When Strategic Activity Is Not Strategic Enough

Just because our church or ministry is engaged in strategic activities does not mean that our work is really strategic.  In truth, we often wonder why it is that if we are doing such strategic things there aren’t more results to show for it.  

Here are four reasons why this might be the case.

1.  Strategic Initiatives are not connected to the Vision.

Often a church or ministry will work long and hard to develop a wonderful vision statement.  But then, somehow, there is loss of sight when it comes to putting together strategic initiatives.  They are only vaguely connected to the vision, and in fact most people can’t see the connection, and so they just do them to please their leaders.

2.  Strategic Initiatives are not connected because there is no Vision.

It is common for churches and ministries to have a number of strategic initiatives in play, to be very excited about them, and consumed with their implementation.  However, without a clear vision of what these initiatives are to accomplish, it is less that strategic, and usually exhausting for those involved.

3.  Strategic Initiatives are not coordinated to work together toward the Vision.

People like to do their own thing.  And this can be a problem when it comes to strategic initiatives.  Each team leader is promoting his or her own thing, without seeing how each and every initiative is integral and needs to be coordinated with all the other initiatives for any of them to be maximally effective.  Becoming silo-ed will doom the overall vision.

4.  Strategic Initiatives are too many or too few in order to accomplish the Vision.

Another common problem is creating too many initiatives.  In reality, it only takes a handful of them to accomplish a vision.  Momentum will transfer to all the parts of an organization naturally, so relax and focus on the big things.  Conversely, uncreative or lazy thinking can lead to just a few initiatives, hoping for more results than is realistic.  It is best to take the time to plot out how exactly the strategic initiatives will lead to the desired future that is described by the vision.

Scattered Initiatives are not Really Strategic 

The common denominator in these four scenarios is that scattered attempts to achieve great ministry results simply do not work.  Good activity is not good enough.  This is not being strategic overall. 

All of us like to think we are being strategic.  The truth is that sometimes we are, sometimes we are not.  Yet, we all like to talk about our activities as if they are or might be someday revealed as amazingly strategic.  

The proof is in the results.  So, if results are not apparent, it might be that one or more of the four reasons mentioned is the reason why.  The good news is that all of them are easy to correct!

Simply return the leadership team to the vision, or create a new one together, or modify the existing one.  Then, prayerfully and wisely align strategies with the vision, trusting the Lord for direction.  Every leader and team needs to be disciplined to keep the vision, to review it often along with the strategic initiatives, and in detail.

Graveyard Conversations

Find the graveyard.  Hang out with your team.  Start talking with people.

Find a Place of Significance

Every village in this part of Asia has its places of community significance.  It might be a tree of blessing, a hill, a spot near a river or a memorial.  My personal favorite is the graveyard, because it holds so many possibilities.

It won’t take long for a crowd to start gathering to observe the three or four strangers.  A couple foreigners are fascinating, but so are a couple of Asian outsiders; and more intriguing yet is that they are visiting the village together.  Simply smile and start asking friendly questions about life in the village, its history, even try to get a tour later.  

Ask deeper questions too, about religious practices, and perspectives on life and death, since you are near a graveyard bustling with activity concerned with ancestors.  Enjoy learning about how blessings and curses work, and how people find happiness and deal with sadness.  Have the whole team participate.

These are universal topics of interest that allow us to share hopes and compassion with one another.  Listen even more closely, and prayerfully, for how the Gospel might uniquely get through, or sink into, the hearts and minds of these people who have never heard.

Hold a Deeper Conversation

By now, there are probably 50 people hanging out, watching, listening and participating.  Tell a story of two about your own family, or how your team got to know one another and why you are interested in exploring new cultures.

Read part of Genesis 1-3, a very brief part, and then tell the whole story in your own words.  As a team, talk about God the Creator and His creation.  Talk about goodness and beauty.  Talk about evil and sin.  Make sure to talk about angels and demons, because they already know about them.  Make sure to talk about humanity as unique among living creatures, possessing a soul, being created in God’s image, but now fallen, because they know nothing about this.  Be patient and prayerful as the conversation flows along.

Read part of Revelation 19-21, a very brief part, and then tell the whole story in your own words.  As a team, talk about eternity.  Talk about personhood, body and soul.  Talk about the resurrection to come.   Talk about sin, heaven and hell, the end of the world and the New Heavens and New Earth.  Go back and talk a lot more about heaven, in detail.  Be patient and prayerful as the conversation keeps moving along.

After 30 minutes or so the crowd will be a little smaller.  The critics will mostly be gone.  The main questioners for the group will stay, and many interested listeners.  Enjoy this large group discussion that will go even deeper still.

Leave Them with Hope and Anticipation

Now it is time to read part of a Gospel, just one story that illustrates salvation.  Make sure it is a story, and make sure it is clear in its meaning.   Make sure it will be simple through translation.  Then retell the story in your own words and clarify the meaning for everyone.  

Talk about Jesus Christ as Son of God become Man.  Talk about His coming into the world.  Talk about His works and words.  Give examples.  Tell a story or two about how He has changed your life.  Have a couple different team members share.

Of course, you must tell the main story about the Cross and Resurrection.  Take your time with this.  Make sure your teammates are all participating and praying.  Talk about how Jesus, and only Jesus, removes our guilt and shame before God.  Talk about holiness and purity.  

Definitely spend time talking about how He breaks the power of sin, and overcomes the power of the evil one and demonic forces and curses.  Talk about His power to bring blessings, and in all their varied forms.  Talk about peace and fear.  Tell the story about His current rule from Heaven, and His coming return and future glory.  

Tell your story.  Explain how to become a Christian.  But, please don’t have them raise their hands to receive Jesus, or any other such American silliness.  Let them think.  Let the Spirit do His work.  Simply, challenge them to talk honestly among themselves about your conversation this day.  

Be Practical and Humble

Leave them with further Gospel information in print and in video.  Exchange contact information with those most interested, especially the leaders.  Let them know that your Asian friends will return.  It is your Asian partners that best know how to do ministry and church planting among near culture unreached Asians, in the first place.  You are simply a partner and a catalyst.  So, pray for their follow up, resource them, pray for them, and rejoice with them in the harvest!

Never Regretted A Prayer Meeting

Yes, I know I am the pastor, but I still dread going to prayer meetings.  We are all the same, equally unspiritual in our reasoning and emotions about such holy activities.

Leaving Home

It takes a lot to get out the door and on the road.  Another prayer meeting—ugh!  

There are so many other things we could be doing with those 60-90 minutes.  Although in reality, we wouldn’t usually be doing anything all that important that we wouldn’t find time to finish anyway.

It is okay to say sometimes that we are tired, or just don’t feel spiritual enough to pray.  And yet, these excuses sound all too similar to those excuses we give in order not to go to the gym.  We might note that after we talk ourselves into going and exercising, then life becomes much better.  I have never regretted going to the gym.

Getting to the Meeting

Once at the meeting it is such a delight to see our friends.  And likely many of them struggled with the same fleshly or spiritual warfare struggles we did to gather together for prayer.  The enemy loves to keep us from such gatherings of encouragement, power and accomplishment.

Now we are ready.  Or, maybe we are almost ready.  After the Scriptures are read, and the world’s needs are laid out before us, we must pray!  The Spirit is at work upon our minds and hearts, to join with God in His redemptive work around the world.  And to pray for the needs in our own fellowship.

By the way, if our friends don’t make it to the meeting, what they need is our encouragement.  The last thing they need is to be reprimanded.  Better yet, tell them about your experience, be honest with your own struggles and then expound upon the blessings that exceeded your expectations!

Praying Together

When praying we become spiritual.  We see the needs of the world, especially its vast spiritual needs.  We pray and our hearts become enlarged, compassionate and yearning to become more and more involved.  

Our prayers inspire one another to pray more boldly than if praying alone, even.  When we hear what others pray, or they hear what we pray, and how God is moving upon all of us individually, we find ourselves opening up and joining in the prayers in new ways.  It is amazing how the Holy Spirit works in His Church!

Having said this, those prayer meetings that consist of two-page, single-spaced, eight-point font lists of 247 plus prayer requests need to be re-envisioned.  In addition, those prayer meetings that are led by those who cannot communicate with passion and vision the Gospel for the world need new leaders.  If it is boring, admit it, and make the necessary changes.

Returning Home

I have never regretted a prayer meeting, no matter how ornery I was at the start.  Prayer changes things, including us personally.  Ultimately, it is a matter of spiritual warfare.

Prayer meetings refresh us in faith and renew us in hope.  We find fresh application of the Gospel.  We find deeper connection with God.  And we strengthen our solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world.

I can hardly wait for the next prayer meeting!  Until it comes to leaving home again.

Hostile Speech, Healing Speech

Truth can be spoken with gentleness or harshness.  Truth can also be spoken with knowledge or foolishness.

Proverbs 15:1–2 ESV “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.”

Handling Delicate Situations

When we find ourselves in situations charged with the potential for conflict, having emotional restraint and self-control in speaking is crucial.

We must speak thoughtful words, and with judicious timing.  Sometimes even starting a difficult conversation with words of comfort will be a good strategy to restore people to proper reason.

Harsh words are quick and careless and incite people to anger.  More literally here, it is “a word of pain.”  Notice it only takes one word to inflame emotions in contrast with the carefully worded longer response of the “soft answer.”

Delicate situations require spiritual diplomacy for resolution.  In addition, further wisdom is required in order to know in which situation this proverb will apply.  For not all difficult situations need or will benefit from conversations.

Adding Knowledge Helps

Notice that the wise person speaks into problematic situations in such a way as to commend knowledge.  This involves attaching knowledge to the truth spoken so that it is satisfying.  The wise person uses knowledge of life, people and Scripture rightly and effectively to help others and improve everyone’s situations.

Of course, we still can not control how others will respond to truth spoken calmly and reasonably.  But, the next verse declares that Yahweh watches, Proverbs 15:3 ESV “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”  And so as the wise, we will have a vision much larger than immediate solutions and harmony.

The fool simply gushes forth words because the foolish person is not interested in knowledge, or greater understanding.  This person is the same as the one speaking the harsh words earlier, not considering what is being said in the conversation, or how it is being said.

The words of the foolish person may indeed contain some truth, but without knowledge they sound more like folly and end up as foolishness.  There will be significant loss to everyone involved because a greater conflict is now inevitable.  Handling sensitive situations with recklessness often results is ruined reputations, damaged relationships and even material loss.

Society is Unhelpful Much of the Time

Hostile speech abounds in our society these days.  Simply listen to talk radio, watch opinion television or read internet chatter.  But do not listen to these too much, because they will dramatically impact your own attitudes and behaviors, and eventually your relationships.  This is not how we are to speak.

Instead, we are called to bring life and healing to the world.  As the next verse states in Proverbs 15:4 ESV “A gentle tongue is a tree of life.”  The Hebrew for “gentle tongue” is more literally a “healing tongue.”

Surely, we all have numerous examples from our lives to illustrate both of the approaches to sticky situations.  It is good to review our real life examples and learn from them, so we can grow in the Gospel of grace.  Ephesians 4:15 ESV “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”

So, what about those emotionally charged conversations that you have been pressing without much success?  Maybe Proverbs 15:1-2 can give you a new perspective and tactics you might try?  Ask the Lord for greater wisdom, courage, insightful action and thoughtful speech.

A Missionary’s Psalm

Psalm 121 is a favorite Psalm, especially for those in danger as a result of doing the Lord’s work.

Recently a colleague of mine had his life and family threatened in very perverse and troubling terms.  The ominous text message came because of his bold stand for righteousness in his ministry and in his community in Asia.

Precautions for him are necessary; courage to stay the course is just as necessary.  Yet, the personal anxiety and fear can only be met by the Lord Himself in His Word, through prayer and the encouragement of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Yahweh is the Keeper of All Things

“A song of ascents.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

This is a pilgrimage psalm.  We are all on a pilgrimage in the Christian life.  Some make more dangerous journeys than others.  Is looking at the hills a reminder of God’s power, or is this a look of anxiety because the hills are reminders that many troubles lurk there?

Yahweh is the Creator of all things and all places.  And everything and every person is under His constant control as the Creator.  Not only is there nothing to fear, but also there is no greater power or person on our side to help than Yahweh, our God!

Yahweh Keeps His People

“He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”

The first line is self-talk to remember truth and rely upon it.  At the same time it is a prayer to the Lord for those in trouble, “may He not let . . . may He not slumber.”  God is active on our behalf.  As it says in Ephesians 1:22 ESV, “And he put all things under his [Christ’s] feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.”

Clearly God does not sleep, nor is He unconcerned or uninvolved.  Take a look at the history of Israel!  Yahweh has never been caught off guard or stayed dormant in the face of His people’s troubles.  Being a member of the New People of God guarantees His concern.

Yahweh Keeps His Own Personally

“The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”

The theme of the Psalm is that Yahweh is not only the general keeper of the universe, and the special protector of His People, but that He is also one’s personal keeper.  This is an astounding commitment of the Lord to you, if you are His!

The sun and the moon together as symbols encompass all time, all places, and all forces.  Of course we can observe the literal need of protection from the sun and its heat, but intended here as well is the protection from the evil effects of evil forces, human and demonic, so often active at night.

Yahweh Keeps Us throughout the Journey

“The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”

Here is great assurance that the Lord has all resources to overcome all evil and trouble.  Our lives, and the lives of our loved ones, are in His hands, the Great Keeper!

As servants of the Lord, we travel often on journeys, “going out” and “coming in,” to advance the cause of Christ and His Kingdom, and we have His protection while we do so.  We definitely need it, and moreso in certain parts of the world.

This is a Psalm expressing great confidence, and giving great comfort!  This is also a Psalm asking for great acts of power and protection!

The God Who Heals: Our Church’s Annual Healing Prayer Service

It is normative Christianity to minister to the sick, including praying for their healing. 

Even so, some of us might not think of this as a corporate activity.  That’s where we were as a congregation, until four years ago. Since then, each January we hold an annual healing prayer service.  

At first, this service was attended with curiosity, mild suspicion and some concern.  To be honest, every one of us was nervous to some degree.  But the reasons we felt compelled to start were two: (1) We had recently been preaching through Exodus and had encountered Yahweh Rapha (“the God who heals”); and (2) we took note of just how many people were suffering with illness in our congregation.

So we simply decided that we should ask the Lord to extend His hand and heal.

What Does Our Healing Prayer Service Look Like?

We begin with an invocation and a time of congregational singing that focuses on God’s holiness and His presence.  Then we usually turn to a time of confession.  Sometimes we find previously written prayers and recite them as a congregation. Other times we use special music.

Often we will include an extended period of silence for private confession and repentance.  This has always been a sweet time of humility before God, and a great way to prepare ourselves to seek His will and trust His goodness.

Throughout the entire service, which lasts one-and-a-half to two hours, the Holy Spirit confirms our desperate need for Christ’s full redemptive work on our behalf, and He ministers to us the full hope we have in Him.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:2-5, ESV).

After more singing, we listen to a brief message on healing and perhaps a few testimonies from those who have recently experienced God’s healing power or sustaining grace.  The Holy Spirit uses this time to encourage a mood of thankfulness and expectation in us.

We also spend significant time in prayer for one another.  We set up circles of chairs on opposite ends of the sanctuary, with several elders at each.  Everyone is encouraged to go forward for prayer, whatever their need, and our elders hear concerns, offer brief words of counsel, share Scripture, and then minister by anointing with oil, laying on of hands and prayer.  This is all after the pattern of James 5:14-16.

It is a joyful privilege of the elders to then follow up with people, seeing the grace and mercy God has granted.

What Exactly Do We Teach About Healing?

The teaching time is important to bring clarity to this topic, to remove fears, to set the context for the evening, to teach how to pray and to manage expectations.  Much of our teaching and approach is indebted to Wayne Grudem, former professor of systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School—from class notes and from his Systematic Theology.

We talk about how a biblical theology of healing always points to the mercy of God in Christ now and the hope we have for ultimate healing in our resurrection.  We warn people about wrong approaches, and we offer reasons why God might heal and His pleasure in doing so.

We mention three common mistakes: (1) not praying for healing; (2) creating an atmosphere of low expectations (God seldom, if ever, heals); and (3) creating an atmosphere of particular expectations (God always heals if . . . one has enough faith, sees the right healer man or stops sinning, etc.).

We discuss the wide range of healing: from God’s normal work through predictable means, to those times when He makes it more obvious that He is the Healer. We talk about miracles.  We talk about death.  We teach extensively on the value of suffering and weakness, and how significant they are for discipleship.

We review healings in the Bible and counsel against judging others in matters of seeking healing or not, and against presuming to know God’s will for others.

At times, the Holy Spirit moves people to seek healing, while at other times He gives them grace to rest, content without healing in the present.  Regardless, the Holy Spirit guides us in our prayers and communicates all the graces of God in our souls.

He also gifts individuals with the gift of healing.  Simply put, God chooses certain people through whom He answers prayers for healing more than through others. It is similar to any other spiritual gift in this regard, although we are not aware of anyone who has this gift in our body at this time.

How Have We Seen God Work?

Reports come in that evening about God’s work in healing, and they continue to come in over the next couple of weeks.  We have experienced healing of what we might consider the normal illnesses of life and also the more significant physical ailments.  We have seen Him answer doubts, lift depression, purge sin, restore relationships and revive souls.

Most recently, a woman asked for prayer for general weakness and shortness of breath, which was rapidly worsening and for which her doctors had no answers.  Only days after the service, she was admitted to the hospital with severe anemia.  After a transfusion and several tests, she returned to health.

Although it has been determined that she was bleeding internally, no real medical explanation has been offered as to the cause of the bleeding or to her continued good health now.  We know without a doubt that God has healed her.

Although God is at work in amazing ways in our lives all the time, the healing service serves to focus our prayers and to cause us to see with greater clarity God’s hand at work in our congregation.  Most people experience some kind of renewal.  Even our children experience personal revival from a heightened sense of sin and the importance of an intimate relationship with God through Christ.

Everyone learns how to pray better—to pray openly, confidently and with faith that God will always glorify Himself in answer to our prayers.  God is glorified both in His healing now and in His not healing now.  Ultimately, all prayers for healing will be answered at the day of resurrection glory.

This annual service has become one of our church’s favorite times together.  It is a time to grow in humility.  It is a time to rejoice in all the benefits of our God. Our benediction for all is from our apostle John (3 John 1:2 ESV): “Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.”

(This blog entry was originally published as an article, co-authored with Raymy Krumrei, in the Fall 2007 issue of EFCA Today, copyright Evangelical Free Church of America.)