Planning: Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs

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I've been working on a presentation for the Board tonight regarding our future: capital improvements, staffing, funding, etc. Stuff that didn't make it into our strategic ministry plan (I'll be sharing our top three goals from that plan for this year in my message on the last weekend of September).

Here are some reminders and insights from the process:

  • I'm way too impatient. I want to move yesterday on everything. I don't want to pray about it. I don't want to trust God that he can move in big ways without our help, our money or our plans. But the fact that God doesn't just plop the money down and give me a list of his priorities is a gift. It makes me fall on my knees and depend more on him.
  • Putting it down on "paper" and out of my head (1) is the catalyst to recognizing and calling out my impatience, prayerlessness and lack of faith, (2) makes it obvious that everything can't be done at once and (3) gets the ball rolling in the right direction leading to prayer and discernment.

So, what kinds of things am I thinking about and will I be presenting on tonight?

  • We're currently working with a company on sound, video and lighting challenges we're facing at both campuses. Getting down to what really needs to be done and how to pay for it will be challenging.
  • I'm deeply concerned (even troubled) about several building issues including (1) the impossibility of reading our Radio Drive sign when driving by (new signs are extremely expensive and the size is highly restricted by the city); (2) the broken concrete by the front doors; and (3) the first impression of the half driveway as you enter (no, we didn't build it like that...it use to be a full one in phase one and we couldn't afford to eliminate it in phase 2 or 3 without sacrificing other priorities).
  • We've been understaffed for a couple of years and it's hard to plan additional staff in this economy and without more growth (we grew 3% in the ministry year that just ended). I have too many direct reports since we did not rehire an executive pastor, but streamlining that in a way that makes sense and doesn't put current staff over the edge is much harder than you might think. 

So those are some of the issues the Governing Board will look at tonight. Any thoughts?