The 20 year plan

So Kelli and I were sitting around on Sunday night relaxing. She was on Facebook and I was either reading or watching TV (you know, married life stuff). Kelli turned to me from the computer and informed me that one of her friends who goes to a Non-Denominational church, posted on their Facebook that their church just released a 20 year plan. That’s right, a 20 year plan! Not a 1 year plan or a 5 year plan or even a 10 year plan, but a 20 year plan. This naturally led to some conversation and thoughts on ministry.

One of my next responses was to say half jokingly “I bet his degree is in business”. I was actually a little surprised myself that I was right. After a little research I found that he has his BA in Management and Organizational Development and had 14 years of experience in the business world before becoming the pastor.

I believe that there is a place for some strategic planning in ministry, but we have to remember that the church is not a business. We have to leave room for the Holy Spirit to move. In ministry it is essential to not allow our plans to interfere with God’s plan. Here are a few verses that shed some light on our plan verses God’s plan.

Isaiah 30:1

¹ “Woe to the obstinate children,”
declares the LORD,
“to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit,
heaping sin upon sin;

James 4:13-14

¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Proverbs 19:21

²¹ Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.

My intention isn’t to pick on this church. I just think we need to be careful in how we plan in our ministries and how far we plan. To be honest I don’t know exactly what their 20 year plan is. It is possible that it could be “to follow God with all our hearts”, but I doubt it is that general. This whole thing just has made me think a lot about the ministry God has me in and the direction he is leading. My challenge to myself is to be in tune with the Lord’s spirit and to cast a vision only when I am certain it is God’s will.

Without Justice There Is No Mercy

I tuned into my favorite talk radio station (yeah, I'm that guy) this afternoon on my way home from work to hear what everyone is talking about: The death of Osama Bin Laden. I really didn't think too much of it. I was glad, that this man had been brought to justice. But when I opened my facebook page about a half an hour ago I was bombarded by statuses and blog posts condemning those who would rejoice at another man's death. This made me think. Granted, I had not seen the "rejoicing" that was apparently causing this widespread response. But a pendulum swing in whatever direction tends to be hazardous in its own way. 


I hear people asking 'what about Bin Laden's family? Shouldn't we be sensitive to them?' or, 'couldn't we just lock him up so he wouldn't commit anymore crimes?' Some point out that his death is not an end, but just another death in a string of deaths, only to be followed by more. All of these have their grain of truth to them. 


I also do not mean to condone delighting in the death of a wicked man, or reveling in the feeling of revenge. I do not know which one offends me more. 


Hear me when I say I'm trying to stay away from the pendulum. 


To those that are mourning Osama Bin Laden's death: Do not devalue the loss of the hundreds of thousands of family members who lost innocent, albeit sinful, relatives by trying to be sensitive to Bin Laden's family. Do not condemn those who would rejoice in the justice of a mass murderer. God's stance on murder and justice is very clear throughout the Pentateuch and the rest of Scripture. God is Love, but God is also Just. Beware to emphasize love to the point that it overshadows justice! For without justice there is no mercy!


To those Christians who would gleefully, excitedly, and rashly proclaim this man's death: remember God's mercy on you. Get down on your knees and thank Yahweh the Just that he has kept you from such evils and judgment, and has even seen fit to see Christ in your stead. For without justice there is no mercy!
Romans 9:
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?


Rejoice that God does not tolerate injustice. Rejoice that in the death of this man God's glory is revealed. And tremble in your shoes, that God saved you from such a life and from slavery to sin. Vessels of Mercy, Praise your God.




Tidbits on justice:
Deut 16:18-20: “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.


Habbakuk 1, Habbakuk cries out to God concerning the injustice in his day. Hab 1:4: "the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted." God's response? He's going to raise up the Babylonians to execute judgment.

Psalm 99, one of my favorites, says in vs 4, "The King in his might loves justice.You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob."


Psalm 89 is another favorite. Read the whole thing, but especially vs 14: Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.


Amos 5:15: "Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph." And later God says that He despises the peoples religious feasts. He says, "Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!"