Leading the Armenian Evangelical Church of Toronto Through an Envisioning Process Using an Adaptation of Aubrey Malphur’s Model as Described in Advanced Strategic Planning

Abstract

The Armenian Evangelical Church of Toronto (AECT) has never had a shared and clearly communicated corporate mission and vision statement. As a result the congregation's ministries have not been aligned with any explicit overarching vision. Ministries were sometimes not sure how their particular activities aligned with the larger purposes of the church. A process was needed to bring the congregation's leadership together to start thinking strategically and plan the future ministries of the church around a shared vision. A strategic envisioning process was undertaken, adapted from Aubrey Malphurs' Advanced Strategic Planning. A strategic planning team led the process by conducting congregational surveys, meeting regularly to pray, studying survey results and writing new mission and vision statements. After this, the team brought together the congregation's key leaders to share the dream, explain the mission and vision statements, and begin the process of aligning the church's ministries at two "ministry alignments" retreats. The outcomes of this project include new mission and vision statements, a willingness to align the ministries accordingly, and a more forward looking, visionary leadership. The process of developing a well articulated mission and vision statement allowed a number of other church issues to be addressed.