Why/How – Metropolis of Atlanta Strategic Plan

Why and How?

The Metropolis of Atlanta and its Parishes welcome all people seeking salvation, love, truth and fulfillment.

It remains incumbent upon all who serve our Church to listen to, and focus on, the unique needs of our faithful and of those who are seeking Christ.

A Strategic Plan consists of four elements:

Statement of Why

Why do we exist? We must be able to articulate why we exist and why anyone should want to be a part of our Church.
Current State

Where are we now? The Metropolis of Atlanta completed a factual assessment of current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, programs, talents and financial resources and needs.
Desired Future State

Where do we want to be? Following our sense of God’s calling, we determine our consensus and comprehensive vision of where we want to be within a reasonable period of time. This points to our vision statement: We will grow the Metropolis of Atlanta, and personally grow in Christ and make disciples, by living as witnesses of our faith through loving, faithful and purposeful Orthodox Christian communities focused on worship, education, stewardship, philanthropy, and fellowship.
Action Plan

How will we get there? is is where specific activities are outlined in each area which we determine to be critical in making our vision a reality. A comprehensive action plan to complete each of our 34 goals was developed.

When we ask the question “why?” we must also ask the question “how?”

All 74 parishes in the Metropolis of Atlanta have been involved in the creation and implementation of the Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan originated on the Parish level, developed by leaders of communities focusing first on the needs and challenges of the Parishes and Parishioners.

To do the initial work, a Strategic Planning Team that grew to over 65 diverse clergy and lay leaders from throughout our Orthodox Church was formed by His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios. We adopted the following 6-Step Strategic Work Plan:

Step ONE

Strategic Planning Opening Retreat
Step TWO

Task Force Conference Calls
Step THREE

Presentation of the Draft Strategic Plan Outline at the Metropolis events for Feedback and Consensus Building
Step FOUR

Strategic Planning Second Retreat
Step FIVE

Writing and Communication of the Strategic Plan
Step SIX

Implementation of the Strategic Plan

Background

At the first Strategic Planning Retreat, the Planning Team brainstormed over 95 specific strategic items they felt addressed the Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and were consistent with the Core Values, focused on the Mission and helped achieve the Vision. After many hours of discussions, the Planning Team consolidated the 95+ items and organized them into 11 Strategic Areas of Focus and formed Strategic Task Forces to systematically consolidate and address the items in each Strategic Area. From that point, the 95+ items actually became our 34 Goals, with 28 of them specifically focused on direct improvement of our parishes.

Transformational Elements

Parish Champions – Each Parish has a Champion that communicates regularly with the Communications Director and is kept up to date about the progress and implementation of the Strategic Plan
Best Practices Portal – The Best Practices Portal lives on this site and it is where Completed Goal Materials can be found so the faithful can utilize them in their respective Parishes.
Faith Forums – Beginning Fall 2017, the Strategic Plan will travel to a number of cities in the Metropolis, providing workshops and informational sessions for the faithful to provide assistance in the improvement of their ministries.

What’s the Schedule?

Each Task Force developed their best ideas of the timelines for each goal during the Planning Process. All of the Strategic Planning Teams are committed to producing the highest quality product in lieu of keeping strictly to the schedule.