Video Transcript: Planning

All right, this session being an effective manager, managing, by the book the  Bible, we're going to look at task number one, planning, planning, planning really is, is like a trial run. You get to try something before you actually do it. You get to think about, for example, if you're remodeling your house and you're going to  paint and you're going to start doing things to change the look of your kitchen or  your bedroom or something. Planning allows you to sort of go through all the  changes. Let's see what color do I want? Do we want to move things here and  move things there? You put it on a piece of paper, and it's like you're doing it, but you're not doing it. It's like, it's like a trial run, and you can go through many,  many different scenarios and try to figure out the one that you want. So it's, it's,  it's practice. I just built a diving board. I live on a lake, and I built a diving board,  and it's been a while since I dove off a diving board. And I used to dive and do  flips and so on. And I'm a little reluctant because it's been many years since I did that. And so before I try anything, I'm sort of practicing in my own mind. Okay,  you gotta do this. You gotta bounce, and then you gotta then you gotta duck  your head, you gotta put your hand a certain way if you want to flip a certain  way, but I'm like rehearsing it in my head. Because rehearsing it in my head  doesn't hurt. If I just jump and I get it wrong and I do a belly flop, it's going to  hurt. So planning allows you to go through what you might do in the future and  what might happen. And then you start thinking about the things that you need.  The more times you go over something, the more things you realize, well, if  we're going to do this, we need this piece, or we need this equipment, or it's  going to take this long. So planning is a great way to go through something  without actually doing it. And what's interesting is that God Himself had to come  up with a plan. God created the heavens and the earth. He put human beings on the planet. And it's like God said, okay, hold on. Let me think about what it is that I really want to do. Ephesians 1:11, in Him, we also were chosen, having being  predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity  with the purpose of His will. Ephesians, Paul here is saying that God has this  plan. He has some plan for the universe, and he's working things out. He's been he thought about it before the world was created, and he's working things out  according to some plan. John 3:16 God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal  life. That's the broad general plan that God has. He created the world. Created it good, put two people on the planet, gave them freedom. They could freely obey  or freely disobey. They chose to disobey, and that resulted in death. But God  then came up with a plan to overcome that, to send His Son to die on a cross,  so that we could be forgiven and that we could be brought back to the father, a  simple plan that God has been working out for hundreds and hundreds of years. So God even has a plan. So as a manager, you want to start thinking about  plans for your organization, whether it's a non profit organization, whether it's a  church or whether it's a business. Well, what kinds of plans should a manager 

start thinking about? Number one, there's long range planning. What are we  going to do a year from now, all the stuff that we're doing right now, where is it  all going two years from now, five years from now, 20 years from now, 50 years  from now, is what we're doing going to last? Is it just something I'm doing? Is it  for a lifetime, are my kids going to get involved? Where is this thing going?  Number two, there's sort of standing plans. These are the plans of things you do every day. You have staff meetings, you have weekly things that you're trying to  do as a pastor. I'm a pastor in a church and and every week I have to do this  sermon. So I have to think about what the sermon is. This past summer, we've  been in the book of Ephesians for the whole summer, but there's only two more  left, so I'm going to have to sit down and think of plans for the next sermon  series. So you have standing plans. And then finally, number three, you have  project management plans. These are temporary activities, temporary things  that you want to get done. Right now in our church, we're doing a whole remodel in the sanctuary. And so it's, a project. We think it might take like three months.  There's all these things that have to be done and all these things that have to be organized. This has to be first, and then this has to be second and third. But it's  just a project. It's not going to stand it doesn't last every single week for the next  two years, and it's not a long term plan either. It's just a it's a thing that we're  going to work on for a bit. It has a beginning and it has an end. So we're going to look at these three things. How do you how, as a manager, do you manage long  range planning, standing plans and project managing, project manager,  planning, long range planning. So you're thinking of the future, and as you think  about the future, you have to ask sort of these broad, big questions. And that's  the role of the manager, the owner, he has this vision about something. But  perhaps it's not that clear. It's not that organized. It doesn't have timelines  attached to it. So where is it all going? And so long range planning often would  be a good thing to do with the leadership. So here's a few questions that you  ask yourself or ask your team about long range planning. What is our  organization about? What is it that we do in my church? We have a simple  mission statement. Our mission is to walk with God, the God of the Bible, and to  walk with each other at our church, to support each other in our walk, in our  marriages and our families. So we want to walk with God. We want to walk with  each other and support each other. And finally, we want to share that walk with  people that don't have a walk with God. So it's a very simple mission, but that's  what we're all about. I have another nonprofit that I actually lead. It's called  onyourgates.com, and what I do is I print maybe 50,000 New Testaments. And  then different organizations will come to me, and they'll want 100 with their cover on, or 50 with their cover. So it's, it's Christian NASCAR people, or Christian  rodeo people, or there's cowboy churches, or there's, there's just churches they  want you know, I have a couple. Here's one with a picture of some church. This  is community, Christian Reformed Church from Saginaw, Michigan, and they 

have a picture of their own church on there. There's some youth group that  wanted they call it Youth Haven Trail book. This is wild Horse, horse ministries,  cowboy Bible. The picture of this guy is a guy who tames horses. He goes to an  arena, and he takes a horse that's never been ridden, and in front of all kinds of  people, he trains that that horse so it can be ridden. He does it in two hours, and he uses that as the metaphor to share the gospel, and then he hands out these  Bibles. So what is that organization. What is my organization called on your  gates All about? It's about trying to help Christians, churches, parachurches, that are in some niche in market. You know, whether it's cowboys or NASCAR or  there's firemen, trying to reach firemen. And the goal of the organization is to  help personalize the Word of God so that they can use the word of God as a  witnessing tool in in reaching the people that their sort of their little niche market  is. So that's how you have to think about your organization. Ultimately, what is it  that you're trying to do? What is this organization about? What need do we  contribute an answer to so with my on your gates, thing, the need is for  organizations to have something related to the word of God that they can give.  To people that they're trying to reach that is not just handing a Bible, but it's  handing them a Bible that has a connection to them, so their picture is on it. It's,  it's, it's, it's, it's not just handing a generic thing that they could buy at the at the  bookstore. It's handing them the word of God, but in this word of God, or part of  the cover and so on, is all the information and the connection that they want to  make. So it's so it's personalized. So that's the need that I'm thinking. So what's  the need your church is trying to meet? What's What's the need that your  organization is trying to meet? CLI Christian leaders Institute is trying to reach  the need of ordinary people all over the world who don't have access to training,  seminary training, Bible training, church training, and to make it free, a lot of  people don't have access to the cost involved too, and they they don't have time to travel to some school and attend the school. They can do it on their own. So  that's that's what the organization is all about, and that's the need. So you have  to figure out, so what are we about? What are we trying to do? What's the need  that we fulfill? And number two, what are other organizations doing to meet this  same need? Is there someone else doing personalized New Testaments? And  so there's a few organizations that do that, but we try, we try to do things in a  different way to meet a need that they don't need. No one else does the New  Testament. Everyone else just does the whole Bible. So how do you distinguish  from other organizations? Number three, what is it that no one is doing as it  relates to the need our organization seeks to meet? So as a church, I exist in a  city, there's other churches. There's a church on that corner. There's a church on that corner. What unique role does our church play? The how we have  positioned our church is we are the church that will help you succeed in your  home. Lot of churches, they'll have great programs at the church. Everyone  comes to the church, but when people go back home, they don't do anything. So

we try to teach people how to do music in their home. We try to teach people  how to play guitar or the piano and so they can sing in their own homes, and we  don't see other churches, at least in our community, doing that. So that's a  unique need that we see and a unique thing that that we can do. What threats  do we see from within or without to our organization? Maybe someone else is  doing the exact same thing that you're doing. I in my New Testament business,  there was an organization that that had the rights to some some of the Bibles,  and they were doing New Testaments, but they found that it was too hard and  too expensive to do. So they they quit doing that. But for a while, we had to  compete with them, and so we had to do things better, and it really helped us in  the long run. So what threats Do you see from within? Maybe it's your staff,  maybe it's running out of money, maybe you don't have the support that you  need from your congregation, you're too small, or you don't have enough  leaders. As you're thinking about the long term, what is going to hold you back?  Number five, what opportunities do you see in these threats? I know when I was doing the personalized New Testament business, there was a threat. There was  another company that was doing all these things, and they had the rights, and I  didn't know if I was going to be able to get the rights. Every two years I had to  ask for the rights, and every two years it was hard. So I spent a couple of years  doing my own Bible that I could personalize. So I did something called the Jesus Bible, which is Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, sort of the summary of the life of  Jesus from those four gospels, and where Jesus shows up in every other book  of the Bible. And it's 150 pages. So it's, it's a unique product that I have the  rights to. I did a 30 second Bible. I did what I call a sampler Bible. And you can  see all these things that onyourgates.com but it was like, Okay, I had a threat,  but then that led to an opportunity to create products that don't exist anywhere,  that I that, personally, I felt actually would meet the need better. So what you  know, you may have. Threats. Maybe there's a big church that moved into town,  and there they have all the bells and all the whistles, and they attract all kinds of  people, but they can't do some of the things that you can do in a smaller church. They can't, you know, make sure that good things are happening in people's  homes. Everything is about what's at the church, so you can succeed, just  depending on your vision. You can have a vision that's different than what  they're doing. Number six, where do you in? Where do we envision ourselves to  be in five years, 10 years, 50 years. Are you going to keep doing this? Is this  going to be your life's work? Are you just going to do this for a while? Is this a  stepping stone to something else? To answer those questions makes all the  difference in terms of what you'll be doing there. Okay, so that's long range  planning, standing plans, what activities are going on in your organization that  require resources and personnel. So in a church, you know, there's the sermon,  there's the service, the music, there's the pastoral care, there's the visiting,  there's all the programs of your church. If you just started listing all the things 

that your church does week by week by week, you know, the Wednesday  evening education thing. Whatever it is, you'll discover that your church does a  lot of different things. Or, if you're in a non profit, what are the weekly and  monthly kinds of activities that we're constantly doing and and, you know, write  all those things down. What What exactly are we doing? Can we do it a better  way? What are the goals, the resources, the timeline, the accountability of each  of these activities? What goals do we have with the youth? What goals do we  have with our service? What goals do we have with our music? What resources  do we need? Maybe the sound system needs to be updated. What's the timeline of these things? Who's going to do what by by the end of this week? Who's  going to do what by the end of next week? Right now, we're doing this whole  renovation thing at our church. And, you know, we have to paint the ceiling. But  in order to paint the ceiling, you gotta make sure that all the walls are ready, and you need to plastic, put plastic on the walls, and then you need to do something  with the carpet and all these things. There's like, you know, 25 different things  that we have to do, and they have to be in the right order, and so and so is  ready to do something, but three other things have to be done in front of that,  and who's going to be accountable? Is it the pastor? Is it the manager making  sure that people did what they were supposed to do? Or is it someone who  volunteers for something? You know, in churches, you have volunteers, and  sometimes volunteers show up, and sometimes they don't. Or maybe you have  a business and you have employees, but sometimes employees follow through  or don't follow through. Who is going to make sure that all these things happen  so that things stay on time? Project management plans. This is, you know, like  this renovation I'm talking about, you have goals. What we're doing with our  sanctuary is our sanctuary was in the portrait, sort of portrait view, so that the  pulpit and the front end the stage was at one end of the building, and then the  people sat in kind of a long, you know, Hall, and so people were a long ways  away from the front. And so what we want to do is turn it sideways, put the pulpit more in the middle, and then fan the people around so that there's a sense of  community. So that's our goal. Our goal is to worship God with a sense of  community, rather than, you know, just looking at the back of someone's head,  because we're in in rows. So that was like the major goal. But now how we're  going to do that? And all kinds of problems erupt because of that, the sound is a  whole lot different, because now you you're fanned out, being able to see what  the stage will look like. The space that we were in was really dead, so we had to  take out our ceiling tiles, and we're, we're painting the whole ceiling flat black.  And then there's, you know, issues with that. So it's like all these goals of this  project, you know, you really need to write them all out, and then the resources,  well, we needed a sprayer. Well, what kind of sprayer? Well, there's a million  different sprayers, and so we had someone research as to which ones would  work the best, and what the issues and the problems were and then the paint, 

we had someone that works at a paint store, and apparently there's this black  paint that you can paint the ceiling, and by the time the over spray hits the floor,  it turns to dust, so that you can just vacuum it up. Well, someone had to figure  out that resource, and we had to buy wood. And you have to figure out, what  wood you want to build your stage? And stages are interesting structures, and  there's a certain glue that you can use that makes the stage the sound better.  And so there's all these things and speakers and where they fit, and, and, and  the sound waves and and someone researched our room and what, what echo it had, and what sound deadening material you have to put on the on the wall, and then how are we going to get on the ceiling? And so someone in our church had  a company that had a scissors lift, and so we had to borrow it. And, well, how  long can we have it? So there's, you know, there's the goals, all this stuff that  you want to do, but then there's the resources that you need to accomplish all  these goals. And then there's the timeline. Is this going to take a year? Is this  going to take two months? How long do we need that scissors lift? When are we going to do the painting? And you know, in a church especially, you're trying to  organize volunteers, so someone has to be on top of that. Someone has to, like, look into the future and go, I think this is how long things will take, and start  penciling people in. People like to plan. We did a few nights where we just  invited anyone to come and help. And the feedback we got is, you know, you got to give us more than one day notice, because we have things that we're doing.  So planning, goals, resources, timeline, accountability, who, who followed  through, who didn't get what done? Because, you know, someone was  supposed to do something in the building Monday, and then I was supposed to  do it, do something on Tuesday, but I needed the person to do the thing that  they did on Monday in order to do the thing on Tuesday, but they didn't do it. So  then I come in on Tuesday and I can't do it. So all these the project manager has to be thinking goals, okay, what resources we need? How are these resources  and people and personnel going to fit on a timeline? And then who's going to  hold everyone accountable to making it happen? Goals. You start out with goals. They have to be very specific. What exactly are we trying to do? You break  down the goals into steps. We're going to renovate this church sanctuary. That's  a big goal, but what are the steps? Well, the steps are, tear up the old sanctuary. Step two, start spackling the walls. Step three, take the ceiling tiles down. Step  four, there's lights now that were attached to the support system that now need  to be attached to the ceiling and on and on and on it goes. You have to break  you know, one goal all of a sudden becomes 25 goals, and each one of those  has to be thought about and broken down and written down measurable. You  know, how many lights do we have to change? How many? What material do we need to string those things up? Assignable. Who's going to do it? These three  people are going to do it. What time do they have resources, personnel, division  of labor. Who's going to do what? the cost? A lot of times, people want to do 

things. They have these grand goals, but what are the costs of these things? Do  you have to rent some equipment? The personnel that you have? We'll have a  whole session on ROI. Return on Investment. Just because you have staff  doesn't mean that what they do is free. It seems that way because we're paying  them anyway. So we're just going to get them to do this. But, but for every hour  they put into this project, that project is costing whatever that person costs. So  how much are we willing to really pay for this? This project, the equipment,  whether you own the equipment, it costs money to own equipment. Just  because you have it doesn't mean it's free. Every year that you own something  the value of it, you could be using that money for something else. You could be  getting interest at the bank, the depreciation of the equipment. It goes down in  value over time, so just owning equipment and doing absolutely nothing with it  costs you money. So what are all these resources? The timeline? The Steps  assigned on the timeline by the target when it begins and the completion date.  So we're going to start this part of the goal on this date. So we're right now.  We're spraying the ceiling. We started last week. We have someone coming in  today, we have someone coming in tomorrow, and then we run out of paint  tomorrow, so someone else has to call somebody to get more paint. And then on Saturday, we're going to try to have four or five people to sort of relay team. One gets finished and the other one just takes off. And our goal is to be finished with  the ceiling this week. We need to be finished with the ceiling this week because  we need to take the plastic all down, and we have people that have volunteered  to roll paint all the walls, and those people are ready to go, so the ceiling has to  be done before we can roll the walls. So you gotta plan out each of the steps,  number two, personnel and equipment assigned according to each of the steps.  Do we need the scissors lift? Right now, this company that let us use it, they  want to use it for something. So we have to figure out, well, what are the three  things we really need this and then we're going to have to use ladders. So what  do we need with each step? Accountability, how and when is the manager going  to connect with the personnel on this plan? You know, my personal style is I tell  somebody what to do, and I figure it's just done, but that's not a very good  manager. A manager does not just say it once and then hope for the best  because people forget or people drop the ball. So how are you as the manager  going to connect with each of the steps? Are you going to be there every single  day to make sure everyone does everything? Are you going to follow them you  know, like, you know, like a micromanage manager who you know doesn't trust  anyone to get anything done? Or are you going to be the manager that just, you  know, benign neglect. I'm just, I'm hoping you all just follow through and it all  works out. Generally, you have to be somewhere in between. So how are you  going to do that? Are you going to use the phone? Are you just going to text  people? A short little text, Hey, how did it go? How did it go? How did it go? Just, just a little bit of connection with people will keep the plan going forward. 

Number two, how is the manager going to keep track of the progress? You're  going to have a spreadsheet. You got a checkoff thing in our renovation, we  actually have sheets on the wall. They're taped on the wall. And when someone  gets something done, they cross it off. But you know what, most people forget?  So we have these beautiful graphs and things that are on the wall, but most  people come do their thing and just go home. So finding a way to track it,  someone has to be like, you know, on top of what are we getting done? Where  are we behind? What do we need to do to make it up? Maybe we need a time  when everyone comes and helps out. Number three, how is the manager going  to motivate the personnel towards this plan? We're going to have a whole  session on motivation. But how do you get people moving towards this goal? A  lot of times, in the beginning of our project, everyone's enthusiastic. They see,  you know, they hear about the goal. We're doing something with our sanctuary.  We're going to change something. We're going we have this new initiative with  our church. We're going to start a whole new sermon series, and, you know,  people or we're starting this brand new program, and it's going to reach our  neighborhood, and everyone's excited. But eventually people figure out that no  matter what it is you're doing, it involves a lot of work. When we started  renovating, I had some people come in, and they they came in and, well, what  do you want us to do? And I said, Well, here's a sanding block and some  sandpaper. And what you need to do is go around the whole sanctuary and sand where people had had sort of put this spackle stuff on. And then, okay, so they  went and did that. After about 10 minutes, they discovered that's a lot of work,  and so they put the sanding block down, and they came back and said, You got  anything else to do? And I never saw them again. Enthusiasm. Oh, this is a cool  project. I can be a part of this project, but eventually people find out that  projects, no matter what they are, require work. So how do you keep people  motivated. So I spend most of my time with this project, not doing the work, but  motivating people, keeping them interested, keeping it fun, going around, talking to people, just making sure that it's not just hard work, but that they see the  vision and the community. We have a bunch of people here. It's fun. We order  pizza. You know, you have a good time. See, it's not just about getting things  done. It's about the relationships as you get things done. Who is each person in  this project accountable to in the chain of command. So you have this project  that's broken down into all these steps, and so and so is in charge of this step,  so and so is in charge of that step. Who's in charge of whom? If you don't have  a chain of command, then what you'll have are these silos people just sort of in  charge of their own little world, and they'll be doing their own thing. And then it'd  be like trying to paint a picture, and you have 10 people, and all 10 people just  come and do what they want, and there's nothing unifying this picture. When I  came to the present church that I'm in, the church had been planted, and the  church had grown to 3- 400 people and and then it was imploding on itself, and 

it was destroying itself from within, because it had all these committees and little silos, individual silos, and people doing their own thing. There was nothing  unifying the people. Everyone did their own thing. They were accountable to  themselves. So then, you know, this silo is angry at this silo, this group, this  team member, is angry at that one so, and there was no chain of command. As  when I came in as the pastor, I couldn't just say, well, here's what we're going to  do, because each person was a king unto themselves. How are problems going  to be handled? So if there's an issue, if there's a disagreement, people aren't  following through with what they're supposed to do. Who is the one that's going  to step in? Is it a free for all? Everyone's just going to give their own opinion, or  is the correction up to specific people who are in charge of specific things? Back to God's plan. I started that way. Even God had plans. Luke 24 this is right after  the resurrection. Now that same day, two of them were going to the village  called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these  things with each other. Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them, but  they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, What are you discussing  together as you walk along? They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them  named Cleopas asked him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does  not know the things that have happened in these days? What things he asked  about Jesus of Nazareth, they replied, He was the most powerful prophet in the  word and deed before God and all the people, the chief priests and the rulers  handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we had  hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They were at the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. And  then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it, just as the women  had said, but they didn't see Jesus. He said, how foolish you are. How slow to  believe all the prophets and what they spoke. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things, and then enter his glory. And beginning with Moses and all the  prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning  Himself as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus  continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, stay with  us for it's nearly evening, the day is almost over, so he went in and stayed with  them, and when he was at the table with them, he took the bread, gave thanks,  broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were open and they  recognized him, and they disappeared from sight. He disappeared from their  sight. They asked each other, Were not our hearts burning with each other are  burning within us while he was talked, while he talked with us on the road and  opened the Scriptures to us. The point, the point is, Jesus had a plan, and I wish we had all the words that he said to these two men on the road to Emmaus. 

Because he was explaining the plan that God had had all along, and Jesus was  saying to them, look, the plan has been written. It was already written in the  prophets. They've talked about it, and this is just being fulfilled. So God, God  himself, has a plan for the world, and he's unfolding this plan that he envisioned. And as a manager, that's your job, too, to take your plan and to unfold it before  God as part of his plan.