by Evertt Huffard
For many years, I began a weekend consultation with a group of elders or a mission team with a SWOT assessment [strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats]. However, I shifted away from this tool to the “start-stop-continue” tool because it naturally generated action steps.
Consider this SWOT on SWOT.
- STRENGTHS: A good consultation generates conversations that the leaders have not had before with someone they may not know well. Beginning with the strengths of the church or mission team can serve as a good ice breaker since everyone can participate in this non-threatening discussion. Although it may lean more toward marketing than assessment, it provides a baseline for shared values that the group can build on.
- WEAKNESSES: This conversation will likely start with the reason for the consultation and may allow for more background on the challenges the leadership team faces. At this point, the weakness of SWOT can be felt as the discussion tends to be broad and vague, especially when there is an elephant in the room that no one is willing to identify or address.
- OPPORTUNITIES: This step in the assessment process becomes a fork in the road of going deeper or staying generic. Participation tends to decrease as the reality of the team dynamics emerges, especially if this group engages in managing the church more than leading it. Managers solve problems, keep budgets, and maintain stability (status quo). Leaders challenge, dream, and delegate toward a shared vision. Managers will take this step in SWOT to find opportunities to solve a problem or to keep the peace. Leaders will look for new horizons beyond the current challenges or crisis. Reality seems to draw more attention to the former, leaving little energy for the latter.
- THREATS: In a survey of one congregation I know, 64% of the 195 respondents thought the greatest threat to the church came from outside, from community and cultural forces, while 16% pointed to the inability to execute effectively, and 21% to an absence of vision or focus. From my interaction with the leaders of this church, they would identify the greatest threat comes from within the church. Herein lies one of the weaknesses of this tool in churches where the leaders are volunteers with no training in conflict management or ways to discern and execute the mission of the church. The greatest threat comes from a lack of courage and vision among the leaders and an inability of the members to be good followers. Joshua and Caleb encountered the same challenge when the ten spies persuaded all Israel that the greatest threat was outside the camp (the giants in the promised land) and not from within the camp (lack of faith in the promises of God).
Along the way, I shifted to an assessment tool that generated more thought and action, a tool that many of us have used at HOPE Network, that asks four questions: (1) What are we doing well? (2) What should we be doing more of? (3) What should we stop doing? (4)What should we start doing? Typically, the first two lead to engaging discussions, whereas the latter two challenge the group to be open, creative, transparent, and patient. These conversations play an essential role in helping the group uncover ideas and reach agreement about which actions to pursue.
More recently, this assessment process has been further refined by consultants like Denis Geoghegan to three steps: what to start, stop, and continue. He recommends this as a good tool for feedback and assessment, which minimizes personal reactions and the uncomfortable nature of assessments. In his article, “Stop, Start, Continue | Examples and Template” [https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2022/02/start-stop-continue/] he offers practical suggestions for each category, a useful template (and template matrix), and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of this tool. As with SWOT, this tool is still inward-looking, but most of us would agree that until churches get healthy and strong, it will be difficult to have much to offer the community outside the church.
From the many templates available on the internet for “Stop-Start-Continue,” I find this free one by Smartsheet to help coach a group to specific action steps [https://www.smartsheet.com/content/start-stop-continue-templates].
About the Author
Dr. Evertt W. Huffard is Professor Emeritus of missions and leadership at Harding School of Theology in Memphis, TN where he taught from 1987-2019. He also served as VP/Dean at HST from 1999-2014. He currently works part-time with church equipping for Mission Resource Network, a resource for consulting church leaders in the USA, and coaches church leaders in equipping emerging leaders internationally.
The son of church planters in the Middle East, he has also served among the Arabs in Nazareth, Israel. They have also served in an urban ministry in Los Angeles, CA.
Evertt has been involved in church consulting nationally and internationally for over 25 years. In 2017 he hosted three tour groups to Israel, excavated at Beth Shemesh, taught for a church leaders retreat in South Africa, and spoke for a retreat in Germany. In 2018 he has consulted for seven churches (in Montana, Colorado, Arkansas, Florida, Australia), attended the Middle East Consultation in Malta, and spoke for a conference of church leaders in Australia. He helped initiate the Shepherd’s Network at HST to encourage and to equip church leaders.
He is married to Ileene and they have three children and eight grandchildren.
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