Thelemic Planning

by Walt Brock

I couldn’t believe I had missed! How in the world had I missed such an easy shot? For ten years I had been prepping for this moment, and I blew it—but good. It all began at least ten years before, and in reality, probably four years before that. When I was about twelve years old, I walked to the end of the rural lane we lived on to play with a friend. A little older than I was, my friend was into “sleeping in.” But not me—I was there bright and early. His mom said to come back in about an hour or just sit and wait . . . and while I was waiting I could look through some Outdoor Life magazines. The hour I spent looking through those wonderful color pages of fishing, hunting, and camping in the great outdoors ignited a spark of interest that has never gone out. I borrowed the magazines and devoured them all. Four years later, on the very first day possible, I paid my $3.50, signed my name, and had my very first hunting license. Ten years later I missed the biggest mule deer buck I had ever seen! For sure, it was tragic, but entirely avoidable. You see, in the excitement of the moment I forgot to aim at the target. Oh, the gun was pointed in the right direction, and the deer was always in the scope. But I sprayed lead all over the hills of Utah, simply because I did not put the cross hairs of the scope on the target. My bullets went where the cross hairs were, but the buck ended up on someone else’s wall instead of mine. I had the right equipment, I had practiced to perfection, I was in the right place, at the right time, doing my favorite hobby—and I missed!

How many of us in leadership and management positions in ministry find ourselves spraying lead all over the landscape, and as I did, missing the target we had worked so hard to accomplish? I have learned there are four keys to avoiding this discouraging moment of truth.

1. Have a clearly defined target by developing a good mission statement.
2. Create a mechanism to focus your energy, resources, and effort on the exact target. Use your mission statement as a valuable tool for the entire ministry in making decisions both for today and tomorrow.
3. Exercise the will to pull the trigger with discipline by establishing good goals and clear objectives that clearly aim at the next step.
4. Develop the diligence and tenacity to follow through and do the work of the ministry. It is hard work to establish a biblical foundation and philosophy, write a purpose, and then develop a sequential list of goals and objectives; but we have only begun.

The Clearly Defined Target

Having a mission statement of fifty words or less seems to me to be rather fundamental for success, but I have been surprised at how many ministries have sidestepped this key issue. Let’s be careful to be clear. We are not talking about a pithy little advertising slogan, but rather a well-thought-through and prayerfully worded statement encompassing our ministry’s unique part in accomplishing God’s purpose upon the earth. A topic addressed in many management books and articles, mission or purpose statements are defined much the same way. In Advanced Strategic Planning: A Model for Church and Ministry Leaders, Aubrey Malphrus defines a mission statement as “a broad brief biblical statement of what the ministry is supposed to be doing” (Malphrus 1999, 105). In another article I defined a mission statement as a “concise statement summarizing in a sentence or brief paragraph what the organization is intending to accomplish.” Some people try to differentiate between mission and purpose statements, but whatever called or however defined, it is a target on which we are leading our team to focus their aim.

For those who have been vacillating on whether or not to do the diligent work necessary to craft such a statement, let me give you the best biblical example of the power of focusing on an exact purpose.

Focusing on an Exact Target

We are all familiar with John 3:16 where the Word says that God, loving the people of the world, gave His Son so that people through belief might have everlasting life. We are also familiar with Christ’s words in Luke19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” These two passages tell us clearly that God has an overall purpose of providing salvation for mankind.

In Hebrews 12:2 we are given the mechanism for focusing one’s energy and life on a specific goal as part of God’s overall stated purpose in John 3:16. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Christ’s looking at the goal and purpose (joy that was set before Him) gave him the sacrificial love and strength to follow God’s will to the agony of the cross. Likewise, if those in our ministries see what they are doing as necessary for the accomplishment of the purpose and goals of God, they will fight for the opportunity to serve Him in the accomplishment of the mission God has entrusted them with.

As we are going about the work of the ministry, an opportunity to do something good will come, but that opportunity will not be the next step toward the target. What do we do then? Jesus again gave us an exam-ple to follow in John 7:8: “Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.” In this passage, Christ was using His purpose for being on the earth, soon to be fulfilled on the cross, as a decision-making tool to help Himself stay focused on what was the next right decision to make. So, having the target purpose clearly in mind helped our Lord not only sacrificially give of Himself but also make good decisions as He made progress toward His purpose.

Next, managers must exercise their decision-making responsibilities in a disciplined manner by helping the whole team focus the cross hairs of their ministry’s energy and resources on the target as they “pull the trigger.”

The Will to Pull the Trigger with Discipline

For every manager or leader there will always come a time when they must “pull the trigger”—when they must say yes or no and make a decision from which there is no turning back without great pain and suffering. For me, that has always been a scary moment. The time comes when we must take that next step of faith to trust God, not in a presumptuous way, but with a certain hopeful expectation to see how God is going to work it out this time. We have done our homework, we have waited on the Lord until the time was right, we have allowed Him to provide and open enough doors that we are certain of His will, but still we are called to act upon the reality of the unseen promises of God. Making that decision in a spiritually disciplined manner is one of the hardest yet most exhilarating challenges of leading a ministry.

Just like all those years ago on that mountain in Utah, I can still feel the excitement of that buck mule deer bursting into view, knowing I had only seconds to act or not act; but I can also feel the emptiness that followed when I realized that in my haste I had forgotten all my disciplined practice and knowledge of breathing and squeezing techniques. When those opportunities come to us to make the big decisions—the decisions that affect your family, the lives of those in ministry with you, and the future of the ministry God has given you stewardship responsibility over—we must “walk by faith, and not by sight” and we must remember that God is only glorified and pleased when we do His work in His righteous way. God is not pleased if in doubt we fail to pull the trigger (Numbers 13–14). Nor is He pleased if in fear, greed, or other sinful motivations we fail to act or “pull the trigger” in an obedient way (1 Samuel 15); nor is He pleased if we decide to do a good thing in a responsible and reasonable, yet wrong way (1 Chronicles 13).

Diligence and Tenacity to Do the Work

Ministries vary in one way or another. Not all ministries perform the same kinds of work, but every ministry will have at its core the necessary routine work of preparation, performance, and follow through necessary to do what you do in an excellent manner. The “always abounding” phrase in 1 Corinthians 15:58 refers to always trying to do the work better and better—to keep on trying to excel. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Steadfast and unmovable tell us we are to settle into a consistent mode of doing the work of the ministry in an excellent manner.

We call this “doing your homework” or doing one’s “due diligence.” Romans 12:8 requires of managers that they “rule with diligence,” and diligence means to be constant in effort to accomplish the task at hand. Leadership is not for those always looking for shortcuts or the easy and soft way. The work of the ministry never ends; and if we are working toward a goal so we can coast down the other side, we will be sorely disappointed.

A bull’s-eye hit comes to those who have taken the time to craft a good mission statement that they consistently use in making decisions to accomplish goals with an attitude of excellence and diligent effort.