Untitled Sermon (29)
plan for the church
Work Plans of a Church
In other chapters we have seen how important it is for a church to clarify its purpose and determine its objectives. We have identified a church’s purpose and objectives as the great ends toward which a church should work. They are the “softly-lofty” areas of church administration. They represent a church’s ideals, its guiding lights. They are vitally important. But these lofty ideas and ideals must be translated into specific plans in order to have the most value. The “softly-lofty” must come in contact with the “nitty-gritty”—the everyday world in which we live. That is what a church ministry plan—a church program—should do for a church.
Imagine You Are Planning a Trip
Think for a moment about some dream trip you have made or would like to make. Why should you make this trip? What is your destination? In what direction are you thinking of going? What are the points along the way through which you will pass? What are some of the experiences you expect to have on this trip? Do you expect to have others go with you? Who are they? How many? How will you travel? Who will drive? Who will make the necessary arrangements for transportation, lodging, food, and other items? What help do those who have these responsibilities need? Who will supply it? How will you pay for this trip? When will you leave? When will you return?
A Good Plan Is Effective and Efficient
You could add numerous other questions as you think of making a dream trip. Your questions and the answers to them could be called a plan. Your plan could be as simple or as complex as you choose. If the plan enables you to go where you want to go with maximum effectiveness and efficiency, it is a good plan. Your trip could be all you hoped it would be.
A church should be on the move. It should be trying to become what God wants it to become. In this sense it is on a trip. There needs to be a plan for this trip. Questions about why, where, who, when, how how many, how well, at what expense, and other such questions should be asked and answered as part of the church’s plan. This plan is more than just a trip plan—it is a plan for ministry. Some call it the church’s program.
A Program Is What You Do
A church program is what you do as an expression of your awareness of and commitment to the church’s purpose and objectives. It should be planned in relation to the needs of persons, both in and out of the fellowship. It is what a church does to be obedient to Christ in trying to live His way and to be faithful in working with Him to bring persons to God.
The Church Calendar Is the Map
The visible map for this trip is the church calendar of ministries—the church calendar. Admittedly, there is much more ministry going on in most churches than is placed on the church calendar. There should always be those ministries of spontaneous response of individuals and groups, even the whole church, to the needs of persons. But no church should just sit back and wait for its ministry to happen by accident. The church has a commission. The church has His command and His gifts. A church must seek His guidance and use His gifts intentionally in ministry.
The Ability to Plan Is a Gift of God
The Ability to Plan Is a Gift of God
One of the good gifts of God is the capacity to anticipate the future, and to decide, under His will, what we intend to do in that future. That is an implication of James 4:13–17, which concludes by saying, “Whoever know what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (RSV). We are made in His image. We have personality. We have potential for eternity. We have the capacity for moral discernment. We have the ability, like Him on a limited scale, to plan—to think in the future tense. What animals can do by instinct, people can do by intent. Whoever fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Avoid Presumptuous Planning
To be sure, people must not be presumptuous in planning. The Bible has much to say about presumptuous planning, and all of it is condemned. But to fail to plan so as not to be presumptuous is not of God. To refuse to plan and then pretend that this refusal is an expression of faith in His power to accomplish His will and way is a cop-out. From the human standpoint, to fail to plan is to plan to fail. People don’t control God by their plans, but they do limit His control by not planning.
Values of Planning
A person might ask, “What value is it to plan ministries? What are some benefits of planning versus not planning?” Let’s mention several values of planning.
Planning Leads to Progress
Planned ministries can lead to progress instead of mere repetition. It can help a church move toward its objectives, and not just go round and round doing all the same things every year for no better reason than that it is time again to do them. There are some things which need to be done repeatedly, seasonally, year in and year out. But there are some other things waiting to be done which will not be accomplished without planning. Planning can help make those repeated ministries take on more appeal and meaning for more people.
Planning Builds Continuity
Planned ministries can help build in continuity in the church’s program. There is so much fragmentation, so much discontinuity in so much of life! Many of the ministries of a church can be planned and conducted in such a way as to have both progress and continuity which people need. Here we are not advocating stagnation but stability. For example, a church needs to plan for continuing ministries in education—Bible teaching and learning, membership training, leader training, missions education, and others. These ministries need as their main “diet” to follow continuing curriculum plans. Temporary, short-term curriculum should only be supplementary, not the main course. Otherwise you are always starting and stopping, like repeatedly cranking your car in the driveway and never getting out to the street.
Planning Reflects Unity
Planning Builds Continuity
Planned ministries can help build in continuity in the church’s program. There is so much fragmentation, so much discontinuity in so much of life! Many of the ministries of a church can be planned and conducted in such a way as to have both progress and continuity which people need. Here we are not advocating stagnation but stability. For example, a church needs to plan for continuing ministries in education—Bible teaching and learning, membership training, leader training, missions education, and others. These ministries need as their main “diet” to follow continuing curriculum plans. Temporary, short-term curriculum should only be supplementary, not the main course. Otherwise you are always starting and stopping, like repeatedly cranking your car in the driveway and never getting out to the street.
Planning Reflects Unity
Well-planned church ministries reflect unity. There is a variety of gifts. But these gifts are to be exercised and used in ways which are complementary, not competitive. Our diversity of gifts can be magnified in power when expressed in planned unity—not uniformity—unity!
The various tasks of a church need to be planned to be supportive of one another
Planning Develops Leaders and Members and Brings Others to Christ
Properly planned and conducted ministries develop leaders and members, and bring others to Him. While working together in planning, leaders get to know and to love one another more. It is in planning, as in praying, that we share our burdens, our hearts’ desires for the fellowship and for the lost. As a result, members have better experiences and are developed. And most would agree that more of the lost are won to Christ through intentional witnessing than are won by accident.
Leaders in Planning
The Pastor
Who should lead in developing a church’s ministry plans—its program? The pastor has the primary individual responsibility, privilege, and sometimes burden of being the one person to whom the church looks for significant guidance in the life and work of the church. The vast majority of churches—approximately two-thirds in the Southern Baptist Convention—have only the pastor, with no other staff. There is no way the pastor can be absolutely excused from the responsibility of leading in church planning. But, similarly, there is no way for the whole responsibility to be placed rightly on the pastor. The pastor must be an influencer of the planning but not the lonely doer of it all.
