Goals and Priorities

This is the time of year when many organizations are evaluating how things have been going this year and looking ahead to next year and the coming year. Those organizations with a good practice on this are probably actual reviewing goals for next year they're already set, and looking further ahead. At Calvary, our program ministries this year have been working to set goals, with the hope that we can truly begin to get our work in line with our mission.

The thing is this (and it is true for any organization): there are a myriad of things that could be done...but not all can be done at once. Therefore, best practices invite us to be discerning as we choose WHAT to do. Indeed, even if we could do something REALLY WELL, if it doesn't feed our vision, it ought to be laid aside.

I thought of this recently as I heard that our annual conference's communications folks won an award for an immersion series they developed. Now, we have awesome communications folks. I've had opportunity to work with them on a couple difference things, and they work hard and know what they're doing. But I am troubled about our conference's allotment of energy and resources when making disciples (or, measured more objectively, growth in membership and worship attendance) is one of the key goals and metrics we use. Can we develop great resources? Sure. Is that what we ought to be spending our time doing? I have severe reservations about that.

Walk into any Christian bookstore, and you will see a TON of resources. On pretty much anything. Are they exactly what we think churches should use? Maybe not always, but you know what, a lot of the time, they're pretty darn good. Why not spend less time developing resources that only a small portion of churches use, and more time developing a focus around a key area (hey, I'll even give it to the conference that churches need help finding these resources, even though I think it's really not that hard for pastors to do). Instead of using our conference staff to essentially rewrite materials that exist, why not invite them to be resources for churches who are using an already developed resource--like coming as a speaker to worship or a study group during that unit?

It is easy--and a dangerous trap--to get really good at doing something that at best only peripherally achieves your key goals. In fact, I think this is essentially the thing experts would say hold businesses and groups back...back from what someone like Jim Collins would call going from good to great.  We have got to stop being so dang impressed with ourselves or set on doing something unique that we don't really DO much of anything all that important.

This same principle--of allotting resources to actually accomplish those things most important to you--is also something we all have to face in our personal lives. How do we decide how much money to give to our church? To other groups? How do we budget our time and resources, and what does that say about us? Do our actual lived-out priorities actually line up with the ones we tell ourselves and others we have?

Chris and I have been really thinking about this recently as we've been preparing for the arrival of our first child in a few weeks. (You can lay aside the, "you really don't know what you're getting into" speech...we've heard it, and while we are prepared for expectations to be blasted a bit, some people are just mean and try to scare new parents.) At any rate, we've looked at our plans (breastfeeding; cloth diapers--yes, I do actually have a plan, we're not just winging this, and yes, we understand this involves more laundry; and changing our schedules a bit so we can DO as much of our daughter's childcare as possible). We are fortunate to have options in these and other areas because of our jobs, and I certainly understand and appreciate that many (perhaps most people) don't have the options we have. That itself poses challenges--we have options, but it means we really have some very valid options from which to choose. Deciding how to allot resources of money, time and energy feels like some chess game (in which we expect the pieces to move a lot once she's here and to keep moving!)

But all of this really comes down to what do you want to be and do, and are you actually willing to focus on DOING those things you say are your priorities, even if you can do other things well, even really well. Chris and I were both raised by (at the time) stay at home moms. We both like the idea of our child having a parent at home with them, but we are both very committed to our ministries (both our own and each others') and we believe our vocations are an important part of who we are as a family. Balancing these priorities will not be easy, and will force us to make changes to our routine to try to find some balance (like working from home some, taking our daughter to work some, and maybe seeing each other a bit less). But it does leave room for maintaining even some of those--for example, we've decided it's important to keep taking the same day off together (during retreat season that's Monday, generally) and we'd rather pay for childcare on another day so we can do that.

Setting goals and examining priorities is not complicated stuff...the challenge is actually living them out. And that is something we all continue to struggle with as individuals, businesses, churches and organizations.