When church leaders submit a request, it’s an immediate action item by the responder, or added to the ignored pile. The response is based more on the requester than the request.
Requests must be qualified, its impact identified and categorized, then prioritized before actioning. Cliches like ‘throw a spaghetti noodle at the wall to see if it sticks’ become passable excuses to act without analyzing, wasting time and resources.
Project management is internal, structured care.
Col. 3:23 All work is unto God. Church leaders are responsible for equipping staff/volunteers for success with structure, planning and resources. Each Pastor shepherding ministries and auxiliaries needs a Project Manager to oversee requests. Project Managers report to the Program Manager who provides insight into where the church is headed to align efforts. The Program Manager serves closely with the Executive Director to share micro views of the church’s macro-operations.
Churches must embrace technology. Basecamp and ClickUp are affordable, best-in-class project management tools. These tools are centralized hubs to visualize and communicate requests’ progression and blockades.
Submitting requests
The Requester is responsible for completing due diligence. This eliminates frivolous submissions. A request must include:
Qualifications
Impact
Desired due date
Recommended priority level
1 - Qualifications
Qualifications are Biblically based, align with the church’s beliefs, and are suitable for the available resources (people, talent/skills, finances). A few questions to consider:
Why is this request important?
What are you aiming to achieve with this request?
Supports The Great Commission?
Aligns with the church’s mission and vision statements?
Net new opportunities? Removes friction?
How do you act today without the request?
What signifies the request is complete?
2 - Impact
Impact is two parts. It ranges from minor to high fitting into three categories: people, operations, and resources which are the beneficiaries.
3 - Due date
A desired due date. This is important to include as it’ll help with setting priority.
4 - Setting priority
Setting priority is a delicate balancing act as it vocalizes urgency and influences resource planning. Priority ranges from minor to significant in levels of importance. The Requester can recommend a priority level, however, the final decision is between the Project Manager and the actioning team.
Pro Tip: Post request, measure impact through qualitative key performance indicators, such as testimonials, surveys, and feedback loops. The data will support similar requests in the future.
Resource capacity
Resources fluctuate. The Project Manager and actioning teams must determine the skillsets to complete requests. For volunteer-operated churches, it’s important to understand availability before committing to a request. Yes, this slows down progress, but improper speed and mishandling volunteers aren’t the end goals.
The actioning team determines the level of effort and time commitment. This allows them to work at their pace to deliver in a healthy manner.
The Jar analogy
Think of project management as filling a jar with rocks. The jar represents limited time. The rocks represent the requests’ having various sizes and weights. The goal is to fill the jar with an assortment of rocks leaving no gaps. Once the jar is full, no new rocks can be added without first removing a rock from the jar.
This is how a church should approach request planning and management.