller Church Situations
(1-10 Paid Staff)To make the complete DCI tool financially accessible in small church situations, Cool Strategies offers a pastoral consultation process which includes:
- Use of a customized church-specific assessment tool called the Dynamic Church Inventory to collect information from a single individual--typically the senior pastor.
- This tool is entirely web-based. No paper surveys. No consultants to meet with.
- The senior pastor responds to 189 "best practice" statements covering a wide range of church disciplines.
- We understand a senior pastor's time is limited, so we ask the participant to prioritize the different areas of our church model based on their overall (positive or negative) impact. This allows us to exclude aspects that may relate only to larger church situations.
- Assessments are followed up with a one hour phone consultation where we will review the results of the assessment with the participant, identify at least two priorities worth addressing, and develop some specific ideas for how you might improve your church's health in those priority areas.
Church Leadership Engagement
For Larger Church Situations
(10+ Paid Staff)For larger church staffs, we utilize a 2-day action planning process that focuses a church leadership team on high impact areas and begins moving them as a team toward greater health. It is cost effective and the results are extremely practical:
- We use a customized church-specific assessment tool called the Dynamic Church Inventory to collect information from the church's leadership, and optionally, non-management and lay staff as well.
- This tool is entirely web-based. No paper surveys. No consultants to meet. Everyone completes their evaluation online from any location with Internet access at any time of the day or night.
- Your pastoral team is challenged to "think like senior leaders" by considering their use of 189 best practices covering a wide range of church disciplines.
- Each person is asked to prioritize different areas within our church model based on their overall (positive or negative) impact.
- Assessments are followed up with a two-day onsite planning meeting with the church leadership team. A very specific plan of action is created defining who is going to do what by when.
We guarantee you will walk away with greater clarity on the key issues impacting your church. We are
available, at your request, for ongoing consultation and support. Some clients want the accountability and extra input provided by an ongoing relationship. But it's your choice.
So what are the benefits from this kind of engagement? Based on our own experiences working with a wide variety of organizations and churches, they are radically different from what happens in other methods of strategic planning.
Top Benefits from a Cool Strategies™ Strategic Action Planning Engagement or Consultation
Click on any of the following statements to find out more about each benefit:
- Presents the TRUTH of your church
- Develops ALIGNMENT across the leadership team
- Creates AGREEMENT about how you should respond
- Promotes ACTION in response to top priorities
- Establishes BENCHMARKS for future evaluation
Here's what one pastor had to say:
Our church is still benefiting from the assessment of a few months ago. We still refer back to the things it revealed. For example, we just brought on three new pastors over the past half year. One of the areas of weakness the study revealed was how we work very hard to bring in the best people, but then do next to nothing to orient them and transition them into our church's culture! We have worked hard with these three to give them more care and guidance and to properly orient them and follow-up on this process, especially over the first year. It has made a great difference!
We've been asked if it is truly possible to impact in a church in only two days. Based on our experience, absolutely!
Be sure to review our FAQs for more information, including some pricing information. We also have information on and a link to the free "Express" edition of the Dynamic Church Inventory. It's not only a great way to see if this tool might be of benefit to you, but also provides valuable information on five non-spiritual, yet fundamental facets of church health.
Beyond that, contact us for more information about this vital and effective process. We're here to answer your questions.
