Time-Management, Hopes & Dreams, & Prayer

How many times do you complain that there never seems to be enough hours in the day? How often do you wonder about doing something and then decide that you would if there was enough time, but of course TIME is one commodity that you never have enough of?

One of the main problems is that so often people fail to plan their days or even plan for certain things that they want to achieve. Poor time-management is the major problem that brings about failure to achieve targets and failure to bring hopes and dreams to fruition.

One of the things that was drummed into me when I was in business management was that there were three things that were important to REMEMBER and to PRACTISE:

1. Know where you are going.
2. Know when you want to arrive.
3. Plan how you will get there.

It was something that always stood me in good stead in business, and something that can be just as worthwhile following in your Christian life. Yet it sometimes seems to me that, when it comes to daily life, many people just carry on in the hope that they will manage to achieve what they want to, and if they miss the target they can always say, "Well, at least I did my best. At least I tried!"

Many churches struggle when it comes to growth. Why? Well, in my own experience it's often because the body of the church concerned is under the delusion that everything is the job of the Minister. Yet surely as Christians we are all called to service for the Lord? It is the task of every member of the church Fellowship to involve themselves in all that is needed to achieve growth. If your church is not growing then it is a sure indication that it is dying.

To pour all your hopes for the church into the achievements that might be gained by one person is to court disaster. Try writing up what you consider to be a fair job description for your church leader and then pass it to someone else to study and comment on, preferably someone who is an outsider to your organisation, yet who is knowledgeable about all that a Fellowship should be. I suspect that what you'll find is that your expectations exceed the bounds of achievable probability, or even of achievable possibility. After all, every Minister/Pastor is NOT St Paul! If they were then they would find things easier, for they would have their band of helpers to assist them in their task!

It's a nice thought to imagine that you can double or even treble your attendance at the Sunday Services, but with no plans laid, just how do you imagine it's going to come to fruition? Certainly, a substantial increase in attendance is desirable. Not only that, it's achievable PROVIDING THAT YOU:

• Have a PLAN
• Set a TIME
• CARRY it out

Your plan should be achievable in the first instance, for otherwise it is nothing more than a pipe-dream. So let's imagine that you currently have an average of 50 people who come to your morning service. If you aim to increase that to 1000 in the first year then you will probably achieve nothing. People will not be interested because they will doubt its achievability from the outset. You MUST set a target that people can believe in. Aim to increase by 50% and set a time limit of, say, one year. Decide how you will work TOGETHER in order to achieve success.

One IMPORTANT thing to remember is that whatever you set out to achieve it needs to be underpinned by PRAYER. I know that, as a Minister myself, my ministry would suffer if there were no people holding both me and my work in PRAYER. The same applies to all that we seek to achieve in the church. When we underpin our plans and actions with PRAYER then we add the POWER of GOD to what we set out to do.

In all that God called on him to do, Paul's ministry was always underpinned by PRAYER --- by him and for him. That is always the secret of success. When an idea is first thought of then it should be taken up in prayer to see if it is what God wants to be done. If it is then it will receive His anointing upon it. Just because we might THINK of something does not automatically mean that it's the best idea possible.

There are THREE important things to do at every stage of every plan, of every hope, of every dream:

1. PRAY about it!
2. PRAY about it!
3. PRAY about it!

Now it's over to you . . .