Strategic Plan Overview
Introduction

During the quadrennium ending in 2022, the College of Bishops of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church undertook a strategic planning project to define the long-term direction of the CME Church and to align resources in pursuit of goals tied to the direction. The project was initiated with a $50,000 matching grant secured under the leadership of Bishop C. James King, Jr. Two consulting firms were engaged during the strategic plan development phase.

In preparation for the initial phase of the strategic planning process, Integrated Leadership Concepts, Inc. was engaged to work with the Bishops and General Officers in a Visioning and Planning meeting in August of 2018. During that meeting foundational principles of the denomination (mission and vision statements, and values) were defined and a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis was conducted an d provided as input to the strategic planning process.

The initial phase of the strategic planning process was conducted under the auspices of Marshall and Associates Consulting, LLC, January 18-19, 2019 and paid for by the Lilly Foundation grant and matching funds through the Department of Finance and Investments of the CME Church. A Steering Committee of 81 representatives from the eleven Episcopal Districts met for 1.5 days in Atlanta to begin the process. Prior to the meeting an online survey was available to all CME members to provide the consultants with background information on the issues our congregants felt were important. Goals, projects and initiatives were identified during the session and the consultants issued an extensive written report that included a summary of survey results as well as recommendations for future considerations.

From these recommendations, the College of Bishops determined that additional work was needed to continue with the strategic planning process. Integrated Leadership Concepts, Inc. (ILC) was then engaged in August of 2019 to review the output of the previous phase and to guide the formal strategic planning process forward. ILC’s guidance was to follow a tested approach that focused on alignment of the senior leadership team as a foundation for organizational alignment prior to creating a strategic plan.

ILC also encouraged us to create a strategy that we would adopt as a living document; a plan that would be fully integrated into the ongoing operational management of our denomination. The process began with an in-person session with the College of Bishops in October 2019 that included a new SWOT analysis and the creation of a highest purpose statement, as well as the validation of the denomination’s previously developed vision and mission statements. The foundational principles were finalized in another in-person session with the bishops in January 2020 with the refinement of the core values.

The General Officers joined the January 2020 meeting to review and validate the foundational principles and to be briefed on the strategic planning process. With the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, the work continued virtually through the remainder of 2020, 2021 and into 2022. The core planning team, which now included the bishops and general officers, worked to craft the initial set of Strategic Goals, Initiatives and Critical Success Factors. The planning team was then further expanded to add members of the Commission on Life and Witness, the CIT President and the President/Dean of Phillips School of Theology. This expanded core team worked to refine the initial Strategic Plan and build out action plans to support execution of the plan if it was approved. This work was then shared with the connection at-large through twenty-one virtual Listening Tour sessions. Recommendations and feedback received during those sessions informed the work and enhanced the final plan.