I love the planning process. That’s probably one of the reasons I love church planting. It is a constant adjustment. Constantly trying to figure out what will work and what doesn’t. How do we word this document so that it will get the desired result. Constantly asking “who the audience is?”

Today I’ve spent some time with the WRC church planting intern. He has a meeting tomorrow with a potentially serious funding source. Before you ask, this is his contact and no I won’t give it out. We’ve been going over the wording of his presentation, reading, refining, redirecting. After spending some time reading the stuff Adam has written he received a copy of the guidelines this group wants in the presentation.

First Adam had done a pretty good job of anticipation of what the group wanted. He had to add very little to what he had already written. Second isn’t it easier to write something when you know what the expectations are! I hope they triple what he is praying for and expecting tomorrow.

Now here’s the lesson, there’s always a lesson. Everyone works better when they know what the expectations are. If I aim at the sky I’m gonna hit something, it may not be what I want to hit, but surely I’ll hit something. But when I aim at a specific target and hit that target I most often get the result I wanted not what others wanted for me. When working with volunteers or staff: Be clear about what you want. Don’t leave any gaps in their understanding, especially if this is a new project. Verify before publishing or approving the results, don’t be afraid to check people’s work. Don’t complain if you don’t do these things.

Do something unexpected this week that will reach a bunch of people for Jesus!