Planning is a secret sauce in profitable service. Ok, maybe it’s not such a secret. Planning experts encourage up to two days of planning every year, several hours of planning every month, and between ten minutes and one hour of planning at the start of every day.

Planning helps with many things, including prioritization and decision making.

At their circuit meetings this fall, pastors are encouraged to do some continuing education planning. To facilitate this planning, the Grow in Grace office has developed a Professional Development Plan (PDP) that is available on each pastor’s WELS Cloud profile.

That plan encourages pastor to identify growth areas and to look at a two-year snapshot of continuing education. What is the pastor planning to read and study in the next two years? Which in-person or online courses might be beneficial (and reasonable) in the coming years?

We hope that the PDP will help pastors to plan.

We hope that the discussions about the PDP at the circuit meetings (perhaps in pairs) will add more brainstorming, encouragement, collaboration, and accountability to each pastor’s planning for spiritual and professional growth.

The data received from pastors through the PDP will help Grow in Grace of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary to plan, promote, and provide continuing education opportunities and resources.