The over-planned church

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great for churches to plan their activities and then to work to plan and review against it. And, I also think that many churches can do with better planning.

Of course, its important that our planning dovetails with God’s revealed will for his church, otherwise our plans are just hebel – a passing puff of noxious wind.

But that’s not the issue here.

I’ve seen churches that are over-planned. What I mean is that there’s a very detailed plan of ministry activities in which every calendar block is filled for 12 months or so ahead. If this plan is treated as prescriptive rather than descriptive or indicative problems can come ...

… there’s no room for new activities to be added or existing ones changed as circumstances change and as the Lord leads differently;

… meeting the plan becomes the criteria for success or failure in evaluation. That takes the focus off doing effective and appropriate ministry.

So let’s indeed plan but not become the over-planned church. There’s a balance somewhere in between the chaos of the unplanned church and the rigidity of the over-planned counterpart.