Overview
Planning is a part of good stewardship. God has entrusted resources to us – time, money, health etc – and we have the responsibility of using these effectively. By planning we can significantly raise our level of effectiveness as we avoid taking wrong turns which result in having to retrace our steps or undo something we have done.
Any architect will tell you that without plans it is impossible to produce anything but the most basic building. Even the garden shed has had plans drawn on paper or in your head!
Goals
Through this series I hope to:
1. Help you appreciate the place of responsible planning without eliminating the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. Bring some practical suggestions to help you plan
3. Give guidelines on implementationDefinition
Definition
The definition I shall work with is:
“Anticipating an event or situation and ordering the steps to achieve it”
History in advance
As with the Time Management series (see my blog January – April 2010), you are attempting to write your history in advance. When Disneyland was opened I understand someone said something like ‘Isn’t it disappointing that Walt Disney did not live to see this?’ to which the reply was ‘Because he did see it is why we are here’.
In what way did Walt Disney ‘see’ Disneyland? With his mind’s eye. Planning is about using your ‘mind’s eye’ to envisage a set of events or a situation and to be able to bring it into reality efficiently, on time and within budget.
Planning and implementation
Planning and Implementation are two distinct activities. One builds on the other and, although there may be some interaction eg plans may be modified as you go forward, they are essentially sequential. Starting with thorough planning will make implementation more effective and reduce later complications. So it is worth giving quality time and resource (eg involve the right people) to this process in order to achieve the best result.
In this series we shall look at some biblical models of planning, suggest some practical planning techniques, look at some of the key features of implementation etc. In the next blog we shall ask ‘Why plan?’ and ‘Does planning hinder the activity of the Holy Spirit?’