A LITTLE DEEPER

God gives us DIVINE STRATEGIES and WISDOM BLUEPRINTS that we can employ in our lives and ministries.  Self-awareness and intentionality makes all the difference in identifying the need to RESET or REFINE our Vision, Mission, Goals, Structure, Processes and more.  

Often, we get into routines and become comfortable in our role, our ministry or even our church.  

Just like in our homes, we can become desensitized to sights and smells (dog, cat, broken switch plate, spot on the ceiling) and it's not until an objective, fresh perspective is introduced that we become aware and motivated to reevaluate and take action toward personal, corporate and organizational health.

Spirit-Filled 

Strategic Planning 

is Spiritual.

Let's remember that strategy is not unspiritual.  In fact, it's very spiritual.  We have an enemy operating in the unseen realm that is very strategic.  

We, the church, must be even more so!  

Proverbs 16:3 

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.

When Jesus spoke about wineskins, He said that the old wineskins -- the religious structures and paradigms --would not hold the "new wine" lest they burst.  Old wineskins are inflexible, stiff and immovable.  They simply have lost their ability to flex, expand and contain or accommodate the new wine.  

My challenge for you as a pastor or ministry leader is whether or not you, your church or ministry are "flexible."  

Are you willing and able to consider change, new ideas, tweaking the "way we've always done it," and perhaps be open to something new?

Change is hard but necessary and inevitable in life.  It's not that people fear change itself but rather they fear what may be lost because of change. 

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often" Winston Churchill

We see God's order all around us in the cycles of nature itself and the intricacies of the human body, DNA and creation. 

Order is everywhere!

In an expanding universe, something (or better yet, someone) is tampering with the "dials" all the time to keep our planet life-giving and gravity in just the right place.  

We are made in His image and have the innate ability and desire for order in our lives and work.  We too are called to tweak, reset and refine things to keep them moving.  Beyond that, we are able to actually improve upon processes, procedures, structures and so many facets of our work, life and ministries.  

Continuous improvement is a worthy enterprise and when done with a WISDOM BLUEPRINT, we are assured of success!

Proverbs 15:22

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.