Goal-setting for Christians

Goal-Setting For Christians

(1 Chronicles 28:12 NIV) He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the LORD and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God and for the treasuries for the dedicated things.

Goal Setting

The Holy Spirit can give us definite and specific plans that we are to carry out later. The plans of the temple were very specific indeed. These plans were divinely revealed the Scriptures say they were put in David's mind by the Holy Spirit. Goal setting exercises can be more than futile corporate planning. They can and should be occasions when we seek the Holy Spirit for His very specific directions in our lives. The method I will share is simply one that I find is useful and flexible and which helps me set good goals under the Holy Spirit's guidance. It starts by dividing our life into eight main areas then praying over each one.

By dividing our main life goals up into these eight main areas we can get a good overview of what we are trying to achieve with our lives. List between one to four goals in each area. I have allowed six goals in the ministry area because you may easily have this many. Much stress comes from having conflicting goals or goals that are not explicit. The non-explicit goal can undermine the explicit goal. For instance most people want financial security but are reluctant to fully admit it if they in Christian ministry. By setting achievable financial goals you can feel that you are working toward meeting this goal as well as your ministry goals. This often reduces the tension considerably. Personal life goals are not as "strict"as business goals but they should make sense to you and be stated in such a way that can have some way of knowing if they are in progress.

Spiritual Goals (Relationship with God)

Family Goals (Children, parents, partner)

Financial Goals (Tithing, saving, income)

Physical Goals (Fitness etc.)

Intellectual Goals ( Skills, understanding)

Social Goals (Enriching friendships etc.)

Community Goals (charity, service)

Emotional Goals (Overcome anxiety etc.)

Weighing Up Your Plans

Goals should be moral, worthy, and wise. Firstly, all your goals must fall within the clear will of God as found in Scripture. If your goal is against a clear command of God you should not pursue it. You goals should be kind, fair, just and holy. Secondly, goals must be worthy. Some goals, while legal and moral are trivial - e.g. "buy a large flat-screen TV". Such goals do not reflect Kingdom priorities or a mind set on Christ. Your goals should be worthy and should lift your life to a higher plane, rather than just being selfish and materialistic. Thirdly, your goals should be wise - they should be intelligently thought out and planned and not just be foolish dreams. However, what may be a mere dream for one person - such as being an astronaut, may be a realistic goal for another person. Thus we should plan our lives wisely within the Word walking the fine line between faith and folly.

The 5 W's and The H - Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. These six questions are very useful as you set goals and make plans. Say one of your goals is to set up a Christian Internet cafe in an unreached people group you should ask: Who will run the icafe? What equipment will be needed? When should you start it? Where is the best location? Why are we taking this particular approach to missions? how should we set it up and what procedures should we set in place? By going over these six questions you quickly find the various elements that need to be considered in order to achieve your goal.

SWOT Analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities And Threats. For major goals and projects it is a good idea to do a SWOT analysis. The benefit of the SWOT analysis is that is designed to balance out our optimism and our pessimism and helps us to be realistic. The four columns look firstly at the internal strengths and weaknesses of the idea and then at the external threats and opportunities. So optimists that see all the opportunities are forced to consider the dangers as well and pessimists that see only the weaknesses are forced to consider the strengths as well. You do the SWOT analysis by ruling up four columns under the headings then brainstorming, one column at a time, until all the Strengths are finished, then go again until the Weaknesses are thought of and so forth across the four categories. When it is finished the answer is often obvious. However, in some cases you may need to weight things. A threat such as "we will all certainly be killed" tends to outweigh an opportunity such as "we will make a lot of money". So some points are more important than others. Generally, points can be weighted from one to five with five being critical and one being trivial. You add up the points in each column so if strengths outweigh weaknesses you will have more points in the S column.

Wise Counsel "in many counselors there is victory". You should seek wise counsel from people with genuine expertise in the area you are considering setting your goals in. If it's a financial goal seek advice from an accountant or financial advisor, if on family matters from your spouse, if at work - from someone who knows that aspect of the operation, if on spiritual matters then get advice from your pastor.

Implementation

Good intentions alone seldom produce real change or lasting results. Your goals will probably need a system for being reviewed and made "concrete" in the real world. Use the following framework to help you set up a system for making sure your goals are achieved. For instance, your committee may review your ministry goals at least quarterly. You will probably use only a few of these methods. Choose those that you think will be most effective - not most comfortable or easiest o set up!

Method of Accountability	Goals Reviewed This Way	Timing
Feedback, monitoring results, collection of data, etc.	1. 2. 3. 4 5.
Small group/committee	1. 2 3. 4. 5.
Diary entry and review	1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
External audit (e.g. by supervisor, accountant etc.)	1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Peer review (e.g. other staff)	1. 2 3 4 5
Examinations ,tests, and competitions	1. 2 3 4 5.
Family members/friends/self	1. 2. 3. 4 5.

The Specific Will Of God

Two articles deal with this in some detail Following the Father by John Edmiston and Guidance by Rowland Croucher. Charles Spurgeons excellent sermon on God's Will For The Future also touches on this topic.

There are times when we need to hear from God clearly and specifically. Some general principles apply:

If its in Scripture that's final. You don't have to ask God's will about committing murder. The answer is "No".
There is a continual asking for guidance that comes from doubt and anxiety and a neurotic need for constant reassurance. You do not need to ask God's will about which sock to put on first. That is neurosis.
God has made you to be strong, wise, noble and filled with dignity and truth - and therefore, some decisions He will leave to you alone. As God trusts you He delegates things to you. You are free to choose, as His representative, within certain parameters.
God has designed you to live in close relationship with Him. Peace in the relationship with God and the gentle nudge He provides as you choose X or Y are often the main means of guidance. God has not made us to operate like computers but as people with surrendered wills and sensitive hearts in a cooperative relationship of love.
When other people could suffer as the consequence of us following a particular course of action it is good to get incontrovertible external guidance such as Gideon got before risking his men in war or such as David often sought before going into battle against the Philistines. God is good and kind and willing to give such guidance if it is not out of doubt but out of wisdom and love that we are asking and we fully intend to obey.
Dreams, visions and prophecies were used by God in the past and are still used today. However at times they have led sensitive souls astray. This is not due to God but to human misinterpretation and wrong timing. I advise people to talk over the dream,prophecy or vision with wise Christians and to seek counsel before proceeding.
My 'method of guidance' is 'the Bible, the numbers and the Church'. In other words first I prayerfully seek the Lord and the Scriptures, then I diligently crunch the numbers and evaluate the project using techniques such as a SWOT analysis, and finally I respectfully seek advice from wise Christians with specific knowledge in the area concerned. I proceed carefully but without anxiety and I do not go over and over decisions. I trust God to guide the entire process and to bring it to a satisfactory and generally quick conclusion. To clarify a bit. The overall vision is not limited by "the numbers" or finances - but its implementation this year, may well be so limited. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel' may the the vision or the objective and that vision is not limited by the numbers but after crunching the numbers I may have to stick to the Philippines this year! Both big vision and careful wisdom can go together.

I hope this article on goal-setting has been useful to you. One way you may be able to utilize it is to print it out and then share it with family, friends and those in your ministry.

This article may be freely reproduced for non-profit ministry purposes but may not be sold in any way. For permission to use articles in your ministry, e-mail the editor, John Edmiston at [email protected].