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Introduction Ministry failure. Not the spiritual kind, but the practical kind. Everyone's hearts were motivated in the right way, but at the end it was the planning and execution of the ministry that brought its demise. Sound familiar? It is probably not a shock to hear that leaders in churches and Christian organizations traditionally have not excelled at planning and managing ministries. Sadly, this is true. You may have experienced this reality from your own observations, or in fact, you may be one of these struggling ministry leaders yourself. Either way, I think you would also agree that a Christian setting can be a tough place to think about ministry management, and in one sense it should be. On the one hand, there is the need to balance ministries and projects that have significant spiritual implications and elements (For example: evangelism, missions, outreach, worship, etc.), while on the other hand, the need exists to sort through some very practical matters (planning, execution, money, risk, and time). These elements, combined with the fact that very little has been written about the practical elements of stewarding resources in the planning and execution of ministries and projects from a Christian perspective, mean that there has not been a lot of help to guide us through this complicated maze. It is with this in mind that I sat down to write Projects with a Purpose and started Projects with a Purpose Ministries. In this book my greatest concern about ministry stewardship in Christian circles is not that leaders have a low view of God or that they do not have the best intentions for their ministries and projects, rather it is that most people do not have a clear grasp of the fundamentals of what a healthy project or ministry should look like. The goal of this book is to provide tools for Christian leaders that will assist them in building healthy ministries and will encourage them to take a deliberate, thoughtful approach to planning and developing God-glorifying ministries and projects in their churches and Christian organizations. I want to equip our Christian leaders with the practical tools that will help them steward the gifts and resources that God has given them and their churches. I believe that this book fills a gap in Christian writing and thinking. We need to better understand how to build healthy ministries that not only bring glory to God, but can also traverse the practical challenges that exist in twenty-first century ministry management. Great Motivations for Writing This Book The motivations for writing this book are twofold. First, God cares about how we manage our projects and ministries, and second, Christians are not very good at managing ministries. I believe that the first motivation has eternal weight, while the second reason is more practically weighted. When we examine our Bibles, we see that God is a God of order, planning, and purpose. The Critical Context of the Book Before we move to the fantastic starting point for any project (Chapter 1-"Projects to the Glory of God"), I feel a need to balance the practical nature of this book by clearly laying out how ministry management in a church or Christian organization fits into the critical truth that God ultimately is in charge of the success and "failure" of any ministry or project. As you may have already noticed, I often refer to a "good" project ministry as a healthy one, not a successful one-and I believe there is a difference. A healthy ministry is a ministry that is God-centered, manages its resources well, seeks to accomplish its goals, but ultimately leaves the outcome up to God. A successful ministry, on the other hand, is one that achieves its goals in a manner that may or may not have been honoring to God. A healthy ministry looks first to God and then to results, while a purely success-driven ministry look to results first. We want healthy God-centered ministries and projects that rely on God for the results, not successful ministries that achieve their goals any way they can. Proverbs 19:21 reinforces this point by reminding us that, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." From this verse we see that God does not discourage us from making plans (in fact I believe He encourages us to make plans), but He does tell us that the end result belongs to Him. We need to remember this at the forefront of all of our ministries. The context in which this book is written is absolutely critical to understanding how healthy ministries and projects can and should be developed in the church. Projects with a Purpose is not a guide to guaranteed project success or to church growth. I firmly believe that a project's "success" is defined by God, and all the planning or lack of planning that man can muster will not stop God's purposes. He does not depend on our ministry management or our planning to bring about His will. Our planning does not preempt or trump God's sovereignty. In the past, God mightily used stammering prophets, and He used a dysfunctional band of twelve disciples to turn the world upside-down. He used the power of a few hundred to defeat tens of thousands. He used nothing to create everything, and used a dying Savior to save mankind. In 1 Cor. 1:27-29, Paul describes this by saying that "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him." Only in the context of God's sovereignty can ministry and project management be absolutely healthy. So, undertake your ministries with courage, knowing that your results are controlled by God. Undertake them deliberately and purposefully, knowing that God has called us to imitate Him as a God of planning and order. In other words, build projects with purpose . . . true purpose. We want to reflect Him in His character, thus we want to be people of order and planning.
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