As a Pastor and a business owner, I am often confronted by the stresses associated with “growth.” A church needs new growth to help expand ministries and do more to make God real in its community and of course businesses need to grow to become viable and to make a difference to clients, customers, and, as with churches, the community.
So, when considering the whole idea of growth, those in the know tell me that I need a growth strategy. According to the dictionary a strategy is, “a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result.” With this definition in mind I have developed a five part strategy to produce growth:
1. Pray – God knows everything and so I need to consult him first. He promises that if I do, he will order my steps and make my life to prosper at his hand.
2. Listen – Once I have taken my inquiry to the Lord, I need to wait on him to open my eyes to his direction and will. Sometimes this comes immediately and sometimes this takes a little while. Either way I should not move until I listen for and “hear” his thoughts on the matter.
3. Pray – After I am comfortable that I have listened and heard the mind of the Spirit on the matter, I need to pray some more. In this time of prayer, I will be making sure that the directions I believe that have come from God are indeed from him and not from “other voices” that invade my thought processes. This praying make take the form of a single prayer in which God’s Spirit gives clear understanding to proceed or it may take a little time to get that clear and confident understanding.
4. Think – Now, I have clear direction, a God directed strategy and the indication from the Lord that this is the way to go. Next step – THINK! Notice I didn’t say question. In this stage I simply want to get comfortable with God’s direction and make sure I can implement it as he wants it done. Running off “half-cocked” is never a good idea. Following ALL of God’s directions is!
5. Do – If you never implement your strategy, you will never grow. (Not as a church, not as a business, not as a person.) God never gives us a plan, confirms that plan, and refines the implementation of the plan for us to put it on a shelf and never follow through. No strategy is effective if it is not implemented.
Now, you may not be trying to grow a church or a business, but all of us should be trying to grow an effective and powerful life (You were designed for greatness). If you will implement this general strategy that provides for direction from the Lord, you life will be one of passion and purpose.
Hope this helps ….
suspect that this kind of things happens to others as well.
Changing Gears
This morning I am making a commitment to slow down again and write.
What can you expect as I write here? You can expect my commentary on life, the events of the day, and the need for all of us to take a deep breath and enjoy the world we have been given. I am not going to be the kind of commentator that spends his time trying to scare you or cause you to see the “dark cloud behind every silver lining.” I am going to talk about life, rest, hope and peace.
You will also see many blog posts from the past disappear (as well as whole categories and tags). I am not going to worry about SEO, keywords (long or short tailed ones), or how to “monetize” this site. This blog is personal now and I my only goal is to create friendships that last a lifetime from right here in front of my keyboard. Let’s enjoy the journey together!
Talk more soon ….