An Examination of Planning Practices in the Small to Medium Sized Southern Baptist Church Relative to the Health Care Strategy and Facility Planning Process

This basic interpretive qualitative research project examines the state of planning in small to medium-sized (STMS) Southern Baptist churches—those averaging fewer than 500 in Sunday attendance—to discover whether they could benefit by implementing proven practices in the health care planning industry. A survey utilizing a five-point Likert scale was sent to 854 national Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) associational
leaders/directors and 414 Arizona SBC pastors, resulting in 198 submitted surveys. The surveys gathered each group’s level of agreement with statements concerning the practice of systematic planning, planning types, supporting data, visual design of data, connection between planning and community transformation, pastoral competency in planning, and the biblical place of planning in a pastor’s calling. Eleven Arizona SBC pastors of STMS churches were also interviewed using a semi-structured approach to understand their
experiences in church planning.
Findings indicate planning practices in STMS SBC churches are not robust. Most health care planning practices are unused. Available data to support planning development are underused. Planning data are not presented graphically, demonstrating little visual design. Planning’s connectivity to community transformation is not highly valued. Few pastors demonstrate competency in planning. Though the biblical call for planning is affirmed, it is poorly understood. These findings show the STMS SBC churches could benefit by implementing health care planning industry practices.
A transformational strategy was developed consisting of four conceptual ideas based on health care planning practices for presentation to and evaluation by a group of five Arizona SBC pastors. These five Arizona pastors affirmed the conceptual ideas’ values in offering helpful insight to a church’s present planning context, focused definition of a church’s primary ministry area, an implementable crosswalk between a church and its community’s assets and needs, and the comparison of community opportunities to a church’s present allocation of resources.