They casually inform the staff that these should become their goals for the following year. Our church staff normally had three annual goals. We always accomplished the first one. We usually implemented some parts of the second one. We never touched the third one, but compensated by always feeling terribly guilty.
Consultants generally gather their needed information through questionaires.
This seemingly harmless exercise often raises questions in the minds of the congregation that the leadership is not prepared to answer. The consultant goes home while the staff and board remain to explain why they cannot or will not deal with various concerns. This process can create serious unrest, which further delays the implementation of the consultant s recommendations. All of us in the consultation business except perhaps Dr. Lyle Schaller are self-professed experts at best. I have looked at dozens of church consultation models.