Some advocate a strategic planning approach and build their case on the biblical teaching about wisdom. Others argue that God is the great “orchestrator” of his mission and that most breakthroughs in the advance of God’s mission happen in ways quite unrelated to our planning and strategy.

Who is correct?  Well, there is no “simple” answer.  There is a place and a time for both approach – it is not right to cast these two approaches into an “either-or” choice.  I was challenged to think again about these questions as I listened  to a recent conference talk by Tim Chester (here’s the link).  He advocates at “plan the next step” approach.   I think what he says is basically correct, but again, it even in his formulation, it’s not “either-or” but “both-and.”

I remember years ago being challenged to think about these issues by the life and ministry of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. Early on in their ministry, in response to what they believed was God’s leading, they resigned from their denominational mission society, started a new “organization” (L’Abri) with no promised financial backing, and moved to a tiny village in the Swiss Alps.

He and his wife refused to map out the future of organization they had just started using “strategic planning.” Instead, they based L’Abri on four principles:

• We will pray that God would send people of his choice and keep others away
• We will pray that God would send enough money to pay the bills
• We will pray that God would lead step by step and unfold his plan for the work
• We pray that God would send helpers of his choice as the work grows

Many of their friends warned them they were throwing away their lives and future – that the influence they had begun to exert in their denomination was over. Yet from that obscure location, in a totally unplanned and unexpected way, Francis Schaeffer ended up having more influence on the emerging evangelical leaders of his day than anyone else in his generation.

Were they right in their approach?  What about “strategic planning”? Isn’t it “good stewardship” to plan ahead and set “faith targets” in ministry?  Or should we depend on “impressions” and a sense of God’s leading in ministry?  Or something else?  These are important, challenging, and difficult questions for Christian leaders.

It is interesting to trace the theme of “waiting on God” through the Psalms and in the lives of Old Testament characters.

What emerges is the impression that God is not in a hurry. We are.

John Piper, in a great sermon called Battling the Impatience of Unbelief, commented,

The opposite of impatience is a deepening, sweetening willingness to stand in the place that God has appointed or to move at the pace that God has appointed…to stand in God’s place or go at his pace.  God often moves at a slower pace than we want him to move.

Paul prayed for the believers in that city that they might be “filled (on a regular basis – present tense) with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

Paul was praying that God would give them a knowledge of his will that would enable them to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” Although the word “daily guidance” is not used here, the concept is in view.

When we know and do God’s will, daily, then we please God, bear fruit and increase in the knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10).

C.J. Mahaney, in his series on planning, roles, and goals, begins with this spiritual discipline of seeking God’s guidance.  If we are not doing the right things, even the most successful time management skills will be worthless.  His comments are helpful:

Given the active presence of pride and self-sufficiency in my life, it is imperative for me at the outset of each day to devote time to humbling myself before the Lord and acknowledging my dependence upon him for all that awaits me.  As I devote myself to this spiritual discipline, the words of Proverbs 3:5-7 frequently inform my meditation and prayer:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

The exposition of these verses by nineteenth-century pastor Charles Bridges in his commentary on Proverbs is helpful and insightful.  Bridges writes: “He loves to be consulted. Therefore take all thy difficulties to be resolved by him. Be in the habit of going to him in the first place – before self-will, self-pleasing, self-wisdom, human friends, convenience, expediency. Before any of these have been consulted go to God at once. Consider no circumstances too clear to need his direction.  In all thy ways, small as well as great; in all thy concerns, personal or relative, temporal or eternal, let him be supreme.”   Charles Bridges (1794-1869), from A Commentary on Proverbs (Banner of Truth, 1846/1968)  pp. 24-25.