Related:
Starting a School, Practice or Counseling Center & How they are Related
How to Start as a Teacher, Ministry or Practitioner
Tips in Starting an On-line Outreach, School, Practice or Organization
Starting & Funding a Ministry or Practice
God’s Plan for Israel & For His People
10 Advantages of Doing Ministry Without a Ministry Plan
by Tony Morgan
1. You give the loudest person the opportunity to decide what happens at your church.
2. Sharp leaders who are accustomed to serving in organizations with clearly defined plans for future growth won’t stick around your church. That means more ministry for you!
3. You’ll get to hone your debating skills as people argue about what to do next.
4. More meetings! Where there's no strategy, the meetings flourish.
5. Some people call them church splits. We like to call them church plants. More mother churches!
6. You don’t have to worry about celebrating success, because no one even knows what success looks like. It’s just better to keep that a secret.
7. Rather than trying to discern God’s will for your ministry, you can just rely on dumb luck.
8. You don’t have to pray as much, because there's nothing to pray for. As an added bonus, that means you don’t have to develop as much faith either—whatever happens…happens.
9. You can count your offerings a lot faster, because people will save their financial gifts for organizations that actually have a plan for the money they receive.
10. Your lack of ministry strategy, which is a ministry strategy, will do just fine in Nothing, Arizona.
Hab 2:2-3 And the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry.
1) Walk with God (includes hearing and being led by His Spirit).
2) Keep God first (putting no one or nothing as more important or equally important as God).
3) Represent God, His Will, Ways, Statutes & Commandments for Covenant Provision to all on earth.
4) Work together to accomplish His will in love and unity and if we do we can accomplish His will, because of His Spirit in us. Abraham=1 loaf, Tabernacle=12 loaves, Christianity=20,000 loaves? God’s plan for Jesus, Christ and the body of Christ: A. One loaf. B. Work as one body. C. Accomplish His will globally. D. Submit to one another. E. Love one another. F. Care for the needs of one another, more than building, buildings. G. Communicate with one another. H. Gather the body. Those that gather will not be scattered. I. Enter His rest.
What is salvation? The Basics: Knowing God’s plan for us as individuals and us as the body and walking in it.
What is a plan? Agreement: A written Covenant, a blood Covenant, sealed by the blood of Jesus with God, and each other. It is a communication tool to tell others, informing others who we are and what we are all about and what we stand for.
Who needs a plan? Individuals and groups that desire to accomplish something.
Individuals, Ministers (everybody in the body): Are we as His people about love and caring for the needs of people or are we about just teaching and preaching?
Churches: Is a church designed around love and caring for people or just teaching and preaching? Which is more important, love and caring for people and their needs or teaching and preaching? Either will produce different kinds of fruit.
It contains:
A vision: Pr 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. A vision can be vision or dream or what God has placed on your heart to do or what is spoken to you in prophesy.
Mission Statement: Outlines purpose and goals in how to bring the vision to pass. We are here to do ……. What? To accomplish… What? Take back that which the enemy has stolen? How? Destroy the work of the devil? How? Make it better? How?
Beliefs or Articles of Faith: What we stand for. What we care about. Outlines Authority we have.
A proposed Schedule: Commitment: What do we want to see accomplished in 6 months, one year and five years and what are we going to do to accomplish it.
What will it cost: Luke 14:25-35 Time, finances, God’s resources, human resources.
1) No plan, people wander and do not accomplish much. If it is God’s plan for us and we are committed to it He will help us accomplish it. If you fail to plan, then plan to fail.
2) A plan takes having faith and having the heart of God. Faith comes from hearing from God.
3) Provides Focus and purpose and keeps people on track in His promises. The promised land is walking with God in our purpose.
4) Allows for people with similar plans to walk together in agreement in the power of God. Amos 3:3
5) Accountability: To God, Each other and to ourselves.
6) Yard Stick: Self-examination and group examination. Are we going in the right direction? I Corinthians 11: 28 But let a man examine himself, and then let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. We can do all things through Christ. With Him we can do all things, without Him we can do nothing.
7) Direction: Are we going in the right direction? No plan, no direction.