Plans We Make
I will complete our series on Proverbs today. I chose texts from Proverbs which used the words “plan” or “counsel” in them. I’m doing this with a view toward our Visioning/Planning event coming up on Feb. 18th. The evening of Feb. 18th we’re going to sit down are really brainstorm for two hours. We will seek to discern what specific goals and plans we should adopt as our strategic plan for the rest of the year. Nothing gets accomplished without a plan. You cannot put up a building without some sort of blue-print.
I find it interesting in Christian circles how different ideas about church planning and strategy can be. I know of some churches that believe that any sort of schedule, goal-statement, vision statement, mission statement, etc, - especially if it is the result of the work of a committee – is to be suspect. We need to simply pray and pray hard. God will work if we pray. Plans are a sign of the absence of the Holy Spirit.
On the other hand, it is easy to take the opposite tact. That is, to think of church planning and good strategic thinking as being the be-all end-all. If you can motivate people enough, prime the pump, build up group-excitement, inspire the leadership, etc. etc., then you can accomplish great things. Some churches can become very successful but in the end you cannot help but wondering if it all has anything to do with God. If God vacated the premises, how long would it take to notice.
Proverbs on Planning
The book of Proverbs says lots about goal setting and interestingly, there is a real sense of tension between two basic themes. Remember, the Proverbs need to be read in creative tension. The book is knowingly constructed so that there are themes that are in tension sometimes laying right next to each other. This is by design. Often we have what appear to be two opposing ideas, two varying streams of tradition, laying in some tension with each other. I remember hearing one preacher who read two proverbs which seemed to be saying the opposite thing. His comment was, “This proves that we have to interpret the Bible by the Holy Spirit. How do we know which one of these applies at any one time – since they seem to be contradicting each other.”
I think we can see it differently. We do need the Holy Spirit to interpret the Bible, but not in quite that way. Creative tension isn’t a bad thing. Often, truth arises out of tension. As I get older, I appreciate tension more than I used to. I used to always want things black-and-white. Now, I try to see the color and variety more than before. This is not to say that everything is speculative and in doubt, but only that in many areas of life, there are various perspectives that are both instructive and beneficial. This is one of those areas.
Message A: Success with Many Counselors
One of the primary messages of the book of Proverbs is quite simple. You need to be a good planner and you need to take the best advice you can get from the wisest people you know. Think about your future and get great advice for making your plans. Here are some of these texts.
You get the point. Wise counsel is important to be a success and to find your direction in this life. Get the best counsel you can get. You’ll be much more likely to be a success. This is not meant to be a “word from the Lord” – that is, not meant to be a promise from God. What I mean is, it doesn’t function so as to say, ‘You get good advice, and God will promise you that whatever you plan will succeed. You have God’s word on it.” It is more just a sagacious observation in life.
Don’t be above getting the input of the older and wiser folks you know. You have only a puny perspective, puny experience, puny insight compared to the insight of the group. I remember hearing a researcher on NPR talking about what is called “collective intelligence.” I did a little reading on collective intelligence this week. Collective intelligence is essentially the is an intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals, an intelligence that seemingly has a mind of its own. While the writer of Proverbs does not specifically have this in mind, we have something of a precursor to it. Get lots of input and you will find an idea emerge that is smarter than any one of the participants. Lots of minds functioning together can almost become a great mind made up of lots of smaller parts.
This is what I absolutely love about the method of visioning/planning that we will undertake on February 18th. Ideas emerge. Everyone thinks about ourselves, our community, our calling, our hopes and dreams. We start to isolate ideas about who we are and what our community is. Then ideas start to emerge.
They had invited every unchurched family in the community they could think of to a fish fry, church-singing. If I remember correctly, four family-units came and two joined the church before the next visioning event. And Clay noticed they had painted their doors red. That church was energized by many counselors. Their collective intelligence was almost providential in the wisdom it provided them. And it fired them up to serve Christ even more enthusiastically.
Clay always asks people, “Can you tell me what God is calling your church to do in the next six months to fulfill your mission specifically. Specifically, what are you going to do? Where are you headed.” This visioning meeting is a way to isolate this. But we need the collective intelligence of the community. You have to be here to be a part. Please do your best to come.
Message B: Success comes from the Lord
The basic message here seems to be something on this order. Even the wisest plans fail. Life will never be anything other than unpredictable. Life is still about trusting in the LORD in the ups-and-downs of life. God’s purposes cannot fail. Our wisest plans do fail, and even when they do, God has a way of bringing about his purposes for us. To quote 19:21: Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.
You see how this stands in creative tension with the previous theme. The first theme was, “Plan well, drawing on all the collective wisdom you can receive, and you will succeed.” This set of texts says, “Plan all you want. Good idea. But God’s way is the only one that will surely win out.”
I think this theme is very important to provide balance. It reminds us of our humanity, our finitude, and the way that life happens in ways that cannot be predicted or fully prepared for. These verses counteract our tendency to pride and self-reliance. There is a balance to be struck here and the sage gives us both sides of the coin.
In the end, it is a healthy thing to come to terms with our human limitations. We can easily become gods in our own eyes. This is a primary theme in the fall story of
The writer of Proverbs seems to be painfully aware of the temptation to trust in ourselves. He reminds us in the famous verse 3:5-6.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
Human wisdom, collective intelligence, creative planning, etc. etc. etc. cannot take the place of spiritual trust in God. Successful plans are prayerful plans. God has to be involved, deeply involved. Prayer is the way remind ourselves that we are not god/gods. We can create an institutionally successful church that has little to do with the
Commit Your Plans to the Lord
Proverbs 16: 3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. This is of course a very simplistic statement, but the complexity comes in its interaction with other Proverbs. It gives us a very important piece of the puzzle. God wants to be involved in our planning. God wants us to be self-reliant but at the same time God-dependant. This is our balance. This text emphasizes how we develop a God-wardness to our Goals 2007. We have to commit the plans to the Lord.
What exactly does this mean? I think it means something like this. Before you plan, in the middle of your planning, after you finish your planning, you must communicate with God honestly and with sincerity to ask God to guide, inspire and bless. My goal for this church is to discover a plan that will continue whether on its own initiative. I want plans that have spiritual legs. I want plans to really excite the congregation into creative ways to engage in our mission to make disciples of all peoples. But for this to happen, somehow, God has to be involved to inspire us and motivate us, and give wisdom. This happens through prayer.
Our
Our ultimate mission to make disciples of all peoples. Specifically, our mission statement is: to make and nurture disciples in Jesus Christ through prayer, gifts, and service in order to encourage others to live and witness for Christ and transform the world through God’s love. How specifically are we going to achieve those goals? This is what we must decide together. I’m asking you to come and be a part of this decision-making process. Last year, we decided to redo our youthroom. You go take a look. We’ve about completed that task. We’ve not made as much progress as we could have, but we’ve made progress.
I am excited about this! I really believe God is going to show us some things. God is going to inspire us in new ways. We’re spiritually at a tipping point where we can move into new ways to engage in mission, to grow the church, to make disciples, to reach the lost, to show God’s love, to grow in grace ourselves, and on and on. There is a fresh wind and fresh fire that is about to be unleashed in our midst. Let’s vision this into reality. Let’s commit our way to God and watch God work through us!