I had the honor and pleasure of leading another church through a ministry and strategic planning workshop this past weekend. We covered a terrific amount of information, reviewed the churchwide survey we had done, brainstormed on numerous areas, and ended the 8 hour day with new drafts of a Purpose Statement, Vision Statement, and Core Values, in addition to 10 “Focus Areas” that they will now work with to develop their Mission and Strategy.

When we finished, I asked the 10 or so participants how they had experienced the day. There were 2 most common answers: “overwhelming” and “exciting.” Overwhelming because we had done so much in so short a time (the front wall was totally papered with the evidence of that). Exciting to think that this church could move forward to attain these descriptions, targets, and goals that they strongly felt that God had put in their hearts. The statements of excitement were accompanied by tears for at least 3 of these leaders.

Why do tangible plans for our church create an excitement that brings tears? The first thing that comes to my mind is “hope.” The second is “frustration.” We have such great hopes for what God can do through our church. In this case, those hopes are exhibited through such words as Biblical community, fellowship, discipleship, community impact, engaging worship, and family impact. But, unfortunately, we all have had such frustration and disappointment from these hopes being unrealized, unfulfilled. And we feel real pain from that. So when leaders can come together to intentionally create a plan, it can revive the lost hope, and that hope combines with the pain of years of frustration to bring tears of both pain and joy.

And I suppose there is also pain in the fear that, once again, we won’t actually follow through with this intentionality, these new and exciting plans. And it’s true, way too often they won’t. I so desire to see churches dream as this one did, shape those dreams into plans, and so what it takes to implement the plans. Powered by the Holy Spirit, employing the Gospel throughout the process, this can happen. I’ve seen it happen. And it’s a beautiful and exciting thing.