If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else. -Yogi Berra
Setting goals is so important if you want to get anywhere in life.
When we do strategic planning for OurChurch.Com, we set 4 different types of goals each year. These 4 types of goals, are universal. They can be applied to any kind of organization. I also use them in my personal goal-setting each year.
4 Types of Goals
1) Objectives – Objectives are broad goals like connect with people in our community, serve the poor, increase sales, or become a better parent. They define what you want to accomplish but not how.
2) Projects – Projects goals are the “how;” they’re specific things you’re going to do to accomplish your objectives. For example, if one of your objectives is “connect with people in our community,” your project goals might be 3 outreach events, 2 community serving events, build a new website, hire an experienced Christian web developer to build a new website for us, or optimize our website for search engines.
3) Processes – Process goals are also how you’re going to achieve your objectives. But while projects goals are achieved when the project is complete, process goals are regularly recurring tasks. Some examples of process goals are send follow-up cards to new church visitors every Monday, update the website every Tuesday, write a weekly blog post or post new content to Facebook four times a week.
4) Metrics – Metrics are the specific data you are going to track and the specific numerical goals you want to reach to indicate success. Numerical goals are things like increase sales by 10%, reach 1,000 website visitors a month by the end of the year, or start 10 new life groups.
All 4 types of goals are important and interrelated. We’ll talk more about how to develop each type of goal in a future post.
As Steve Keating says…
We seldom fulfill our dreams until we turn them into a goal and develop a plan to achieve them. -Steve Keating
If we don’t pray about these things, ask God for guidance and write down where we sense him leading us, we have a tendency to get distracted, lose our way, or forget exactly what God has called us to do.
Goals Month
Our focus this month at OurChurch.Com is on helping you set and achieve the right kinds of goals for your church, ministry or business. We encourage you to share your perspective in this month’s Listening Post. Keep an eye out for more posts about goals and specific goals to consider for your website and SEO.
- Kick Off 2022 with a Free Website Review and $50
- 3 Tips for Small Church Websites
- Should Churches Set Goals?
- Your REAL Online Goals
- Our 7-Step Goal-Setting Strategic Planning Process
- 5 Church SEO Goals to Prayerfully Consider
- Setting goals? Start here
- The #1 Resolution for Your Website This Year Should Be…
- Church Website Ideas for 2023
Bonus articles:
- 22 Church Super Bowl Party Ideas
- 22 Church Valentine Ideas for Events & Social Media
- Benefits Of Google Business Profile For Churches
Discuss
- Have you set goals for your organization for 2023? Why or why not?
- Which type of goals are you and your organization setting this year?
For me the most effective goal setting method is Metrics, it provides an easy and verifiable way to track the ongoing progress. I have tried the other methods with so so results and always revert back to Metrics because it does so much better.
Hi Greg, can you explain what you mean by the “Metrics” method?
I agree to this blog post. But I am more certain that metrics is much more effective than the rest.
Hi Andrea, thanks for the comment. I’m curious as to why you are “more certain that metrics is much more effective than the rest”?