by Sam Brock

Have you found yourself sharing your vision for where your ministry could be in five years intending to motivate your staff and show them “the light at the end of the tunnel” only to find your vision leaves your staff tired and de-motivated? What is the balance between what I need to do today and what it will look like in the future? This mental picture may help.

Every Tuesday morning of summer camp, campers and counselors meet for the optional Soldier Mountain hike. The early morning enthusiasm is mixed with apprehension as they look at the mountain they are about to climb. Stories are traded of other hikes and climbs of the past, and each hiker checks to make sure he has all the supplies he might need. The leader of the hike points to the mountain and hollers back, “There it is, and here we go!” My job is to bring up the rear, which at the beginning is a fairly easy task. Several ask me, “When is it going to get hard?” and, “How long is it going to take?”

About halfway up the mountain, I begin to realize what it really means to “bring up the rear.” Johnnie is just standing there. The weight of his canteen seems to be enough to pin him for a three count. He has stopped his continual trudging and stares open mouthed at the mountain. In my attempt to encourage him, I start calling Soldier Mountain a hill: my first goal is to get him to quit focusing on it. I tell him, “Break is over; let’s climb this hill.” He tells me, “I quit.” Unfortunately, his attitude is contagious; before I realize it, everybody has focused on the hill and decided he has had enough. I have a mutiny on my hands. My method for dealing with this mutiny revolves around getting everyone to focus on the next step right in front of him and helping him take the next step. If everyone will keep focusing on the next step, eventually we will find ourselves at the top of Soldier Mountain, usually with some hikers muttering about how they never thought they were going to make it. They were the ones that looked at the hill and then focused on the step.

Much has been written about having a vision and being able to cast it about so that our ministry knows where we are headed. Sometimes we lose sight of what is the next step. What do we do tomorrow? Our staff need to look at the hill, but the bulk of their time and energy will be spent focusing on the step.

Mercifully, God has not shown us every detail of the hill that we are going to climb. In the Bible we read about how everything will end and how nothing will separate us from His love (Romans 8). God’s Word has much to say about how to live today, how to take the next step in our lives, and how to trust Him as we take the next step. Take this concept of “look at the hill, focus on the step” and break it down to three areas.

• Set your sights—Make sure you are climbing the right hill. Take an hour every six months or so to share where you are headed. What are your long-range goals and vision?
• Sequence—Give your staff an idea of what steps need to be taken. Many times we don’t take a step in our ministry, because the step that we’ve chosen is too big. Figure out the little steps needed to take to make the next step.
• Stick to it—There is no substitute for the work of just taking the next step day after day. Progress is difficult to see when looking at just days or weeks. Stick to it for a lifetime! Be able to say with Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).