The Power Of Planning

 Hello Church,

Here is one of my pet peeves about running any organization, including churches.  And maybe it is one of yours too...

The lack of planning....

Over my 25 years of ministry I have painfully learned the value of planning ahead.  It has been painful because in my early years I was a dreadful planner.  Procrastination was my in my wheelhouse.  I learned how to perform under pressure constantly because... well...I was constantly under pressure to get things done now.  I very rarely put effort into getting things done ahead of time.  And God knows I never thought about planning something before it had to get done.  As a result, my ministry suffered.

Once I saw the value of planning ahead on a personal level, I had a spurt of 'aha' moments and ministry, in general, improved and became more effective. So I pushed the church to became better planners. Then I realized that most churches don't plan ahead nearly as far in advanced as they could or should.  More to the point, churches don't always want to plan further ahead.  Once I became more of a planner, the lack of planning began to annoy me, frustrate me, irritate me.  Since then, I have gone back and forth between being a good planner and a poor planner.  

I say all of this because I think we should especially be planning ahead starting now.  It's not like we don't have time.  The pandemic has given us all kinds of time.  The pandemic will also be ending some day, maybe sooner or maybe later.  Why not plan on how to tackle the new world after the pandemic is over?  

This isn't just a church thing.  It is a personal thing.  Some of us have become content to wallow in our pandemic muck; stay at home in our pajama pants; and cope with our 'now' without any thought of our 'tomorrow'.  Truth is, some of us have become too depressed (depressed people make very poor planners).

So what does God want you to do in the future?  What do you want your life, your job, your family, your church to look like when we no longer have to stay away from each other anymore.  Some day will be a brand new day and we should be ready for it.

God is Good,

Pastor Joe