Engaging the Tension - February 2021
Throughout 2021, our prayer emails will alternate between the how to pray and the what to pray among MRN’s initiatives. This month, we’re calling you to pray for these workers as they dive into the tension between being led by the Spirit and engaging their minds in strategic planning.
Embracing the Tension Between Vision from God, Holy Spirit Leading, and Planning…
“I can’t come to your church anymore.”
“Why? What’s going on? Are you ok?”
“You don’t let the Holy Spirit in. You prepare and outline your sermon before the service, and the worship leader chooses songs ahead of time leaving no room for the Holy Spirit and God to be part of your gatherings.”
“Hmmm, so do you believe the Holy Spirit could lead during preparation, or does He only lead spontaneously?”
“Nope. He doesn’t work that way.”
I’m still a little humored, bewildered, and astonished by this conversation I had with a friend of mine who had been part of our church community. And, while I still find myself shaking my head at this interaction, there is a legitimate, ongoing tension between being Holy Spirit led and engaging in human planning, a tension that many church and mission leaders face daily.
One of my main roles at MRN is to oversee the strategic planning process. This includes our multi-year vision as well as our annual action plans. As someone who is a "3" on the enneagram, I have always highly valued and enjoyed planning and execution. In fact, full confession: I think my brain convinced my heart and soul that planning and clarity are more biblically accurate ways to approach life because “God is not a God of chaos.” After all, before God put a spirit in human beings, he created a complex set of interactive systems called a body to carry out the will of that spirit (See?? I have great explanations for why I love systems!). I’ve also long carried some shame about my need to control, and I struggle to know when I’m being wise and when I’m just justifying my self-reliance.
However, a few years back, I began to see things differently. The Bible opened up and I saw a deeply relational God who speaks, directs, and shapes big visions and strategic plans. A God who values trusting him with a big vision (Genesis 12:1). That same God values planning and preparation (Prov 16:3), while spontaneously directing steps through the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6). I began to see these three working in unison and harmony instead of pitted against each other: (1) God’s Vision (2) Holy Spirit leading/direction (3) Human critical thinking, planning and processing. All three are gifts God has entrusted to us; it’s simply a question of pursuit, stewardship, and interaction.
For our organization, we set aside a month for discernment/listening and strategic planning. This means first and foremost, creating space for and valuing the work of listening to God. We don’t want to move into planning until we have heard from God where He is leading, what He sees, or where He wants us to go. While this is not the only way of hearing God, one way we approach listening is through a series of questions:
Listening through reflection:
What has God said over the last year?
What have we learned about ourselves, Him, and His mission this last year?
Listening through voices:
What is He saying in scripture?
What is He saying audibly?
What is He saying in community?
What is He saying (maybe indirectly) through situations and movements around the world?
After time to listen, we then begin working in community to clearly articulate what He is saying and where He is directing.
A few years back, I was in a meeting with a church leadership team and a leader of a movement in another country. They were asking him questions about how churches functioned in his ministry or different theological positions he had. One leader asked him “how do spiritual gifts function in your churches?” He replied quickly, “Oh, it is beautiful.” The leader asked again, “Yeah, but how do they work?” The leader, a little taken aback and confused that the question was asked again, answered “I’m not sure what you are asking, but it’s beautiful.” For him, he didn’t understand why anyone would separate that out from everything else.
My western, logical, categorical brain likes to keep God’s vision, my strategic planning, and the Holy Spirit’s spontaneous directing in different boxes. However, the beauty of following God is that all three work in harmony, intertwining in a beautiful symbiotic relationship of hearing and interacting with the Father.
I want to encourage you: Stop. Be still. Listen - both independently and collectively. Listen through scripture, His voice, history, and situations happening around the world. John 10 tells us that “my sheep know my voice.” We only learn His voice by stopping and listening to Him!
Having spent that time listening for yourself, I call you to pray for the workers in MRN’s three Initiatives – the MedRim, the Bengal, and the Emerging Leadership – as they listen for the Lord’s direction on what to pursue and whom to invest in. Specifically pray for:
Ears to hear and minds to discern what the Lord is saying,
Space, time, and discipline to listen well,
Elimination of distractions and noise that keep them from hearing from the Lord, and
Communal unity and confirmation.
Pray that God will raise up servant leaders with heart.
