Faith Informed Planning in Times Like These

Faith-Informed Planning Perspectives: David J. Gyertson, Ph.D.

The sons and daughters of Issachar had understanding of the times to know what Israel should do (1 Chron. 12:32).

Strategic and Traditional Planning

A successful organizational leader is engaged in both strategic and traditional planning. Traditional planning is short-term, reactive, and typically focused on annual or multi-year budget preparation and operational program review—looking inside the organization at ways to improve efficiency or quality. Rowley, Lujan, and ?Dolence (1997) in Strategic Change in Colleges and Universities, describe this as operations-driven planning.

Strategic planning is long-term, proactive, and typically focused on external components of the environment and community that inform planning and uncover opportunities that will afford the organization relevance and strength in the long term. “The central objective of strategic planning is to position the organization so that it can shape and exploit its environment” (Rowley et aI., 1997, p. 3). They describe this as opportunity-driven planning. Both strategic planning and traditional planning are useful and essential. Each process can and should complement and strengthen the other.

Six Steps to Strategic Futuring

Andy Hines (2006), in an article for The Futurist, provides a six-step process that leaders can use for opportunity planning. These include framing, scanning, forecasting, visioning, planning, and acting (pp. 18–21). The use of these tools by key leaders provides perspectives that will lead to viable future possibilities. And they can inform organizational change needed to create the planned future desired. Hines suggests that the acting phase makes the abstract character of planning more concrete by communicating what is to be done, who will do it, how it is to be done, and when. Such planning allows leaders to make provision for both expected and unexpected contingencies that can impact the wider, long-term consequences of actions and decisions.

Importance of Foresighted Leadership

A leader who establishes a future direction through creating vision and setting strategies, and aligns people through communication, team-building, and engendering commitment, will inspire and motivate both employees and external constituents (Northouse, 2010, p. 10). These foresighted leaders will effect meaningful change within their organizations.

Such planning is daunting for most organizational CEOs and their governing Boards and leadership teams. However, faith-anchored leaders appear to have resources at their disposal that seem to enhance the planning process. As I have observed the planning strategies of faith-informed leaders, I have found a distinct relationship between effective strategic planning and Christian faith convictions.

Overview of “Faith-Informed” Planning

Faith-anchored and informed leaders usually sense that their roles are a divine calling requiring that they discover and implement a process of planning consistent with God’s will as revealed in scripture. The significance, then, of their roles requires a process that seeks a systematic, responsible, and thorough understanding of God’s mind and will for every aspect of their leadership calling. They believe that the Christian scriptures provide them with at least three important perspectives that guide their planning and guard their calling.

·?????The understanding of the “renewed mind”

·?????The importance of proper counsel

·?????The Master’s plan for planning

The Understanding of the Renewed Mind

I have encountered some Christian leaders who have been misled by the belief that their intellectual and rational capacities cannot be used by the Holy Spirit as a reliable source for organizational planning. Such a belief minimizes the redemptive power of Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary, leaving the expanse of salvation partial and incomplete. While most embrace the belief that spiritual reconciliation is in the atonement, few fully understand that the renewed mind—first imparted to Adam in order for him to name all of creation and enjoy intimate communion with the Creator—is also available to those now in Christ.

Three of the gifts of the Holy Spirit speak to the renewed mind. Discernment and wisdom, along with the gift of knowledge, are examples of God’s intent to redeem and renew the intellect. In Romans 12:2, Paul admonishes Christians to be freed from the limitations of the world’s thought system through the “renewing of [our] mind.” This admonition comes so that we can “test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will” (vs. 2b NIV). Jesus constantly stretched the thinking processes of all who heard Him, challenging them to “think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). Numerous other references and examples throughout Scripture demand that we submit our minds to Spirit-filled renewal. Christ’s redemption is complete. The faith-informed leader embraces the idea that it is necessary to use our minds in order to have the mind of Christ to accomplish our calling.

The Need for Proper Counsel

One of the realities of the leadership work that Christ calls us to is that it is too big for any one person or single group to effectively plan and accomplish alone. Paul’s “body of Christ” analogy in 1 Corinthians 12:12–31 and Romans 12:3–8 graphically reveals God’s design to put believers together in complementary relationships under the headship of Christ. This enables them to discover His will and way for their work.

Proverbs commands us to seek and utilize counsel.

“Where no counsel is, the people will fall: in the multitude of counselors there is safety. (11:14 KJV)

“The lifestyle of the fool is right in his own opinion, but wise is the man who listens to advice.” (12:15 ISV)

“Without counsel, purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established.” (15:22 KJV)

In addition, the scriptures give direction on the nature and character of the counselors we are to use. Timothy is admonished to seek only those who have consistently demonstrated their spiritual dependability and Christ-centered work over an extended period of time. While we can learn much from the principles and practices of those outside of the faith, we must remember that the fundamental motivation beneath the work done for Christ is different—to love God with all our heart and seek the good of those we serve even at great personal and professional expense.

Finally, effective faith-informed leaders believe that the single greatest resource for the guidance they need comes from that One whom Jesus described in John 13–17 as the “Counselor/Teacher”—the Holy Spirit. It is only as the Spirit is fully released that God’s will is fully known.

Only a foolish or spiritually arrogant leader believes that they alone can fully know the will of God for their work. Given the ever-present danger of spiritual pride, God rarely gives any single person or group the total plan for His work. We all “know in part and prophesy in part” (1 Cor. 13:9). It is only as these various parts—or threads—are woven together does the clarity of God’s plan begin to unfold. A wise leader understands the need for seeking, soliciting, weighing, and implementing the Spirit-filled counsel that God makes available.

The Master’s Principles of Strategic Planning

Since the work of leadership is Christ’s work, faith-informed CEOs seek to discover key insights for their roles in Jesus’ life and teaching. At least four appear to be present in the search for a faith-informed approach to strategic planning.

Faith-informed planning requires spiritual discipline.

In order to understand and do the Father’s will, it is essential to know and have intimate communion (communication) with the Father. Prayer, fasting, study of the scriptures, fellowship with others of like faith and purpose, and dependence upon the Spirit, all permeate the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life.

Most insights about God’s kingdom plans seem to come only after prayer and fasting. In every significant work the heavenly Father has done, sacrificial commitments to the disciplines of spiritual communion were required. The heavens do not open and the will of God is not revealed to those who seek direction without discipline. The spiritual disciplines produce both hearing and holy leaders.

Faith-informed planning requires a counting of the cost.

In Luke 14:25–33, Jesus sobers the enthusiastic crowds by telling them that those who desire to do His will must be prepared to pay the price. He then uses two illustrations—the building of a tower and the waging of war. The point Jesus makes is that cost-counting is essential if the bold steps leaders take for Him are to be of faith rather than presumption. In too many Christian endeavors, taking a leap of faith becomes the excuse for not taking the time to weigh the costs. Since it appears that God always pays and provides for what He orders, the probable explanation of a leader’s uncompleted tower or defeated army is that plans were made and implemented before God was fully consulted and clearly heard.

Faith-informed planning requires an ordering of the process.

Implicit to the tower and war illustrations is a third principle: Thorough planning and implementation requires an ordered and systematic process. The scriptures reveal that everything God does is part of a master plan conceived by Him from the foundation of time. It is our finite understanding that perceives God’s working as spontaneous and unpredictable. The wind does blow where it wills, but the Spirit is moving according to a preordained plan designed to finally place Jesus on the throne of His eternal kingdom. Our work is intended to play some role in that grand design.

Jesus’ ministry carries this tone of divine destiny. From the events of His birth through to the resurrection, ascension, and promise of return, the careful reader sees that all He did was part of an ordered process. Multiple prophecies given as foresight to multiple spiritual leaders across the centuries reveal God’s plan to fulfill His purpose in Christ. If such order and planning were integral to His earthly ministry, is it not reasonable to assume that the extension of His work today would also reflect such process? We violate the established pattern of our Lord’s call to leadership when we undertake our work without discerning and developing His plan for that work.

Faith-informed planning requires an evaluation of the results.

The final concept in the consideration of the Master’s principles for planning is the necessity of continuous evaluation. Numerous times in Jesus’ teaching we are left with the understanding that God expects a clear return on His investment. From the parable of the talents through His teachings about the many-fold harvest, we see that the Father expects His work to produce measurable and even exponential results. Faith-anchored leaders have no interest in being unprofitable servants. When the imprisoned John the Baptist sent followers to inquire of Jesus if He was the Christ, Jesus provides a “results-oriented” proof, asking them to go back and tell John that the sick are healed, the dead raised, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them (John 7:22).

It would appear that in every work done for the Master we must constantly ask the tough questions about outcomes, balancing our personal definitions of success with Jesus’ own mission to “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18).

?In the work of leadership, faith-informed CEOs are committed to continuous evaluation in light of their biblical stewardship mandates. When projects are found wanting, no matter how well intentioned, they must either be changed or abandoned in light of an honest evaluation of results.

The Calling to Faith-Informed Planning

As one who has observed and seeks to follow the leadership paths of those informed by their faith, I find no single portion of scripture that better encapsulates the faith-enlivened principles for effective planning like Proverbs 3:5–8. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones” (NIV).

Only the mind that has been renewed through a willingness to trust totally in the Lord can be used to effectively plan the work of our leadership calling. My own understandings are limited, requiring the counsel of those who are mature and trustworthy. The most reliable counsel comes from those dependent upon the Holy Spirit, Christ’s promised Counselor/Teacher.

The direction needed for effective planning comes from that Spirit through the exercise of the spiritual disciplines. As we appropriate these, we commit ourselves to be His holy people through whom He can safely work. As we count the costs, order the process, and evaluate the results, we discern the divine plans He has orchestrated from the foundation of time for our leadership calling.

David Gyertson, Ph.D., served as president of three Christian institutions: Regent University, Asbury University, and Taylor University. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the above-mentioned institutions. For coaching or consulting assistance or more information on the above article, he can be reached at [email protected].