Strategy: Planning and Goal setting
“We have visited
missionaries all over the world who seem to be in the business of doing, rather
than getting things done.” (Dayton and Fraser, Planning Strategies for World Evangelization, p. 17)
How can I know if
I’m getting anywhere if I don’t know where I’m going?
Problem Defined
1. Unclear ideas about work that ought to be done. So much work to
do, it’s hard to know where to begin.
2. We’re so busy we can’t get anything done.
3. Missionary becomes taxi driver, custodian, repairman, and
crisis manager. At the end of ten years, he/she leaves frustrated having
concluded very little.
4. Little can be done to evaluate progress since goals are not
clearly defined. Without a method of evaluation, there’s no possible means to
correct and redirect work efforts.
Temptations
1. With no one directly looking over your shoulder, you can slowly
find yourself inactive or paralyzed by depression.
2. In frustration over lack of results, we can be tempted to work
too much, abandon family and our spiritual life. The end result will be
spiritual shipwreck.
Objections to planning and setting goals:
1. Fear
of Failure
2.
Viewed as not spiritual
3.
Doesn’t leave room for God’s guiding and moving
Scriptural Principles: There is nothing unscriptural
about having a plan and working toward goals.
Joseph
planned for the distribution of food in Egypt prior to the famine
David planned for the building of the temple
Nehemiah made plans for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem
Jesus had a plan for his life, ministry, death, and he planned for
the church.
Paul made plans:
Other passages and principles regarding planning and goals:
Prov. 24:3-4,27. Proverbs about planning
before building.
Ps. 127:1; Prov. 16:1,3,9; James 4:13-17—Our
plans our always subject to the Lord’s direction
“Be wise as serpents, and as harmless as
doves” (Matt. 10:16)—planning is a part of wisdom.
Goals should be concrete, specific, and measurable:
Goal could be for established church to be: Self-supporting;
Self-propagating; Self-governing; Self-theologizing
Example of our team goals:
1 yr. language
3 yr. numerical
goal and congregational leadership training
10 yr. numerical
goal, elders, and church functioning w/out Am. missionaries
Later goals:
Semi-permanent
facility
Numerical goal
Czechs teaching
and preaching
Czechs leading in
evangelism, nurturing, and vision casting