| Home Churches and Schools Ministerial Snapshots of the Savior Momentum/Snapshots of the Savior Church Response Survey | Email | Print |
|
December 2006
Dear Washington Conference Pastors,
A sign of good leadership is the possession of a plan. A good leader also knows that a plan does not have to be perfect. Too many people would rather do nothing, waiting for the “perfect plan” to appear before taking any action. It is actually more important to have an imperfect plan that moves us forward, all the time being flexible in the execution of that plan, than to wait until the perfect plan arrives.
I learned this leadership principle as a 30-year-old pastor of a 300+ member congregation in Littleton, Colorado. After presenting a plan for church growth and evangelism to the church board, a 70-year-old lay elder responded, “I don’t know if this will work or not. But at least the Pastor has a plan. Most of our pastors never even had a plan. We need to move forward.” During my entire pastoral ministry, I never once presented a perfect plan to a church board. But to “start moving forward,” a plan is needed. We used imperfect plans that needed to be adjusted as we moved forward. Some did not work out. Some produced much fruit for the Kingdom of God.
The Momentum Soul Winning Initiative is not perfect, but it is a plan and we certainly need to move forward. Phase I of this five year initiative begins in the Washington Conference on January 1, 2007. All of you have heard about this to some degree. What we now need from you are written plans that describe how your church(es) will be involved in the Momentum Soul Winning Initiative during the first half of 2007. A response survey is included and also available on our web site. Please fill these out submit to Bruce Koch by January 4, 2007.
I am personally asking you to give your “heart” to the Lord for this venture. Why? It is easy to give lip service to soul winning all year long and then notice at year-end that very few souls, if any, were won to the Lord. We all know the right words to say. We all know how to “tithe our commitment.” Anyone can shoot holes in a plan. Only good leaders, with hearts committed to the Lord and soul winning, can take a soul winning plan and make it successful.
Our Pastor’s Meetings in January at Sunset Lake will have an abundance of information, along with time for questions about the initiative. May the Lord richly bless you and your families over the holidays.
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
John C. Freedman
President, Washington Conference