The strategy of God
Issue 358-9: July, 2008
What's wrong with strategy?
I have a love-hate relationship with strategy.
At one level, I'm a fan. I've enthusiastically developed ‘strategic plans’ both at Matthias Media, and in churches and other organizations I've been involved with. I've always been firmly of the “If you aim at nothing, you're bound to hit it” school of thought.
What's more, as a Christian, I grew up in ministry circles where thinking strategically about ministry was normal and valued. If you have 100 people to follow-up and/or minister to, and you know that, realistically, you're only going to be able to spend time with 10 of them, what are you going to do? The strategic thing would be to invest in the 10 people most capable of ministering to the other 90. Spend most of your time discipling and training those 10, and you will end up also serving the other 90 through them. All this makes eminent good sense.
That said, I'm also suspicious of strategy. I can't help being leery of the church growth types, with their whiteboards and their ‘revolutionary ministry models’ and their 10-point plans for doubling your numbers and your budget. I wonder how the apostles coped without it. And then I think about Jesus, and whether leaving the 99 to go searching for the one lost sheep was really such good strategic thinking.
In this Briefing double issue, our main feature article focuses on ‘strategy’—in particular, the strategy of God. Phillip Jensen writes about God's strategy for our world and our churches, and about how our plans and actions should fit into it. What are the God-given goals and methods of all Christian life and ministry, and how do they relate to the dreams and schemes and plans we come up with?
In our current climate where ‘doing what works’ is the default position for so many churches, it's important that we understand strategy—both what it is and what it isn't. TP
Up front
- What makes you angry?
- Smell the coffee
- Preaching hell to depressed teens
- Wreck-conciliation or reconciliation?
- Can Western Christians even think ethically any more?
- Sola scriptura
- Nodding off
- Fire in the bones: Truly meek—D Martyn Lloyd-Jones shows us why the meek will inherit the earth.
Features
- The strategy of God—Phillip Jensen talks about the importance of strategy—and why our job is not to work it out.
- Ministry mind shifts—Colin Marshall thinks about how our approach to ministry would change if we took God's strategy seriously.
- Doing good: The shape of the Christian life (Part 1): Why we don't—In the first of a three-part series, Stuart Heath argues that the Christian life is more than just having faith, it's about doing good. (Read Part 2 and 3.)
Departments
Pastor's brief
- The broken marriage of preaching and pastoring—Archie Poulos and Gordon Cheng ponder whether separating preaching and pastoring is a good way of thinking about it.
Bookshelf
- Duty first: Men: Firing Through All of Life by Al Stewart and Wild at Heart by John Eldredge—Tim Booker looks at two books which talk about what it means to be a real man.
- The Word Became Flesh edited by David Peterson—Adrian Russell looks at the importance of the incarnation.
Resource talk
- Blast from the only slightly recent past—Tony Payne discusses Mission Minded by Peter Bolt, a resource which can help you implement God's strategy for the world. (US link.)
Bible brief
- Daily readings on Habakkuk—by Craig Dobbie.
- Daily readings on John 7-11—by Simon Roberts.
Epilogue
- iPod, iSermon, iRighteous?—Nathan Walter explains why he's against people listening to more sermons.
Buy this issue:
- Briefing Issue #358/9 (Print)
- e-Briefing Issue #358/9 (Online)
