So, you’ve read the first post in this series and determined where you were relying on past successes. Next, you read the second post and began a thorough evaluation of your ministry – the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. As you’ve been praying through this I’m trusting that God has started giving you exciting new ideas and, if you’re like me, you’ve immediately started thinking through all the reasons why they won’t work.
We’re prone, as humans, to take a God-given vision and immediately begin considering it in light of the little that we have at our disposal. The thing is God dreams bigger than we ever could because He has every resource at His command. Instead of looking at the resources He has and then planning, God already knows anything can be accomplished and how it will all turn out.
Obviously, we can’t see the entire picture like God can, so the question is how can we, as best as humanly possible, think like Him? I believe that the answer is in prayer and planning backwards.
This is how many great leaders operate. They open up the floodgates, let the ideas flow, and then determine how to practically implement them later. They picture what would work best in an ideal world. That freedom births some of the best ideas.
Don’t let yourself get into the “what about…” and “I don’t think…” statements right away. Simply focus on how your ministry could best be served in each area. After you’ve come up with a wide range of ideas you’ll have to start narrowing them down, but even in doing that don’t let resources limit you. Just throw out the bad ideas.
I’m sure there are some of you out there who are saying, “Let’s be practical here.” I get it. I’m usually one of those people. What I’ve found, though, is that I’ve been too quick to dismiss ideas in the past that could have had real potential simply because I saw one or two obstacles in the way. When someone else has made me stop and think first I usually come up with solutions (or at least ways to avoid) those hindrances.
The result is better ideas and that’s exciting, even if they require more work. Because if, in the end, it leads more people to Christ or helps more students be effectively discipled it was all worth it.
I’m sure many looked at Steven Furtick like he was crazy when he first suggested doing spontaneous water baptisms*. No doubt there were plenty of questions thrown around the room, but now thousands have been water baptized because of this seemingly bigger than life idea. I challenge you to plan backwards and see what rewards your ministry reaps when you dream big.
Have you dismissed ideas too quickly that could have had a big impact? How do you balance dreaming while still planning practically?
*As a side note, we have done spontaneous baptisms twice as part of our conferences using Elevation Church’s resource kit with great success. 114 students were baptized this past March!