Tony Morgan, Developing a Theology of Planning

When you don’t have a plan:

• You give the loudest person, regardless of their spiritual maturity or commitment to the church’s mission, the opportunity to influence what happens in your ministry.
• You push your sharpest, most capable leaders away. Because they are used to organizations with clearly defined plans for future growth, they won’t stick around your church.
• You fuel more debate as people argue about what to do next.
• You need to hold more meetings. Without a clearly defined plan, you have to meet more often to decide what’s next.
• You encourage division. Even though you committed to the same mission, failure to establish strategy will lead to splits within the church.
• You make it difficult to celebrate what God is doing in your church. Without goals, it’s difficult for people to know what success looks like.
• You eliminate the need to discern God’s will. Failure to plan requires you to sit back and wait on God when God may be waiting for you to move.
• You make it difficult for people to know how to pray. And without specific, faith-stretching prayers, there’s no challenge for people to rely on God’s power.
• You limit the financial contributions to your ministry. People give to organizations that actually have a plan—a big plan—for the money they invest.