Start! All Systems Go: Four must-do’s to begin your year right, Part 2
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
_President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962
We are looking this week at four things you must do now in order to have a great 2024 and beyond.
Yesterday I challenged you to stop everything and take the time to reflect on what you actually see for the future. I encouraged you to make this as clear as possible, for what is in our sights sets our direction and our direction determines the alignment of resources and personal.
Thesis: No matter what you see, getting anywhere is complicated and requires a lot of moving parts. Those moving parts are called systems and if you hope to achieve any measure of sustained success in life you must develop and maintain vital systems that will do most of the heavy lifting for you so that you can focus only on those things that you are truly good at or that require your immediate attention.
- The temptation, once we get clarity of vision, is to start making declarations and setting goals.
- There is nothing that will undermine your credibility and ability to lead more than to make these sort of declarations and then not follow through.
- This is why it is important to have systems in place that will help with the hard work of actually getting to where you see you and your church going.
Mission: See your church as a living organization (this is true of your life at every level) that is made up of several vital systems that give it life and keep it active and healthy.
- Romans 12:3-6 (NKJV) For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…
- Goals cannot contribute to growth and life. For example, you don’t make it a goal to grow two inches. What is required is healthy “systems” that contribute to getting you to where you need to be and want to be.
Vision (What are the measurable deliverables that must happen for me to win?): Generally, if you do anything more than once create a system/template that ensures it gets done on time and with excellence.
Specifically, for what you see for 2024, identify systems that will be required to achieve the vision.
Example: My vision of being a church committed to baptizing people regularly
- Keepers of the Water Team
- Preservice Hosting Team
- This vision affected the Church Calendar
- This vision affected the office routine
- This vision affected the Pastoral Team | Sunday planning, discipleship
Example: Spiritual Renewal/Revival
- First part of the year: Forty Days of Prayer & Fasting (Franchise programs) closing with a Revival
- Easter Franchise | Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter (Salvation!)
- Back to School Blessing
- Heritage Sunday
- Fall Campmeeting
- Mission Conference
- Christmas
Systems to consider
- Your personal devotions (predictable and portable)
- Recall (filing)
- Time management
- Church: A system for preparing sermons
- Church: Pastoral care – a system that allows you to touch all your people
- Church: Discipleship
- Church: Training of staff and volunteers
- Church: Pulling off consistent quality Sunday Services
- Church: Visitor acclimation
- Church: Maintenance
VITAL: All of this can seem overwhelming. It is! If you try to do it in a short period of time. My prayer is that your vision – what you see and what you desire – is bigger than next Sunday or the next few weeks or years. You are going somewhere important and you are doing something significant and you are committed to taking people with you.
It will be a lifelong process that requires discipline and hard work but it is the only way to truly achieve anything that matters.
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Question one: What do you see?
Question two: What systems are required for you to get there?
