I recently received this from a friend in the CoachNET program and wanted to pass it along to you. It is good stuff.
One of the requirements of my role is to schedule events 9-12 months ahead of time.
The romantic in me doesn't like knowing exactly where I'll be and what I'll be doing a year from now. I'd like to think that because I'm growing and changing constantly, what I'll be doing next year is unpredictable.
The reality is we all need to plan ahead. And planning takes vision, foresight, and faith.
We need vision to know what we should be accomplishing.
We need foresight to predict the conditions that will effect our work.
We need faith to push us past our predictions and give us hope in fulfilling our vision.
Here's some questions I use in planning:
Vision
Vision is a picture of the preferred future. Our role in working toward that vision should flow out of how God has called and gifted us (Eph 2:10).
How would you describe your core calling, and your unique gifting?
What have you accomplished this past season that directly flows from your calling and gifting?
If you were to live more fully out of your calling and gifting how might your activities be different?
Looking forward, how would you describe what God is calling you to accomplish?
Foresight
Foresight is predicting what resources will be needed (Luke 14:28ff) and what problems may spring up along the way (Prov. 22:3).
What resources (people, money, know-how) are needed to accomplish your vision?
What obstacles might get in the way?
What might an "aggressive-yet-realistic" plan look like?
Faith
Faith is seeing things from God's perspective, even when they are not evident to us (Heb 11:1). Faith allows us to transcend what's humanly possible (Matt 17:20).
What in your plan requires God's intervention?
What "mountains" might God want moved in this next season?
In what ways do you need to step out with more faith?
How do you see vision, foresight and faith interacting in your planning?
Originally provided by Creative Results Management.
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Shawn,
ReplyDeleteOur leaders gathered last evening for a time of vision-casting and goal-setting for the next ten years. I really believe God's Spirit permeated the "out-of-the-box" kinds of goals we set for our ministry here. One of our goals, which is particularly exciting, is that we believe God wants us to partner/daughter a new church in the next five years! Praise God. We realize that prayer is our first preparation toward the fruition of this amazing dream.
Soli deo gloria,
Mike