Month: December 2007

We’ve just spent the last 14 days doing some Life Planning exercises. Over this time we have looked at six steps for leading your own life. Each of these six simple steps can also be applied to your church, your ministry, your organisation or business, your family, as well as your career. You need to know God’s (1) mission and your (2) roles. You need to establish (3) goals and organise your (4) time. You need to put your plan into (5) action and finally you need to take regular time to (6) evaluate your progress.

I have found this type of template incredibly helpful in keeping my own life and ministry in balance and focused. It has helped me to view my life holistically and it also provides a filter that helps me know what to say “Yes” to and what to say “No” to. It also helps me to notice when I have drifted and to make appropriate corrections so I get back on track.

Let’s face it, you cannot do everything but you can do the few things for which God has placed you on the planet.

For those interesting in going a little deeper in the area of Life Planning, I recommend the following resources:

• Successful Christian Ministry by Mark Conner. The six steps we’ve looked at over the last few weeks are fully outlined in chapter 5 of this book.
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. This best-selling book is a classic on principles for living life effectively.
• First Things First by Stephen Covey. This is another best-selling book on principles of time management and establishing priorities.
• Half Time: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance by Bob Buford. This is a very good book for anyone over 40 years of age, who is thinking about the rest of their life.
• Focused Living Resource Kit by Terry Walling. This is an excellent resource for reflecting on your life and planning your future. It includes the concept of creating a personal ‘time line’.
• Go Put Your Strengths to Work by best-selling author Marcus Buckingham. This is an excellent book to help you discover and build on your God-given strengths.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our discussion on Life Planning. If you put the time in to follow the steps and the exercises, I believe that you will benefit greatly from it. In fact, it’s worth doing at least once a year. Also, feel free to share this with your friends.

All the best for the future!

Our final step in Life Planning is …

STEP 6 – Evaluate.

Effective life leadership requires that we take time to evaluate our lives and our progress. Every Christian needs to periodically take a spiritual “stocktake”. We need to bring ourselves to account, to see how we are really doing.

It is very easy to live by the “clock”, focusing on working faster, harder and even smarter. However, going faster is not helpful if we are heading in the wrong direction. We must regularly take out the “compass” and ensure that our lives are aligned with our Mission, our Role and our Goals. There is often a gap between our ideals (what we say is important) and our present reality (how we’re spending our time). The urgent so easily squeezes out the important.

Unless we focus on our Mission and our Goals we will be easily distracted by many other things (Prov.4:25). Evaluation helps us to see where we have drifted and allows us to make course corrections to get back on track so that our daily actions reflect what we say is truly important to us.

Sometimes we’re trying to do too much and we need to say “No” to some things, even if they are not bad things. We must know what our priorities are and then infuse them with a sense of urgency so that they are not pushed aside by the many unimportant things that so frequently scream for our attention.

Continue reading “Life Planning [Day 14]” →

Let’s move on to the next step in Life Planning …

STEP 5 – Do God’s Will

Paul’s instructions to the believers at Ephesus were action-orientated (Eph.5-6). He gave them things he wanted them to do. They were to take action, which meant to start doing things they weren’t already doing or to stop doing things that should not be done. He expected them to take full responsibility for the daily choices they made.

A mission or a goal becomes effective only when it is translated into action. We need a balanced perspective between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. God works, but we must work too (Phil. 2:12-13). God will not do it all for us. Things don’t just happen as we sit around. On the other hand, we cannot accomplish God’s will just through our own effort alone.

Change comes through action, through doing, not just through talking and thinking. Knowledge doesn’t change the world, action does. The Christian life is to be a life of action. Jesus was a doer of God’s will (John 4:34. Acts 1:1-2; 10:38). The disciples were people of action (the “Acts” of the apostles). We too are called to be doers of God’s will (Mt. 6:10. Jas.1:22-25). In fact, our love for God is evidenced by our obedience to his commands.

It is good to have a mission and a goal, but without discipline they will never be achieved. An athlete has to discipline himself so that he is able to perform his best in the competition. A soldier has to discipline himself so that he may be prepared for the battle and be strong enough to overcome. A farmer has to discipline himself to prepare and maintain the land so that he may reap the harvest. Paul disciplined himself so that he could fulfil the task that God had given him (1 Cor. 9:24-27. 1 Tim. 4:7-10). Each of these examples involves a specific goal that is worked towards by a clearly defined strategy. The goal will only be reached through discipline, training, exercise, hard work and time.

You’ve reflected on your Mission and Roles. You’ve set some specific Goals and you’ve organised your time in order to achieve them. Now, as the prophet Nike says, "Just do it!"

Let’s now look at our next step …

STEP 4 – Organise Weekly 

To make the most of your time and to manage your life well means that you need to consider what you are doing with your time. That’s why a weekly planning appointment is so helpful. Use a calendar and schedule specific time for your important appointments, events and tasks, as well as for the implementation of your goals. A goal set and then never looked at again will never be achieved. It takes character, commitment and determination to turn good intentions into reality.

God is a great time manager. He not only had a vision for a new world to be created but he formulated a strategic plan for his week that enabled him to accomplish his goal one day at a time and one step at a time (see Gen.1). We should do the same.

Ensure that your priorities (the ‘big rocks‘) are put into your week first, lest your week fill up with urgent but unimportant things. Effective people KNOW and then DO what is most important.

Take your goals and schedule them in your weekly calendar. That way you will ensure that you are taking action towards fulfilling your life Mission.

Continue reading “Life Planning [Day 12]” →

Step 1 of Life Planning was Understand Your Mission. Step 2 was Identify Your Roles.  Let’s now move on to Step 3.

STEP 3 – Establish Goals. As Paul identified each role, he gave some specific instructions or goals for the believers at the church of Ephesus to work on. Wives were to lovingly submit to their husbands (Eph.5:22-24), husbands were to love their wives as Christ loved the church (5:25-33), children were to obey and honour their parents (6:1-3), parents were to raise their children in God’s ways (6:4), servants were to obey their masters even when they were not watching (6:5-8), masters were to treat their servants fairly (6:9), and believers were to take on God’s armour and stand strong against the attack of the enemy (6:10-18).

Once your Mission and Roles have been established, Goals must be set that will help you achieve your purpose in life. For each role that you have right now, think about what kind of a person you’d like to be and what you’d like to accomplish. Without goals, mission remains abstract and you will coast along without any sense of progress or achievement. You must prayerfully contemplate the various areas of your life and wisely plan and set goals so that progress can be made. 

If you aim at nothing you are bound to hit it! If you don’t set goals, you are just surviving, not really living. With no effort, you will settle into comfortable patterns and habits. It takes a great degree of effort to escape the inertia of the comfort zone. That’s why goals are important. A goal is a planned conflict with the status quo. Reaching a goal means doing something new, leaving familiar, comfortable terrain, and exploring new frontiers. Sometimes we don’t want to leave our comfort zones. Forsaking old, well-known patterns can be one of the most difficult things in life. This is probably the main reason why so many people don’t set goals. Goals usually push us to new behaviours we’d rather not have to worry about.

Continue reading “Life Planning [Day 11]” →

STEP 1 in Life Planning is to Understand Your Mission. We have considered a number of things to help us get a better handle on our mission: a mission statement, core values, personal vision, prophetic directives, our unique SHAPE, a SWOT analysis, and some personal shifts. These all work together to show us different aspects or perspectives of our life mission.

Let’s move on to Step 2 now.

STEP 2 – Identify Your Roles

After encouraging each believer to understand God’s will for their life (Eph.5:15-17), the Apostle Paul then identified a number of specific roles or responsibilities that a believer may have. As a family member, you may be a wife (Eph.5:22-24) or a husband (5:25-33), a child (6:1-3) or a parent (6:4). In the workplace you may be a servant (6:5-8) or a master (6:9). Of course, each believer is a soldier in God’s army, which is involved in a spiritual battle (6:10-18).

In the same way, God’s mission for your life will be outworked through a variety of roles that he has called you to fulfill. These will change as you move through the various seasons of your life. For example, right now you may be a student, a daughter, a sister, a church member, and a part time employee. In a few years time you may be an employer, a wife, and a church member. Later on you may be a wife, a mother, and a worship leader.

Identify all the roles that you have right now. Think through each one and ensure that you keep perspective and maintain balance in your overall life. True success is doing well at each of the roles God has given you for this moment in your life. Success in one area to the detriment of other areas is not God’s intention for your life. He wants you to succeed in business, and as a church leader, and to have a fulfilling marriage, etc.

What are your roles? Make a list of them all. Then reduce, combine, or consolidate them into a list of no more than 7 roles.

We’ll talk more about this tomorrow.

In moving towards God’s Mission for your life, there will be changes you need to make. God leads us day by day, step by step, level by level, and season by season.

Another helpful analogy is shifting gears. There are times when God wants us to transition to a new gear, so we can move faster on less energy. When I became the Senior Minister of CityLife Church back in 1995, I sensed God directing me to make seven strategic shifts in our congregation. These are articulated in my book Transforming Your Church.

God also spoke to me about making a number of personal shifts a few years back. Here they are:

Seven Strategic Personal Shifts:

1. From ‘rowing’ to ‘sailing’. This is a shift of focus from my energy to relying on the Spirit’s energy. It’s about positioning myself to catch the wind, rather than rowing harder and harder.
2. From ‘task’ to ‘relationship’. This shift is about spending more time in a Mary posture, rather than getting caught up in a Martha syndrome (Luke 10:38-42). It’s a greater focus on intimacy and a depth of spirituality, rather than on mere productivity and task orientation.
3. From ‘ministry maturing’ to ‘life maturing’. This shift is from ‘doing’ to more ‘being’. It’s about coming to a greater depth of spiritual authority, rather than simply developing more knowledge and ministry skills.
4. From ‘pastoral/administrative’ to ‘prophetic/apostolic’. This shift is from merely working on today, to creating future movement. It’s about stepping aside into the river of God’s Spirit and stepping up into the authority God has given me.
5. From ‘copying’ to ‘creating’. It’s a shift from mere ‘imitation’ (of what others may be doing) to ‘innovation’ (what God wants me to do). It’s about taking time to receive the unique blueprint of God’s design for my life and ministry.
6. From ‘sonship’ to ‘fatherhood’. This is a shift of focus from ‘receiving’ life for myself to ‘giving’ life to others. It also involves a shift from being a ‘local church’ to becoming a ‘movement of churches’.
7. From ‘independence’ to ‘interdependence’.  This is a shift from ‘God bless what I’m doing’ to ‘Father, what are you doing that I can partner with today?’

Shifts like these take time and require quite a radical transformation, a bit like a caterpillar morphing to become a butterfly. We can’t make them happen by our own energy, but with the help of the Holy Spirit as well as our own struggle, we will morph indeed! I’m still on the journey, that’s for sure.

What specific shifts is God calling you to make? From where to where? Take time to reflect on this and write down what you sense him saying to you.

Tomorrow we move on to Step 2 of our Life Planning exerise.

Another simple tool to help you as you continue to think through your Mission is a SWOT analysis.

SWOT stands for:

1. Strengths – what are you good at? When do you feel strong?
2. Weaknesses – what do you find difficult? What drains you of energy?
3. Opportunities – what are the greatest opportunities facing you right now?
4. Threats – what are the greatest threats facing you right now?

Jesus used this approach when he sent letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor (see Revelation 2-3). He commended them for some things (strengths), adjusted some things (weaknesses), gave them any necessary warnings (threats), and then finished with some promises of reward for overcoming (opportunities).

Take a piece of paper and draw four quadrants; then write each of these four words at the top of each quadrant. Make a quick list of what comes to your mind under each category. At this stage don’t evaluate the comments, just list as many as possible.

Then take some time to reflect on how this could influence or relate to your Mission in life.

Another helpful thing to consider when reflecting on your Mission is your personal SHAPE.

SHAPE is a concept developed by Rick Warren and it includes consideration of five things:

1. Spiritual Gifts – what spiritual gifts has God given to you?
2. Heart – what are your passions, interests, and motivations?
3. Abilities – what are you good at?
4. Personality – what type of personality do you have?
5. Experience – what is your life experience, as well as your education?

These five things work together to form your unique SHAPE. After all, our purpose in life isn’t so much something we decide, as it is something we discover. God has SHAPEd each one of us for a unique purpose. We could do a variety of different things with our life but we will be most fulfilled and most effective when we give ourself to the purpose for which God has created us.

Take time today to reflect on your own SHAPE.

Continue reading “Life Planning [Day 7]” →