Intentionality vs. the Leading of the Holy Spirit President’s Challenge
by Blaine Donaldson, President
“I have such a good leadership strategy, it doesn’t matter whether God shows up or not, it will succeed!” Now, I am NOT a proponent of this concept, but that asser-
tion reveals one danger of leadership strategy. I spend a significant amount of time helping church leaders
understand and take seriously the need to plan for the growth and success of their church. I have oſten talked about the importance of intentionality in planning and in leadership. One pushback that I have received is a legitimate one: What about the Holy Spirit? In our humanistic society, people are motivated to dream.
‘What is your vision? What is your passion? You should be pour- ing your life into the thing that you are passionate about.’ While there may be a kernel of truth in this, plans and choices start and finish with you. Tat is not the foundation for any ministry or life. Rather, we should be asking questions like: What does God
intend for me? What is God’s plan for my life? Where does God want me to be in five years? In ten years? For the church, we can ask: What does God want to change in
our congregation? In what ways does he want us to grow? So when I challenge church leadership teams to lead and plan
with intentionality, it is not to be based on their wants, desires or passions. Rather, I encourage them to pray and ask the Holy Spirit what things he wants to accomplish in the church. When it comes to planning and intentionality, we seldom
think long term. If you have a sinful habit that the Lord wants to change in your life, the actual solution is oſten slow and hard. We’re tempted to think something like this, “If God wants me to change, I should just be able to genuinely confess the sin and repent, and my battle will be won.” Te problem is that when the sin persists, we doubt our sincerity and succumb to discourage- ment and give up.
It is even worse in a church. It is not just an individual that
the Holy Spirit is working to change, but dozens or hundreds of individuals. Even in this scenario, our best planning to change the culture of a church sounds something like this, “We are not doing much outreach. Maybe pastor should preach a message about it. Actually, this is a big problem. Maybe he should do a series on it.” Te sermons are preached. Te guilt is assuaged, but the Spirit has not changed anything. Te rate of change slows significantly when you extend the
change to a congregation. Now the Holy Spirit does change people and congregations. He does it with intentionality and he typically does it over long periods of time. One example of the Holy Spirit’s slow-planned work can be
seen in the ministry of Jesus and in the book of Acts. Ask the following of the Scriptures: Did Jesus intend to communicate to the disciples that the Gospel was just as much for the Gentiles as it was for the Jewish people? As you read and consider the Gospel ac- counts, it is obvious that he did. It is not a leap to say that the Holy Spirit planned this change in the Jewish people for a very long time. When did the Jews learn this lesson? It was still an issue when
Peter had his vision in Acts 10, and it was perhaps settled at the Je- rusalem council in Acts 15, roughly 30 years aſter Jesus started to teach this lesson. Te greatest teacher did not change the culture on this point in three years of daily ministry. Te Spirit took a generation to make this change. My point is this: planning and intentionality are not the basis
of our success. However, we see the Holy Spirit planning with intentionality. If our planning and intentionality are lined up with that of the Holy Spirit, we can then share in his labor. We need not try to change things because of our passion, but because of the Spirit’s passion.
President’s Travels Feb 23-Mar 3 Saskatchewan Ministry trip Prairie West Pastors retreat
Mar 18-27 Manitoba Ministry trip Mar 19-21 Lakeland Pastors and Wives Retreat April 3-5 EFC Denominational Presidents meetings, Toronto, Ontario
April 6-10 Saskatchewan Ministry trip April 24-26 Small Town Pastor’s Conference, Morton, Illinois
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Fellowship Focus, March/April 2017
FellowshipForward.org
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